It's New Years Eve - Do You Know Where You're Going?

Strange question I know.

A lot of people will be waking up today and will for the first time be thinking about New Year resolutions. Some will take a look at themselves in the mirror and decided they need to go on a diet. That will be the extent of their planning. They'll find a diet and come up with a number of some description about what they want to weigh or how much they want to lose.

I predict they are likely to fail over the longer term. That's quite sad becuase everyone who wants to lose weight for the right reasons should succeed. But they need to know how to succeed and having a plan is vital.

If you've woken up on New Years eve and given a diet some thought, my advice is not to go on the diet straight away if you've not planned your journey out. If you're thinking I've lost the plot, please just hear me out for a moment.

Would you rather start your diet on January 1st, pursue it relentlessly for a month or so and then fall off the wagon at the end? Or would you rather take a slightly slower start, plan exactly where you're going and keep succeeding while those around you are struggling and keep asking you what your secret is?

Now to me, the second one makes more sense.

What I'm suggesting is that you need to know what success looks like to you. You need to have a very clear picture in your head about what success in your diet will do for you, what it will mean for you and so on. The reason being is that you're going to take yourself, your body and your life in a very different direction to where it's been going over the last few years.

One of the things you therefore need to have is a clear picture of your new destination. This will help you to keep on track. It's not the only thing but it's a great start.

As I've suggested, dieting is a big change to your life. The food is one part of it. The tools and techniques to maintain it over the longer haul are the other key part but which too often get overlooked. They need working on to develop them. It's these things that help you when you're struggling. By learning them and developing them they'll help you over the long haul because they'll keep your head in the right place.

The diet industry is just beginning to acknowledge this fact. Get in on the new trend in dieting now. Keep coming back to this site because it's dedicated to your long term success by giving you what you need to get your head in the right place.

Better still sign up so I can keep you updated.

Here's to your long term weight loss success

Why Do I Keep Saying....

That I'm going to talk more about this or that in future posts?

There are actually several reasons for it.

Firstly some of the things I'm writing about I could go on a lot more about. Trouble is I would get writers cramp and you would have so much to read you would get a headache if you hadn't got so bored beforehand.

I deliberately try to keep in short to try and give you just enough to think about.

Secondly some of this stuff is very new to some people. They don't see the role their brain plays in their everyday life so I need to introduce it at a speed people can cope with. Too much and they become overwhelmed. I don't want to overwhelm anyone. I want them to succeed at their weight loss program. Getting your mind right is a life turning event. Remember when you learned something new at school, it was introduced slowly so you could grasp bits before you moved on.

Thirdly I want you to just think about what I've told you. I want you to take time to digest what I'm saying.

Fourthly, some of what I'll be saying will seem like its being repeated and that's deliberate for this reason. Every person processes information slightly differently. Different people react to different things.

Take dogs for example. Some people smile when they see a dog because they see them as fluffy adorable pets. Some people hate dogs. Maybe they knew a smelly dog, maybe they got bitten badly once. Some people are totally indifferent to dogs because they've got no real previous life experiences involving dogs.

Well words are the same. Sometimes you can say something and the words you use cause the people to see them as just words. Sometimes however you can use different words to make exactly the same point and they really strike a chord with the reader. These words really cause a person to change because their meaning really reaches them inside in a way other words haven't.

Well that's what I'm trying to do.

You're here because you want to genuinely lose weight. Either you're starting again or you want to go on a diet for the first time and thought a New Year diet would be a good idea. I want to hit home in a big way with you that getting your head in the right place is possibly the most fundamental thing you can do do to ensure your success. The way I do that is by trying to write in a way that reaches as many of you as possible so that you can take on board what I have to say to help you on the road to success.

To your long lasting diet success.

Be Prepared to be Honest with yourself

I remember once being in an office listen to some people having a conversation. It wasn't about anything in particular as it seemed to cover a variety of subjects. The bit that stuck most in mind was when one of them said

"I can't work out why I'm not losing any weight"

Seems a fair enough comment except for the fact that she had just taken a bite out of a huge bar of chocolate.

It would have been rude to point out what seemed to everyone else to be obvious. Like so many people she's not alone.

Many people fight to lose weight, even though they seem to be obviously dieting. In fairness to this person, the reason was genuine invisible to them. I think it's also genuinely invisible to so many people who want to lose weight but don't seem to be enjoying success.

When I've talked to people for whom this is a problem they tell me they're counting calories, they're doing this and that. They're talking the lifestyle of the motivated dieter and it sounds great. However, when I spend any time with them I see totally different behavior. Portion sizes are bit larger than ideal, a quick snack here and there, cleaning up their own plates followed by picking the best bits from their child's plate (well can't have it going to waste can we)

What they say they're doing and what they're actually doing day to day are totally opposite to each other.

It's actually heartbreaking because for many, despite their actual behavior I think they actually believe their actions reflect their words, even though its clear they're doing the exact opposite.

I'll bet we've all seen this from people we know.

As I mentioned on the very first post in this blog, getting your head in the right place is absolutely vital to being successful in losing weight permanently. It's what this blog is all about.

To do that you need to be prepared to work on your mind. To make sure it's geared to help you succeed and to stay motivated, you need to know the best techniques that you can use every day. Get your mind on side and it will make lasting success at losing weight so much more likely. Get this right and you'll be so far ahead of every other dieter it's untrue.

What you therefore need to do in taking the first step is be prepared to be honest with yourself. Absolutely cold hard honesty. I'm not talking about beating yourself up. In fact I want you to learn to be positive with yourself. But honesty is what you need to take on board.

If you're going to lie to yourself, you're setting yourself up for failure from the outset. You'll be working against diet success from day one. The end result will be failure and you'll be setting another New Year Resolution to lose weight next Jan 1st.

So if you genuinely and truly are serious about losing weight, get ready to be honest with yourself. It's what truly successful people do. They don't beat themselves up. But, if they haven't done all they could do, they acknowledge that and determine to make it right next time.

Now this sounds a bit harsh but actually it's one of the most liberating things you can do. Once you start being honest with yourself, other things start to fall into place. Once you start being truly honest with yourself is the point you stop being afraid of yourself. And once you stop being afraid of yourself, you start to understand very clearly what steps you can take to work towards your success.

We're going to come back to this some more later as I'll go over the various principles time and time again so they become part of your everyday thinking.

But for now, just make a mental note that you'll prepare to be honest with yourself ready for your journey to losing weight forever.