It’s true, I can help you to lose weight for free. I’ve been trying to do that for 3 years when I started writing this blog in April 2014. In that time I’ve received comments and emails that lead me to believe I’ve helped a lot of folks.
I’ve also received emails and comments that accuse me of being self-serving. “You work for Weight Watchers. You only want people to join Weight Watchers.”
Well, yeah, I do work for Weight Watchers and if somebody is inclined to pay for help to lose weight, then I absolutely hope it’s Weight Watchers they chose. That’s what I chose when I wanted professional help because I believed and still do believe it’s the best commercial weight loss service there is.
US News and World Report ranks Weight Watchers #1
Now that I’ve been working for Weight Watchers for 26 years and know a lot more about nutrition science, exercise physiology, the psychology of change, and human weight management I’m more convinced than ever. So readers of my blog can benefit from my personal experience and knowledge and need not ever pay me a cent.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get some weight off you. My first question I’ll need answered to evaluate your chance of success is to ask you, “why do you want to lose weight?”
Reasons may include things such as:
- I’m recently divorced and want to start dating again.
- My doctor told me I need to for my health.
- I’ve never been this big before and I’m uncomfortable.
- My spouse is rejecting me because I am too fat.
- I’ve got an important event coming up and I want to feel and look my best.
- I’m tired of getting dirty looks and snide or cruel remarks about my weight.
- I just want to feel better about myself.
All of these are good reasons for wanting to lose weight, but some of them are better. The better ones are the ones that suggest you want to move towards something positive such as dating, health, or wanting to look and feel good.
The ones that are good, but not as good, are the ones that are trying to get away from a painful or uncomfortable feeling such as losing weight to shut up the fat shamers, to please a spouse, because you’re uncomfortable about your weight or you just don’t feel good about yourself.
Any one of those reasons is your WHY. The whys that are moving away from pain are good to get started but not as effective to take you through the whole journey. That’s because you may only need to lose a fraction of the weight you want to lose to get to goal before your why isn’t motivational anymore.
What’s more important about your why is the last one on the list which is to feel better about yourself. Not feeling good about yourself stops more successful weight loss attempts than supports them. The better you feel about yourself the greater your chances are of reaching your goal.
The reason is simple. If you don’t feel good about yourself, your self talk is disparaging and overwhelmingly negative. You beat yourself up for every mistake – real or perceived – you might make. You give yourself negative messages about everything from how smart you are, to how strong you are, to how much willpower you have. Rather than support yourself with empowering beliefs your mind searches for the ways in which you could fail in any circumstance.
The first thing I want you to do before you even start making changes to your eating behaviors is to separate who you are from what you weigh. Make a list of all your great qualities. It’s okay to say what makes you great even though it may feel wrong and boastful at first. You’re smart and it’s okay to say so.
Recognize your intelligence, accomplishments, compassion, empathy, all your roles, be they daughter, son, mother, grandmother, father, grandfather, sister, brother, teacher, manager, etc. You wear a lot of hats and you wear them well. That’s who you are and you can feel good about being that person.
The better you feel about yourself, the more success you’ll have with your weight related goals.