New Year’s Resolutions

Did you know the number 1 New Year’s resolution is to lose weight?

Did you know that 92% of resolutions fail? 

What an awful time of year to hear that news.  When so many of us are trying to change our lives, where’s the hope that it can be done?

Let me tell you some good news; there IS freedom to be found.  There is a way out and you can find it.

There are so many pieces of advice I can give to set you off with a renewed sense of encouragement and motivation but with limited time and space, I’ll tell you some of my favorites.

1. Don’t limit yourself by your past.  So many of us have tried to lose weight in the past and have failed.  Not just failed a little, but failed a lot!  We can look back at failing time after time and wonder why we think this time can be different. 

I’ll tell you something that set me free; something very simple.  This time will be different if you want it to be.   There is a path and a combination of practical skills and emotional work (this is often overlooked!) that needs to be carried out for you to become free of your bondage.  You will find it if you determine that this time you’re going to do it right and do it for the long haul.

2. Reach out for help.  Surround yourself with positive people and positive stories of those who have done it before you.  With a little searching, you can find tons of stories of those who have lost drastic amounts of weight and kept it off.  I am one of them.  I lost a total of 185 pounds five years ago by changing my diet, learning to be physically active and figuring out my emotional junk.  Search for stories like mine and others who have travelled the same road and won.  Listen to what those people have to say.  Do what they do.

3.  Get to know yourself well enough to know what your best course of action will be and what just isn’t going to work.  You don’t think going to the gym every day is going to work with you or your schedule?  Find another way to be active.  You don’t really want to turn into a vegetarian like your neighbor who lost 50 pounds?  Find another nutrition program that will work for you.

The fact is, if you’re currently struggling with weight, what you’re doing now isn’t working for you.  It’s a pretty obvious idea that you have to change something but making drastic changes and following a plan that doesn’t fit you only sets you up for defeat.  That’s why we feel like we’ve already tried everything and NOTHING has worked.  What we’ve done before is either tried a plan that set us up for failure or we’ve given up before we’ve gotten over the hump of change.

Find a time and place to really get still and ask yourself questions to figure out what is really going to work for you.

Ask yourself: 

What combination of eating right, moving more and doing emotional work is going to work for me?

Why has it been so hard before?

Why do I continue making unhealthy choices?

Does food somehow make me temporarily feel better?

If I didn’t have to worry about my physical body, would my current life reflect who I really am on the inside?

 

Do you finally want to check “Lose Weight” off your To Do list?  Do you finally want to become free of the chains that have held you down for too long?  Don’t limit yourself by your past, reach out for help, and get to know yourself.  Let 2009 finally be the year that the resolution lasts a lifetime.