As many of you may already know, I have been losing weight for a while now. April 07 will be one year. It’s been a rough patch for me the last few months trying to lose weight. I hit plateaus and found myself stuck for quite a while.

During December I didn’t do so well and even gained back a few pounds! What can I say…unfortunately I am not as of yet perfect, ;-).

I did discover something during the last month that is helping me now more than ever in my weight loss journey. I’m hoping it can help you as well.

We all know what we must do to lose weight. We know we need to eat better, exercise, stay active, etc. It’s no secret that we have more than enough information available to lose weight.

The real hang up comes in applying that information we know in our heads to our own situations. This can seem hard at times because most of us have an emotional connection to food, I know I do. I find eating one of life’s pleasures and really enjoy dining out with friends and family in nice restaurants.

What I discovered recently has TOTALLY changed my mindset and freed me up to take greater control of my eating habits and lifestyle. In a nutshell, what I have done is a sort of psychological trick…only it actually works.

Here’s what to do:

Each of us have certain things we pride ourselves in, areas in our lives we control and feel good about. For me, I am proud that I strive not to be a follower or just part of the crowd. I find myself at times doing things my own way, just because I don’t want to be like everyone else.

I don’t smoke or drink (I’ve never touched a cigarette or had a sip of alcohol) nor have I ever been to clubs or the whole “party scene”.

I was offered a beer last night by my friend’s new roommate and it wasn’t hard at all saying “No thanks.”

Now, if he had offered me certain foods…it would have been another story. I would have had to think about, debate myself, and say “No thanks”.

Why is this? Why is it SO EASY to decline one thing and SO HARD to say no to another?

Both are choices and both involve me making a decision to move forward or stop. After much thought, I have discovered part of my mental make-up and what I can do to control my eating just like other areas of my life.

In America, it is widely (pun?) noted that 2/3 of us are overweight. That’s right, 66% of Americans are overweight. And what does that mean to me? I’m glad you asked!

It means that I, the guy who likes to not follow the crowd, acts just like the masses of people eating what they want, when they want, and with blatant disregard for their own health.

When that hit me, like hopefully it will hit you, something in me changed. I basically took the strongest identity factor I had and instantly made my eating and lifestyle choices incongruent with who I am.

I don’t follow the crowd, I don’t want to be part of the 66%! I have to be different, I have to be “myself”. Do you see how powerful this is?

I challenge you now to “take a think” as our UK buddies say and look for the identity factors in your own life right now that you can use to change your lifestyle habits.

It’s extremely easy for you to do certain things. Maybe you pride yourself on always being honest. You are a VERY honest person. How can this help you lose weight?

Make a mental connection between you being an honest person and your weight loss. If you took an “honest” look at your life right now, are you the person you want to be? Are you being honest with yourself about your current lifestyle?

You see where I’m going with this. What’s your Main Identity Factor? What’s your Mental Make-up? Use these as your new determination and inspiration.

It becomes easy to succeed when you can instantly and almost effortlessly make eating healthy foods, exercising, and living an active life part of what makes you…you!

If you’ve been struggling with the mental aspect of losing weight, I truly believe this will help you. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. This year I want to see us all succeed and I know we can do it.

I came across this article today and find it very helpful. It preaches a lot of the same things I always stress (see, I’m not crazy!) and does a good job of teaching goal setting in easy steps. With no further, ado, enjoy!

By Carla Vaughan

New Year’s Resolutions are great to get you thinking about what you want to accomplish in the coming year. Has anyone ever achieved all of their New Year’s Resolutions? I have never met anyone who accomplished all they set out to at the beginning of any given year.

The best news is that not following through on some New Year’s resolutions is great. Why? Our priorities change. Life throws crazy situations at us. We re-think our goals. It’s ok to update a resolution during the year. It’s also ok to eliminate one. We must be flexible enough to realize when our situations warrant a fresh approach. Other times, we don’t reach our goals and the reason(s) are unnecessary and avoidable.

