Is Losing Weight Worth The Trouble?

Every day, in newspapers, magazines, television, and online, we
are exhorted to lose weight. Alarming statistics about our
national overweight and obesity rates are regularly revisited
and the dangers of carrying too many pounds are trumpeted by
dietitians, nutritionists, medical specialists, and the weight
loss gurus on their talk show tours.

They don’t have to keep trying to convince us that ideal weight
is healthier; we know that. No one has to point out that life is
more fun when our activities are not hampered by fifty pounds of
excess fat; we know that. The joy of accepting that we look
attractive and slim doesn’t have to be hammered into our brains;
we know it already!

We know the problem. We try to solve it by starting one of the
thousand of diets floating through the media. We shell out our
money for supplements, pills, support meetings, and online
weight clubs. We know what we need to do and desperately try to
follow through.

None of us start a diet intending to fail. The money and time we
spend is part of a genuine effort to lose, not merely throwing
away excess funds to assuage our conscience. But why is the
problem getting bigger all the time when millions of us are
following the advise we’re being given?

Losing weight is terribly hard. Even more difficult is keeping
it off. So we yo-yo our way through life, eagerly embracing
every new program that comes along, believing the promises and
testimonials we read, and waiting impatiently for the silver
bullet we pray will appear.

After years of recurrent failure, we start to feel hopeless. Our
dreams are repetitively battered on the rocks of dozens of
unsuccessful diet attempts. We begin to wonder if all the effort
is worthwhile. Before we throw in the towel and surrender
ourselves to a lifetime of fat, let’s look at the process of
weight control and see if it’s worth giving it one more shot.

“I want to lose forty five pounds.” A statement like that is
usual at the start of a diet. We are willing to take whatever
action is needed to get started on our quest. We may try a
particular program or a pill or a general cutback in food
intake. Whichever approach we take, we are focused on our need
to lose forty five pounds.

The first week we lose three to five pounds and we are ecstatic,
smiling down at our scale as if it were an ancient genie oozing
out of its magical bottle. The second and third week, the loss
continues although at a slower pace. We’re still happy and
enthusiastic; it is all working as it should.

Somewhere around the fourth to eighth week, we hit the first
major hump. We are following our program religiously, resisting
the temptation to cheat even when alone, and keeping our eye
firmly fixed on that forty five pound goal. One or two weeks go
by and the weight loss stops. We tinker with our program, cut
our intake to the bone, force ourselves to exercise. Nothing
works – the scale mockingly reflects the same numbers we’ve been
staring at for three weeks.

The weeks of deprivation, physical pangs, and unfulfilled
emotional cravings appear to be worthless. A little voice starts
babbling inside our head: what’s the point of the physical and
mental pain if it’s not getting us where we want to go? Maybe
it’s not the right time or the right diet. Maybe we’re destined
to be overweight and nothing we do is going to change that.
Maybe our body’s quirks will thwart any diet we try.

We’re on the skids, ready to fall off the straight and narrow.
Feeling desperately sorry for ourselves, we allow one little
treat to ease the disappointment. One treat leads to another,
and another, and another.

Suddenly, we’re back where we started, with another two to three
pounds to boot. Frustrated, angry, and overwhelmingly guilty, we
look at ourselves in the mirror and bemoan our apparent destiny:
to spend the rest of our lives fat.

What happened? We started out with such high hopes and strong
motivation. We played by the rules but the rules didn’t work. We
tried, terribly hard, but our bodies sabotaged our strongest
efforts. We feel worse about ourselves than when we started. Is
another try even worth it?

Yes! It’s always worth trying again if we really want to
succeed. It is the sum of our efforts that counts if we are to
reach our goal.

Remember that goal of losing forty five pounds? We still want to
do it but we need to modify our mental approach. Let’s put
everything into a new perspective. Let’s restate our goal as
wanting to lose five pounds per month. That equates to sixty
pounds per year – fifteen pounds beyond our original goal!

Once our goal has been reframed, it lifts the pressure of “I’ve
got to keep losing” and reduces the burden to a mere five pounds
per month, manageable by almost all of us. Depending upon the
kind of person you are, you can dive right in, jump on the diet
of your choosing, and lose five pounds the first ten days. Then
you just have to maintain for three weeks until the first of the
next month. If you’re a procrastinator as I usually am,don’t
worry about anything until the 20th of the month. Then take
stringent measures to make sure you attain that five pound loss
before a new month dawns.

What typically happens is that you grow impatient with this rate
of loss. You decide to keep going and lose more. If that
happens, so much the better, but limit the mental pressure to
that magical five pounds a month. If you end up losing six or
eight pounds over the month, don’t fret if the scale needle
starts to stick because you’ve already exceeded your goal by 20%
to 60%! Celebrate your victory with an ego-building (non-edible)
treat.

The reframing of your weight loss objectives in this fashion has
unbelievable psychological rewards. You are no longer mentally
beating up on yourself for not moving fast enough towards that
forty five pound loss elephant, but are feeling so good about
yourself for meeting, or even exceeding, that five pound goal
that you feel like bubbling over.

And make no mistake about it, feeling good about yourself is
absolutely critical in weight loss. We who constantly wage the
battle of the bulge are famous for our poor self-image and
diminished self-esteem. We hate every roll of fat that pokes
over our too-tight waistbands. We wince when the mirror reflects
flabby arms and saddlebag thighs. We suck in our tummies until
we can no longer breathe, turn sideways, and are still
uncomfortably aware that the image we project bears little
resemblance to the image in our minds.

We need, desperately, to increase our self-respect and our sense
of self-worth. We need to nurture our self-image and
self-appreciation. We need to enjoy some continuing successes
that can rebuild our battered egos and keep that constant guilt
and self-reproach at bay.

Changing the syntax of your weight loss goals can lead not only
to a more successful weight loss campaign, but can restore your
self-belief and heal the psychological damage caused by too many
diet failures over too many years.

1. Prev:Selecting the Right Diet Pills for Weight Loss
2. Next:A Definition of Liposuction