It's the first morning that you wake up to a brand new you, the one who is on the latest attempt to lose that extra weight that you have been meaning to lose for ages.
You get up and have your diet breakfast, which you tell yourself is what you are going to have from now on for the rest of your life.
The day goes really well; you stick to your diet and feel really virtuous.
So virtuous that you are almost tempted to weigh yourself to see how you are doing.
Surely all that hard work must have paid off?But you realize that of course that would be silly; you'll wait until tomorrow morning! The next day you weigh yourself, and sure enough you have lost a pound.
It goes on to be another successful day, and you are really glad that you decided to go on a diet.
You swear that you will get used to not having milk in your drinks perhaps, or not having the usual biscuit with it, even though it's a struggle.
You may start to wonder what you could have instead.
Day three continues in much the same way, and you are beginning to feel that you are on a winning streak.
Then a friend calls with the usual doughnuts that she bought in the corner shop, just as she does every Wednesday.
You meant to tell her not to bother this week, but you forgot all about it.
You make the coffee, sit down and there is the doughnut, looking at you.
Your friend is busy getting out the plates and bustling about, and you are sitting there wondering to do.
You are faced with a new decision! Even though you had decided to go on this latest diet, the doughnut is speaking to you.
If you say no, your friend is going to make a fuss.
It really does look good, and perhaps you will have it and start again tomorrow.
On the other hand, perhaps you will be just making it more difficult for yourself.
Perhaps you will, perhaps you won't.
Your mind is in a whirl; you mouth is watering; you just cannot make up your mind, and suddenly your hand goes out and before you know it, you have taken the first fatal bite! You've blown it again! The diet is out of the window, it's Wednesday, and coming up to the weekend so perhaps you will try again next Monday.
Does this pattern look familiar? What may be coming into play here is that you did not really make a firm decision in the first place.
Oh yes, you got up on Monday feeling determined that you really were going to succeed this time, but was that determination following a real decision? Did you just decide to try another diet, or did you really decide that you were going to lose weight no matter what it takes? The dictionary defines the word decision as follows; "A conclusion or resolution reached after consideration" (Synonyms; Settlement, commitment, resolve or determination.
) Did your thoughts on Monday morning include any of these words? If so what happened to that decision when you were presented with the doughnut? Is it time to make a real decision? When you make it a real decision, you will find that when you are faced with a doughnut you will not even consider having it.
If you were to get in your car and you were going to a chosen destination, you wouldn't get very far if you kept changing your mind where you were going.
It's just the same with your weight management; if you keep changing the goal you will not do it.
Perhaps it's time to give the matter more thought about whether you can do this for life, including the odd tweak to enable you to stick to it;
- Make out a set of rules for yourself that suits your lifestyle.
- Design a diet that will include the sort of foods that you can live with and decide once and for all that you are determined to do this no matter what.
- Don't go into it with a sense of deprivation but with determination.
She knew even before she was asked what her answer would because she had made a decision! You can do this with your new resolution to lose weight.