Monday Moment - Ready and Acting

A few weeks ago a friend who shares my life-long struggle with weight – and who has worked hard to achieve a most attractive and healthy weight – were talking. She said she woke up one day saying “This is the day I change things,” started going to Weight Watchers and exercising the biggest muscle of all – self-discipline.

I replied – after gushing about how great she looked – that she was an inspiration, if only I were ready to be inspired. But I wasn’t ready. The task of trimming pounds that have crept up on me when I wasn’t looking just seemed too daunting, too much work. There was no denying it was a need, but I just didn’t feel up to it. I didn’t want to. I wasn’t ready.

But the inspiration remained, and my day showed up last week. I weighed myself after my swim – and that was the day I started making big changes in what I eat. And unlike other attempts, I’m not only finding this relatively painless, but I also am fairly certain that my self-discipline will remain firmly in place. Oh I haven’t achieved diet perfection – and I haven’t really tried to. But I have focused on low fat and low calorie, cutting way back on snacks – especially my twin nemeses dark chocolate and red wine.

Between Monday and Thursday, my weight plummeted – maybe half a pound. But I let myself take a lot of credit for that half-pound and stuck to my plan. And am eager to get to the Y tomorrow (as a meeting four hours from home prevented today) to see what else might have come from my efforts in the last four days. But it won’t really matter what the scale says tomorrow because I know I’m on the right path, and I will see results when I keep my behavior in line with my goal.

One of the reasons I know this is that this time I’m not fooling myself – or letting myself weasel out from my behavior choices. I’m logging all my food choices into an internet-based food diary that counts up my fat grams, my total calories, and gives me immediate feedback on how I’m doing. What a great tool! As I always tell students or workshop attendees, I’m a person who needs a responsive audience. I thrive on immediate feedback – which is something that we just don’t get with a long-term goal like weight loss or fitness. Darn it! But my food diary gives me exactly what I need – the reinforcement to keep up the behavior that has to lead to my desired results. Can you tell I’m feeling really good about this stuff?

So far, temptations have been mere twinges, and despite a reasonable but not generous calorie limit that I’m having no problem staying under, I’m walking away from meals full and satisfied. I think perhaps I’ve been inspired! My goal is strong and motivating, I have good tools, good support, and lots of reality-based hopes.

And now, I’ve made my goal public so my commitment skyrockets. When you’re ready, there’s another strategy that will push you to follow through on a big goal! Trust me on this!