Weight Loss: What you MUST Know Before You Begin

STOP! Don’t even THINK about starting another weight loss
program, diet, supplement, shake, energy bar, or other method
until you’ve completed one key step to ensuring your success at
it. This isn’t about seeing your doctor or researching it on the
internet – you’ve probably already done these things many times
before (and if not – you should). This is about preparing you –
your mind – for the weight loss journey you are about to embark
on. And a journey it will be!

How many times have you sat there on a Sunday afternoon stuffing
yourself with an afternoon meal and proclaiming to your friends
and family that “tomorrow I’m starting my diet,” only to have
Monday roll around and you’re right back to your old habits? How
many New Year’s resolutions and post-Holiday season promises
have you made to start that next diet, but instead watched
yourself quickly fade back to the old routine within a week or
less? You had the right intentions, the right products, the
right books, the right research, the right everything. Or so you
thought. Maybe you even lost a pound or two, only to regain them
a week later as your new weight loss program came to an abrupt
halt. You asked yourself, “why do these things never work for
me?” and, “why can’t I lose weight like those people in the ads
do?”

The answer is simple: you did not mentally prepare yourself to
be a “successful loser!” You said you had the right intentions,
but what did you do to turn those intentions into a winning plan
of action? You said you had enough will power to see it through,
but will power only goes so far when it comes to weight loss.
Will power is like a brief burst of energy – it excites you,
motivates you, and gives you a taste of victory – but then
suddenly dies out as quickly as it was mustered. Thus, it takes
more than will power: it takes a vision of what you wish to
achieve. You must envision what your end goal is – your
objective – clearly in your mind. You must determine what your
“why” is – your reason for losing the weight – before you will
truly make a personal commitment to it. And then you must
persist at it – with no exceptions – until you achieve your goal
and arrive at the place you envisioned.

Without this mental “skin in the game,” you will never have a
reason to keep at it day after day, month after month. With no
clear objectives in mind, you will start out of the gate strong
for a few days – perhaps a week or two – but soon return to your
old ways when you don’t get the results you want immediately.
Patience is a virtue when it comes to weight loss – looking in
the mirror each day is like the watched pot that never boils.
Instead, try gauging your results on longer periods of time – a
week, a month, or more. Set realistic goals for these time
periods so that you are constantly working towards them. Write
these goals down using the SMART formula:

S = Simple, M = Measurable, A = Agreed-upon, R = Realistic, and
T = Time-bound.

Goals with dates attached to them help you put that “mental
skin” in the game and keep your persistence going. We’re all
given deadlines at work that keep us working hard towards
achieving our work-related goals, so why not give ourselves some
time-bound personal goals – in this case, for losing weight?

So before you eat that bar or drink that shake, consider why you
are embarking on this weight loss journey, where you are going,
how you’re going to get there, and what it will be like when you
arrive at your final destination. A clear picture of all of
these factors will put you in the weight loss frame of mind. I
know – I lost 35 pounds in three months in 2001, and I’m still
at my ideal weight four years later. So be a “Good Loser:” Set
your SMART weight loss goals – persist – achieve – and enjoy the
results!

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