Ask Dr. Schwarz

How can I get motivated to lose weight?

Here is a tool that can be quite an effective motivator. It’s simple, but it can clarify a lot of things for you.

Make a list of the pros and cons of losing weight for you. Include as many things as you can think of about why you want to lose the weight. Equally important, include as many things as you can think of about why you don’t want to lose the weight. The benefits to you of being thinner may seem obvious. The idea that there are benefits to you of staying the way you are may not be so obvious. But there must be at least some pros to your current behavior, your way of eating, your present weight, or else you wouldn’t be there.

Give both sides of your list equal attention. When you write down the negative side, the cons, what is harmful to you about your current eating and weight, you make yourself more aware of how detrimental these things are in your life. When you write down the pros of staying with the weight problem, you give yourself a chance to think of how to achieve those benefits in ways other than overeating.