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12 Questions that Lead to Diet Success
by Kenneth Schwarz, Ph.D. and Julie Schwarz
Do you know the real trick to being a successful dieter? The best way is just what the age-old saying tells you to do - Know Yourself. Some diets are good, some are excellent. Whether you succeed or fail is almost never the diet's fault. You won't be able to succeed on any diet, and you certainly won't be able to achieve permanent weight loss if you keep yourself in the dark about your own behavior.
The more you know about how you operate the better equipped you are to lose weight and keep it off. Knowledge is power. Self-knowledge is diet power. Get to your source of diet know-how. It's definitely in you, and here's a great way to access it.
First, do a little visualization. Picture yourself at your goal weight. You can certainly do it. You actually visualize things a lot in your everyday life. You imagine your daily tasks before you do them, you imagine upcoming situations and events and how they'll be for you.
This time, visualize yourself having reached that goal. See yourself as thin as you want to be, looking the way you want to look, feeling the way you want to feel, wearing what you love to wear, moving the way you want to move. Keep this in-focus, clear picture of yourself in your head. It's pretending, sure, but this kind of pretending gives you a mental edge. It guides you in laying out a path that leads to your goal in reality.
Hold in mind the visual of you at your goal...feel it, taste it, think it and revel in it.
Now ask the imaginary slim you the following questions. The answers will surprise you, inform you, and give you what you need to know.
- What would you say were your most important reasons for losing weight when you started out?
- Looking back, why do you think you failed on previous diets?
- What are some of the things you did differently to make it work this time?
- Can you describe what you feel was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome to achieve this weight-loss success?
- Did you ask for help from people around you and if so, what exactly did you ask for?
- How are the people closest to you reacting to your weight-loss success?
- What do you think are 3 major personal strengths that helped you reach your goal?
- Is there one central thing about you as a person that in the past interfered with your plans to lose weight?
- How has life changed for you now that you've reached your weight-loss goal?
- What advice would you give another woman who lost weight and now wants to make sure she keeps it off?
- Now that you have arrived at your long-desired goal, do you think it was worth the time and effort?
- Are there any other significant things about you that have changed along with your weight?
If you are as open as possible during this exercise, you will come up with things you may not have been aware of before. You will tap into a lot you really do know about yourself with regard to dieting and weight loss, about positive things that have been hiding in the back of your mind, and negative things that have been getting in your way.
Take what you've discovered by indulging in this fantasy and keep the ideas front and center in your mind. The strength this kind of knowledge gives you is immeasurable. This is your mental edge. This self-awareness will partner up with your diet, giving you the power of real diet know-how.
What's Related:
Smart Eating for Life
Choosing Exercise Equipment You'll Actually Use
How To Keep Going, When Motivation Takes A Hike
The Key to Losing Fat May Not Be Aerobics Alone
About the Author:
Kenneth Schwarz, Ph.D. and his wife Julie Schwarz are co-authors of the e-Booklet How to Break the First Big Rule of Women Who Stay Fat. Dr. Schwarz is a psychologist and psychoanalyst specializing in personal change and goal achievement. He practices in Connecticut where he is a member of the allied health staff at Sharon Hospital. For total diet support, go to Dr. Schwarz's website www.mariaslastdiet.com.
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