Thursday, 23rd of April 2009 at 12:43:17 PMSince reaching my goal to lose 30 pounds in 90 days, I have been taking time to visualize my new weight loss goal. This is a very exciting time for me because I have never been so successful at losing weight before and thinking ahead to a new low for my weight seems more and more attainable every day.
The best time to start a diet is the moment you decide you would like to lose weight. Don't wait or put it off as that often just results in added pounds.
Last night I dug around and found my old weight loss journal. It is a really basic and boring notebook and when I read the entries I had made during my last weight loss attempts I see a million different places where I should have done things differently, including being consistent in keeping my journal. Over three years ago, I had written in my journal a weight loss goal that, as you may have guessed, I never reached. There it was, written in red pen, capitalized and made less daunting with little drawn flowers on either side, “MY GOAL WEIGHT IS 180 LBS”. At the time I weighed 203 pounds. Right away I could see a huge error that I made in setting this weight loss goal for myself… I didn’t give myself a time frame.
As it happens, I’m now very close to the weight I was when I wrote that goal three years ago so I figured it would be a good to goal to set again, but this time I would aim even bigger. So today I would like to announce to the world that my new weight loss goal is 170 pounds and I will achieve this in four months starting right now. At this week’s weigh in I was 206 lbs, so I intend to lose 36 pounds in 16 weeks, which is a realistic goal of losing 2.25 lbs each week. Here we go!
For those of you who are wondering when the best time to start a diet is, and when to set a weight loss goal for yourself, the answer is RIGHT NOW! How many times have you looked in the mirror and promised yourself that you are going to start your diet on Monday, after Thanksgiving, when New Years Day has arrived, or even after you have had a few weeks to enjoy your favorite foods? This is something that dieters do all of the time and can be a huge problem. While having a start date is the only way to get started, that day should be the very second you decide you want to lose weight.
One of the biggest reasons why putting off the start of your diet till another day is because you are going to go nuts eating all the wrong things until the day and time of your diet arrives. Those that say they are going to start on Monday mean well, but they spend that entire weekend feasting on all of the unhealthy and high calorie foods that they think they are going to miss the most on their diet plan. That leads to packing on a few more pounds before starting, which is the opposite of what the dieter seeks.
Another problem when putting off your diet for another date is that you may not have the same motivation when you get to that day. You may decide you want to push it back even further and you have had even more time to make excuses as to why you should wait or why now is not the best time for you to be on a diet. Some put diets off until New Years because they figure they are going to gain weight during the holidays anyway, and there is no point. Actually, there is no better reason than that to start right away!
New Years Day is one of the biggest ‘I’m going to start my diet on’ days of the year. This is why you see so many weight loss products advertised on television during the month of January. What most don’t realize, until they have failed time and time again, is that most people rarely keep resolutions. Once they fall of the wagon, so to speak, they just shrug and say they will try again next year. Think of all the extra pounds you could add if you did that each year.
Do your body and yourself a favor. Once you decide a diet is right for you, and you have all the facts and the tools that you need, start right away. Don’t wait for New Years, Monday, or even tomorrow. Start the moment you have made the decision. If you don’t, you may find that you never get started. Even more importantly, don’t let failure stop you. Everyone messes up. Think of mistakes as just mistakes, not the end of the road. Pick right up where you left off and your chances of success are much higher.
Great Article,
I was happy to read what you said about digging around and finding your old weight loss journal. It confirms to me you were very serious about loosing your weight. By writing down in a journal you have made an unconscious Goal to lose weight. Had you not keep this journal I am convinced that you would never had lost your weight. It has been proven over and over that if you write it down for some unknown reason it will come true.