More on 8 Questions: Being Realistic, Patient and Committed to Losing Weight
Jodi Davis
| 4 min read
It is obvious to me that you are serious about losing weight, or you wouldn’t be here reading my post. This week I have been focusing on eight questions that I wanted you to answer in order for you to figure out whether you are instinctively claiming that you want to lose weight, or if you have hit that point in your life when you realize that losing weight is something that must be done. You’re determined that there will be no more halfhearted attempts or excuses that will cause you to put off losing those excess pounds any longer; it’s time to become focused and get down to business!
I hit that point in 2001, so I understand it completely. That’s why I put together the list of questions to ask yourself to determine whether you’re serious.
Please understand that if you are in a “diet mode,” you probably aren’t as serious as you should be. You really need to be willing to change certain aspects of your lifestyle — for the rest of your life — or even the best weight loss efforts will not be successful.
Are you ready to commit to daily physical activity, making it a part of your routine?
If you answer no to this question, then I personally feel that you aren’t serious. Don’t take offense to that comment. It’s just that I would have answered “no” to that question myself for 25 years of my life.
I had always assumed that I was serious about losing weight, but not until the day I was ready to commit to daily physical activity was I truly serious about it. It took me a long time to admit that in order to lose my excess 162 pounds of fat, I needed to burn it off… but how? Daily physical activity sounded too intense to me, so I simply told myself to walk every day. I walked a mile and a half every evening after dinner. I was committed to my daily walking and made it part of my routine.
Have you established a realistic weight loss goal?
This is one question that is going to be an immediate “yes!”
Hey, we all know how much we want to lose in order to hit a weight goal, but is this a realistic goal weight? How did you come up with your goal… from your doctor? Or are you comparing yourself to a supermodel that you’ve always longed to look like? Please do not compare yourself to other individuals — listen instead to your physician or health care provider; they are the experts.
Are you losing weight to improve your health?
Most of us realize that health issues arise when a person is overweight, even more so when a person is obese or morbidly obese. But you may be part of the population that doesn’t realize that yet. Hey, that was me. It took a funeral of a dear friend and wonderful mother of a 17-year old child (she was in her early 40’s) for me to finally realize it. That was the turning point I hit in order for me to truly become serious about changing my lifestyle.
I had assumed for 25 years that obese people were just as healthy as everyone else… I was so wrong. Class reunions, weddings and special occasions were often my reasons for wanting to lose weight. After attending the funeral, my reasons changed. I seriously wanted to live.
Can you accept the fact that this will take time?
A simple “yes” is not the answer I’m looking for. I want you to really think about that question: Can you accept that you will not lose all your excess weight in a week, a month or possibly even in a year?
As much as we’d love it, losing 10, 20, 50 or even 100 pounds does not happen overnight. It’s easy to explain that fact to others, but when we think of our own body, we often feel that we can lose it that much weight quickly. But deep down in our subconscious minds, we know it is only wishful thinking… we know it takes time.
No, we don’t like waiting for things we want so badly… we’re a very impatient society. But we can’t lose weight as fast as we can connect to the Internet, right? It takes time to lose weight, it’s not instantaneous — accept that fact.
If you want to talk more about any of the above, please ask! I’m here for you.
Photo credit: Suzie Cheel
