Dropping pounds? Forget big plans. Take small steps.

"I have never been impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another."        - Ellen Goodman 

I saw this quote today, and it reminded me actually of trying to lose weight and one reason why most weight loss programs don’t work in the long run. What does changing the world got to do with losing weight you ask? Let me illustrate. 

You step on the scale or you see a recent picture of yourself in which you have bulging, in all the wrong places. You fret in terror and disgust, and then proclaim, “Okay, that’s it! Damn it! I’m starting a diet and exercise plan on Monday! This time it will be different!” It may be a Wednesday when you make this declaration, but you need time to create your plan, go find a gym, collect recipes, create schedules, buy a tape measure, and find books and sources online. It becomes a big production physically and emotionally. 

You are going to change your fat world into a skinny one, so you’ll need a BIG plan, and the bigger the plan, the better because this is America and we do everything BIG here. People are impressed with BIG plans. You are absolutely pumped up about Monday. 

You envision you’ll be at your goal weight in 10 weeks. All you can picture is you back in those skinny jeans. The image is delicious. Armed with your big plans, and enthusiasm, Monday comes and your program officially begins. You do good for the first 3 days. You’ve measured your food, thrown out all the “bad” foods, counted calories, stopped eating before 7pm, and air kicked & punched imaginary enemies at kickboxing class for an hour each day.

On day 4, you just DO NOT feel like exercising....(read more)

Your plan calls for you to exercise everyday for an hour so you can burn at least 500 calories. 500 x 7=3,500 calories, exactly 1 pound. So, you skip kickboxing class because more sleeping is what you like doing. You decide to make up for the lack of burning 500 calories by just eating 500 calories less that day. Your plan calls for you to eat 1500 calories a day, so now that means you’ll only get to eat 1000 calories since you didn’t exercise. 

But shit! Your stomach is growling like a caged animal. You’re getting irritable. Your co-worker just walked in with a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Double shit! Your grand diet plan requires that you cannot eat any kind of sugary, trans fat loaded, treats for the full 10 weeks. Nope! You’re not supposed to have any kind of food pleasure during the 10 weeks. You can eat vegetables, meat, and soup as long as it does not have dairy in it. But, that’s no fun. 

Screw it! I’m going to have that chocolate covered devil’s food cake doughnut. It’s called devil’s food for a reason. You’ll just exercise an extra half hour tomorrow to make up for this forbidden delicacy today. Tomorrow morning comes, and you just want to lie in bed. Your plan says to exercise in the morning because you read that you can burn more calories in the morning than evening. You tell yourself that you’ll exercise after work. The boss wants that report tomorrow, so that means you have to stay at work until 7pm. You didn’t eat dinner, so now you’re breaking the “no eating after 7pm” rule, AND you’re exhausted so there is no way you’re going to the gym. 

Bollocks! Two more weeks of breaking all your rules, and the BIG plan you armed yourself with has now been flushed down the toilet because it was forcing you to make too many BIG changes in your lifestyle in a short time. It required that you sacrifice ALL eating pleasure until you were “done,” and did not take in consideration what you are going to do to maintain that weight loss once you got there. You’re skinny. Who cares? You’ll deal with that when you get there. But what happens, you end up gaining all the weight back again. 

Dr. Phil is correct in that you are overweight because the lifestyle you have created for yourself supports the extra poundage. In order to be thinner and healthier, you need to create a lifestyle that supports vibrant health, and that requires change. Big sweeping changes in short periods of time never work out well. Small changes add up, and are doable. We get so caught up in wanting to get results RIGHT NOW that we end up failing most often, or we achieve our goals in ways that are not healthy or good for us.

An example is diet pills. You can't take the diet pills forever, and your body has become dependent on the pills to keep it thin. What do you do then?

Start with one small thing and then work your way up. It could be as small as only drinking 3 cups of Starbucks a week as opposed to everyday, or moving to non-fat milk from whole milk. When you feel good about the 3 cups, and are not feeling crazed and deprived, cut down to one cup. The process will be slower, but the change has a better chance of being permanent in the long run because you made the change on a realistic level. Start small. It all adds up!