(This article is about an amazing "thought experiment" -- to consider what it would take, what it would be like to lose ALL your excess weight. My thanks to Emily for suggesting it. LG)It is difficult to get to know who you are.
It is easier to know who you have been (at least until an old acquaintance finds you on Facebook and tells a very different story of who you used to be).
But the real difficulty is in knowing who you really want to be in five years, or ten. Or twenty.
Yet that thought about your future is really not a useless or fanciful excursion. That act it is a key to your ability, your willingness, the depth of your passion, to lose weight now.
It begins with who you are when you are alone. It ends with a commitment to crafting the future you ardently desire. In between, well, that is the gray area, the amorphous "I am just being who I already am."
Do you dare think how different your life would be if you lost ALL your excess weight?
If you have been 25, 50, 100 pounds or more overweight for a very long time, if is difficult for you to imagine weighing much less than you do now. You probably even have a weight loss goal defined by how much you weighed just a couple of years ago, not when you were 18 or 22.
But seldom do you even dare think you could ever get back to where you started, what you weighed before the serious pounds started accumulating.
Why not?
Why not dare to dream the unthinkable? Why do you not allow yourself the freedom of imagination to project yourself into the future weighing what you know you should, instead of what you are willing to settle for?
Sit back for a long moment and linger. How would your life be different if you weighed the correct weight for your height? How would your primary relationships be different? How would your friendships be affected? What would you do differently? How would you be different? How would you feel about your life?
You see, your ability to lose most of the excess weight you have had for many, many years is directly tied to your willingness to see how your life would inevitably be different. If you can't imagine that hoped-for world, you, of course, can never get there.
If you do not find the prospect of weighing the right weight an exciting possibility, an enticing opportunity to re-invigorate your life, you will lag in your motivation to get there.
Permanent weight loss is more about what you feed your heart and imagination, than what you feed your body.
And that has to begin with you knowing not only who you are, but how you want to live out the remainder of your life.
If you are content with losing 10 or 20 pounds, it will help your health -- every pound you lose does.
But that amount of weight loss is not going to change your life. When you achieve significant weight loss, 40-50-75 pounds or more, many things WILL change in your life, whether you want it to or not. And it will change a lot more than just your wardrobe.
When you learn to grasp that change in reality, and begin to shape it, begin to mould it around all that you have wanted to do and be, and be seen as, then you will begin to take control of your weight. The more you shape your dream of the future, the more you will reshape your body today.
These are connected wholes -- who you are, and who you strongly desire to be. Both are real. You need to shape your future more clearly, more carefully, less haphazardly. You need to accept ONLY that you can achieve what you greatly desire, what you fervently deserve.
Weight loss success is not about money, nor those who love you...
Nor is permanent weight loss even about those who don't love you the way you wish, or need them to. It is not about finding the perfect time, or way, or program to do it. It is about accepting the imperfect you, who nonetheless, is doing something more very day to get your weight where you know it can be, where you really want it to be.
This type of life is not about shaving calories from your meals, nor fat grams from your food choices, nor worrying if you should have cheated on yesterday's food exchange points.
This type of life is measured in the real steps you take every day to grasp your desired future by the reins and lead yourself, step-by-joyful step.
It is not about sacrifice, nor giving up, nor turning away from old enjoyments.
It is all about building a new reality around the beautiful core that is you. It is about what you are gaining in your quest, not what you are giving up to achieve it.
Dare to dream the unthinkable dream. Make it real and alive and vibrant in your mind. Let it become your living reality. And leave the tired and older and overweight you far behind. Not because it was bad, but because your future is so much better.
Dare to dream.
You have one life to live in this body. Where will it take you the rest of your days?
The decision is up to you.
VP Programs Development, ScaleDown for Life
VP Education, GoZonkers Inc.
Founder, CelebrateLifeNutrition.com
Curb Your Appetite – Stop Your Cravings
©2009 Laura Gontchar. All Rights Reserved.
