I’ve decided I need to change my eating habits and lose weight, but I haven’t made a move to do it. Any suggestions?
The research literature on the way people change is very clear about this. Deciding to make a change―just deciding to do it, the way you have―is a very important step on the road to actually making that change. As a matter of fact, key to a successful personal change in a behavior is that you NOT rush into action.
It sounds like you have made a firm decision to tackle the weight loss challenge. Now it is time to prepare yourself. This is the stage in your change process where you’ll do the planning necessary so that any action you take to lose weight will be successful. If you were to go on a diet, say, without doing your planning and preparation, you would be much more likely to fail.
This period of preparation is transitional. It takes you from making the decision to acting on the decision. During this time you will need to do two things:
- Strengthen your commitment to losing weight
- Develop a sound plan for carrying out your decision and attaining your weight loss goal
In order to do these two things well, you’ll need to consider the following:
- Becoming more and more aware of the negative aspects of where you are now
- Becoming more and more aware of the pros for you of losing weight
- Making your plan acceptable to you, doable for you, and effective as possible
- Making sure your plan is concrete and includes methods for handling those weak “willpower moments” that always come up on your weight loss diet plan
Rest assured that what you have done already is the essential work of making that firm decision to lose weight. You are on the exact right track. The best thing you can do now is hold off on attempting anything formal with regard to dieting, and pay greater attention to firming up your commitment and mapping out a good weight loss plan.
© 2007 Maria's Last Diet