Weight Loss

When most of us decide to do something about being overweight, we usually turn to some form of diet or exercise program, or derivatives thereof. When we fail to achieve long term weight loss, which is the almost universal result, we are left with no option but to blame ourselves for that failure. Rarely are the techniques we used questioned on their effectiveness.

This is very convenient for the practitioners offering these methods as it avoids the potentially embarrassing question of whether they really work or not. And the truth is, in the vast majority of cases, through no fault of the participants, they do not. More often than not, the individual has been failed by the technique, not the other way round as most would have us believe.

The overwhelming majority of people are overweight because they simply eat too much. Nothing new in this. The Western World over consumes in just about everything it does, including eating. Yes we do eat inappropriate food as well, but , within reason, our "overweightedness" is more a function of amount than type.

If we were to just eat less, full stop, most of us would lose some weight. Of course most people will want to go further and change the type of food they eat as well, but the fact of the matter is, a reduction in consumption would lead to some weight loss for most.

Now before we set out to reduce the amount we eat, there are a couple of important points we need to consider, or we are just setting ourselves up for another heartbreaking failure.

Our entire lifestyles, including our overeating, can be seen as the outward manifestation of our thinking patterns. These are the thoughts we subscribe to, or make real to ourselves, usually without even being aware we are doing it. We form a perception, give it a meaning and respond emotionally to that meaning in an habitual manner. This lack of awareness usually guarantees our downfall when we try to make lifestyle changes that should lead to weight loss. [Or anything else for that matter.]

We try eat differently or stick to an exercise program while all the time our minds are performing they the same old thought processes. We may be acting differently but we still feel like behaving in the familiar way. The result is often mental confusion and conflict while we are attempting to conform to the new regime, and an automatic return to the old ways the moment we relax our efforts. And herein lies the answer to why most efforts at personal change fail. The mind is still performing the familiar thought processes, habitually, that created the previous, undesirable, lifestyle. We are doomed to failure unless we can find a way to escape our familiar ways of thinking.

So, if your new weight loss program does not offer a means of remodelling your thinking, regard it with scepticism. It should not only supply a new set of attitudes toward eating, but more importantly, a technique that can be used to rid the mind of its habitual thought patterns. If it does not, it will fail you, and you will be left with no alternative but to blame yourself for that failure, when in fact you were failed by the technique you were using.

Hope this meets your requirements, please contact me if it doesn't.

Best Regards

Rob Jager