Ask Dr. Schwarz

I know I have to go on a diet, but I don’t think I’m ready―so what can I do?

If you want very much to lose weight, but you aren’t ready to diet yet, don’t be discouraged. There is a lot you can do with regard to losing weight right where you are.

Success should be gauged not only by going on a diet or losing weight. Any step in the right direction should be considered a step toward success. In a beginning stage of the process, when you are just thinking about wanting to lose the weight, here is something very important you can do for yourself: keep the problem from getting worse. That is, you can try to stay just at this weight by stabilizing your eating. You may be used to thinking of maintaining weight as an end stage of a diet, something you do only after you’ve lost all the weight and you want to keep it off. It is also true that maintaining—not gaining any more weight—is very good preparation for a more focused, organized effort at weight loss.

A problem with weight requires different processes at different times along the way. You can consider this pre-action stage, before you actually go on a diet, as a time to start making small changes. This is a remarkably effective weight-loss strategy. Small changes add up to bigger changes. It is almost always a series of small but important steps that forms the ladder to any success.

To help you reverse your weight gain tendency and stay where you are, you can use some consciousness-raising techniques to learn more about your patterns of eating. When do you eat the most? Can you prepare yourself for those times? Are there some everyday methods that you can use to cope with those times when you feel most compelled to overeat? If you used some of these methods, could you reduce the amount and intensity of your overeating?

Here are some other things to do to help you prevent any further weight gain. You can care more for yourself and your looks despite the weight you are at now. This will increase your good feelings about yourself, which in turn will decrease your tendency to eat too much. You can also try to adopt some healthier habits with regard to your eating. In other words, don’t concentrate on eating for weight loss. Right now, think only of what may be a healthier way for you to eat. Another good thing to do is to give considerable thought to the benefits of losing weight for you. Make a list of these benefits and read it over often, adding to it whenever you want to. By thinking of the positive effects losing weight will have on your life, you are setting the stage for change.

The fact that you want to lose weight is a driving force. Keep your desire in mind, don’t let it go. At this point, before you are actually ready to dive into a diet, concentrate on keeping your weight right where it is. Look at this as a very important step you need to take so you’ll be ready to diet successfully.