Some of the most common reasons New Year’s Resolutions fail is:

1. Nothing is written down. You write down a doctor’s appointment because it is important and you don’t want to forget it. Write down your goals (resolutions).
2. Expectations are unrealistic. If you set a goal that is too high (and do not achieve it), you will not only experience frustration for not achieving what you want, but you will also be less likely to set goals in the future.
3. No plan to succeed. Setting a goal is meaningless unless you plan for and take steps to achieve the results you desire.
4. Motivation desperation. Hopefully waiting for some gigantic spring of motivation to all of a sudden flow through our veins is not realistic. Take the first step toward your goals and the motivation will follow. Action precedes motivation.
5. Resolutions are kept secret. Share your resolutions for the coming year with someone you trust. When you speak the words aloud and offer them to someone else, you are then accountable for them. Your trustworthy friend can nudge you in the right direction when you need a gentle reminder.
6. Not your goal. If the resolution has no real meaning to you, there will be no strong desire to achieve it. Just because your best friend wants to lose weight doesn’t mean it is the right goal for you. Your resolutions must be yours if you are to be fully invested (emotionally) in them.

To make the process of setting and achieving New Year’s Resolutions easier and more effective, focus on the following:

1. Set goals/resolutions and write them down including a date for completion.
2. Create objectives that can be done on a weekly or monthly basis that lead to the achievement of a specific goal. Objectives get written down, too. You will have one set of objectives for each resolution/goal. Objectives should have dates of completion, too. They may have to be revised, but having a target to shoot for is better than having nothing to shoot for at all.
3. Define specific tasks that can be done daily and/or weekly that target a specific objective. Many tasks will change from day to day and others may need to be revised depending upon how well they are achieving the objectives.
4. Do at least one thing each day to propel you closer to one of your goals.
5. Document your progress and reward yourself for your achievements.

The Success Journal

When creating resolutions (goals), it is imperative that you write everything down. Using a calendar or daily planner of some kind is great to define and follow up on goals, objectives and tasks. It also allows for the integration of your tasks and objectives into your schedule. If you don’t write it down, it will very likely not get done.

Start with your first resolution. Once you have identified the deadline for the resolution, write it in your planner. Set your objectives and determine the completion dates for them. When adding those to your planner, work back from the original resolution completion date.

For instance, if I want to save $1,000 for a weekend getaway, I write the date that I want to take the trip in the planner (say, May 31st). My objectives are to save in increments until the final amount is reached. So, I write my objectives in the planner as “Have $200 set aside by January 31st, $400 by February 28th, $600 by March 31st, $800 April 30th and $1000 May 31st.”

The specific tasks may be anything from collecting all loose change in a jar to selling un-needed items on ebay. Those can be incorporated into daily activities – again, written in the planner.

So, what is the Success Journal title all about? As you complete each and every task, reward yourself. You will have to determine what works best for you, but it can be anything from a gold star sticker on the page of the task that is completed to a journal entry expressing your feelings about having taken one step closer toward your goal. Yes, you reward even the little things, especially to start with. Gold stars are great as they are bold and very visible. If your New Year’s Resolution is to lose a set amount of weight, this is not the time to reward yourself with a bowl of ice cream.

Reaching objectives is worthy of a different kind of reward, but it, too, should have some relevance to the Success Journal. The more you see the successes in your past, the more motivated you will be to move forward. Not only that, but if you ever attempt something really, really scary, you can flip through your Success Journal and say, “Hey, if I can conquer that, I can handle this.”

New Year’s Resolutions can be very beneficial when well defined and handled properly. What’s on your list of things to accomplish this year?

Carla Vaughan, Owner/Webmaster Professional-Resume-Example.com

Carla is the owner of Professional-Resume-Example.com, a web site devoted to assisting candidates in the job-search process. She holds a B.S. in Business from Southern Illinois University and has authored several books.

For more information about writing goal setting, follow this link to Goals, Objectives and Tasks

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