Monday morning brings Guilt, Discomfort, Hope.
The Guilt comes from the eating and drinking weekend.
The Discomfort comes from my clothes feeling too tight.
The Hope comes from Monday morning - the dawning of a brand new week, a new diet, a new attitude.
When Sunday comes, and there's nothing planned, that's when I battle eating the most.
Sunday can be fun, sunny and blue skies, but when it's quiet with no people around, I grab food.
I don't know, the day stretches out in front of me seeming endless, and i can't think what to do with it.
Then, of course, there's always the idea in the back of my mind that the next day is Monday, DIETING DAY, so it doesn't matter what I do on Sunday.
On these empty Sundays I always fill myself up.
Goal setting is very important to dieting and to weight loss success.
Goal setting helps you take responsibility for your behavior, and it helps you develop a sense of being in control.
Goal setting also helps you plan ahead and think through methods of accomplishing short-term objectives that add up to an ultimate achievement.
Let's take a common goal of someone who wants to lose weight: ""I'm going to lose 20 lbs in a month." This sounds good, but in reality it may be pretty impossible. First of all, if you fail to reach your goal in that month, what then? You are left feeling like a failure, aren't you?
It helps to break your dieting and weight loss goals down into steps that are much more manageable. Setting smaller, more realistic goals can be a lot less self-defeating.
Here are a set of goals that won't be overwhelming and will still get you closer and closer to the weight loss you want.
Remember to make sure you set goals for yourself that you can reach, goals that don't take superhuman effort.
When I finally was able to lose the 35 lbs I had always wanted to lose, I looked great. And what's more, I still look great.
Yes, it's true that looking good gives me confidence, but that's not what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about is being able to do something I was never able to do. And it wasn't for lack of trying. I certainly did try and try. Like everyone else, even if I lost some, I found myself gaining weight back pretty fast.
But I've stayed at 118 now for two years. The reason I say it's a confidence booster is: I now feel that if I could do this, I can do anything.
How's that for confidence?
Even though there may be reasons why you know you should lose weight, that is only a first step. It is an important step to acknowledge the need to do it, but it's not enough in and of itself.
The next step in the process of losing weight is commitment. Commitment means that you are basically ready to place the task of losing weight at the top of your agenda.
This requires that you be willing to put a good deal of emphasis on losing weight in your life. It means being able to dedicate your time and energy to the cause.
So even if you realize that you do need to lose weight, if you are not in a mental position to put forth the effort it will take, you will undermine any efforts you make.
So, go ahead and make the decision to do it. Then support that decision by committing yourself to making losing weight a central task of your life.
Dear Maria...
I've done the "order all your food for 4 weeks" and it just hasn't played out for me.
It's not that it isn't easy, it is, and handy. The food tastes OK, and there's a variety. At first it seemed strange, like I wasn't eating my own real food, but I began to get used to it. Then slowly I started falling out of love with it - a little rationalizing here and there - (well I can have a little bit of this or that) like I always do.
I put a lot of money and hope into this prepackaged stuff. I see on TV all the people who have done it. But I ended up the same as I do on every diet. I threw it out.
So I say to myself, what's missing here? This time it's really bothering me.
I've been thinking about what you always say: It's never just about the food. So no matter what diet food I eat, it's the other stuff I really need to deal with.
That seems so much harder, and I don't know where to start. But I think this time there's a difference, because I know I can't simply switch diets. I'll just end up right back here, where I hate to be. I can't do this anymore. I can't.
