Visual Rewards

It’s critical that while taking the pounds off slowly, we keep up with what our bodies are doing every day, else we run the risk of becoming discouraged because we can’t ‘see’ progress. It’s why I keep a calendar on the wall of my bathroom, and each day after I step on the scales, I write down the number on that date.

I realize however, that some of you might not feel comfortable staring at the numbers all the time. Besides what’s most important is that you’re sticking to your new eating lifestyle another day. So, how about this? Instead of recording your actual daily weight on your calendar, why not put a symbol on the date to show how you’ve honored yourself and your promise with better eating habits that day? I like to draw a smiley face in one corner of the date box if I’ve come in at or below that day’s calorie limit. If I over-indulge, I draw a frown. By using a symbol to record progress, I’m not focusing on the results of my efforts – like a change in weight – as much as I'm seeing where my chief struggles lay – the commitment to myself.

You’ll quickly see whether you’re actually serious about your weight loss. If you can look at 2 weeks of smiley faces, or stars, or whatever you choose, and you’ve not lost a pound? You’ll know it’s not because you haven’t been trying. Hang in there. It will happen. If, however, every other day, or two days out of the week you have drawn a frown, then you just might not be serious about this after all – and in fact, you might be sabotaging yourself for some reason.

It doesn’t matter what you use – what’s important is to recognize that we are visual creatures. Isn’t that why a plateful of cheese fries or chocolate brownies gets us every time? It looks so good? Therefore, we should fight the battle with something visual, too – a visual confirmation if you will, to our commitment to do the right thing. We can be in control and we can win the battle!

Making A Commitment

Whether you decided to make it a New Year’s Resolution or not, taking off the weight takes commitment. It’s not something you can approach haphazardly. I’ve been guilty of that, too. You SAY you’re going to diet. You’re determined to do it. But every day, you cheat just a little. You tell yourself you’re going to write down everything you eat, and then about half-way down the page, as in half-way into the day, you sneak something that you don’t really want to write down. You tell yourself, you promise yourself, you’ll write down everything else, just not that cookie/handful of Ritz crackers/bag of cashews, it doesn’t matter. But that little secret keeps you from being completely honest with yourself. And worse, it allows you to do it again - and again. It's a form of self-sabotaging your goal while all the time saying out loud to yourself and others who'll hear you, that you are cutting back, you just don't know why you can't lose the weight.

If you’re going to really set your mind to dropping the pounds, you must decide that it’s something you are going to do no matter what and that you’re not going to let your will power get away from you again - because you know you’ve done this before. You’ve made this promise to yourself before - at this time of year even.

So what’s different this time? Why are you here? Only YOU know that. For me, it was waking up one day, getting on the scales and saying to myself, I’m not OK with this anymore. I’m not OK with looking and feeling this way - and admitting that there is no one else who can do this for you. No one can make you make that decision. Not a husband, not a doctor, not a mother – it must be you. So, do it for you. Respect yourself that much. Love yourself that much. You deserve it.