Did You Enjoy Valentine’s Day?

I certainly hope so.

Makes you realise how quickly time flies. We’re already in the middle of February ... so I thought this would be a good time to review.

Review what exactly?

Well one important date in the calendar reminds me of another just past ... New Year ... and those dreaded resolutions. Did you make any ... perhaps to lose 5 or 10 or 20 or more pounds and whatever happened to that resolution? – I guess you forgot about it!

What if you didn’t make any resolutions – what if you think they are folly?

What does that tell you about yourself, your beliefs, your dreams and your outlook?

These are important points that I want to address in this post, but first ... what exactly is a New Years resolution?

A goal, a wish, a dream, a decision?

And what’s more ... how long does it take to forget about them and slip back into the old ways?

These are incredibly important points.

Why?

Because they give you a vital clue to how to improve your weight loss success.

What is a resolution ... a goal, a wish, a dream, a decision ... probably all four to some degree.

The dream for many wannabe slimmers, I guess, is the vision of their ideal self. How they would love to be.

The wish ... the desire to be ... what they are not. 'I wish I was thin' ... might sum it up.

The decision ... the willingness to have a go. ‘I’m going to do it’ does reflect the true outlook of a resolution.

The goal ... the object of all the effort ... the target weight.

Unfortunately, so few ever get there.

So what about those who think resolutions are folly or not worth bothering with?

Perhaps a sad reflection of an unhappy viewpoint on life. A cynical outlook brought about by an inability to succeed with past resolutions.

Better not to dream, better not to set goals ... than to fail.

Does it always have to be this way?

Nope.

The failure to set resolutions, or succeed with past goals reflects one small issue ... we’ll come back to that in a tick.

So how long does it take to forget about them?

We need to cover this point before we can resolve that nagging small issue.

The answer to this, I guess, leads us to the point of issue.

We are all different and the length of time it takes us to forget those resolutions varies with that difference in our personalities. And therein lies the key to a successful resolution.

They say (who exactly they are I’ll never know) ‘time is a great healer’ because it helps us to forget. But we don’t want to forget ... we want to succeed!

We need to make that goal achievable for us as individual’s before time takes over and we forget.

So if you have a dream to lose weight, then you have to be able to lose the desired goal amount before you forget and consequently ... fail.

It doesn’t matter that the goal weight may be a fraction of your ultimate target weight, the resolution goal has to act as a carrot ... not a burden.

Too easy and you will not drive forward towards it ... too difficult and failure is imminent and the cynicism swells a little larger like a growing tumour.

The problem as I see it, is that most people cannot set reasonable goals. They are wildly optimistic and consequently unachievable.

So how do you proceed?

Well by not setting a goal ... at least not at first anyway.

Get up one morning ... doesn’t have to be Monday morning, do your normal toilet duties and then weight yourself. Make a note of it just to be sure.

Why this way?

Because you will always be the lightest you can be and it starts a new habit.

Lets say you ‘forget’ your old resolutions in ... two weeks. So you weigh yourself in the same way in two weeks time. If you can only last a week ... then weigh yourself in a weeks time.

Do whatever you can to lose weight, that you can live with. Don’t starve yourself and don’t flog yourself.

Whatever weight loss you have achieved in that time frame becomes your goal weight loss for the next two weeks, or week or however long you set. You have just proven you can do it. If you want to succeed, just repeat it.

So go ahead ... dangle that carrot!

Until next time,

Cheerio

Ian

PS There is an even simpler way to proceed with weight loss goals. I never even set any weight loss goals in my weight loss campaign.

It is similar to the above ... perhaps just a slight extension if you like. More on this in the future.

More weight loss tips can be found at: http://www.slimmersecrets.com/

Good Luck with your weight loss.