In my last post I talked about motivation, the driving force behind any behavior change.  In the next few posts, I’ll focus on putting together your weight loss plan.  That will include:

1. Setting your goals & start date
2. Identifying a support person
3. Barriers to starting your plan & solutions to overcome them
4. Planning for the challenges that will come
5. Milestones and rewards

In this post let’s consider setting your goal, planning your start date and the importance of identifying a support person.  Your goal is the weight you want to be or the pounds you intend to lose by your target date.  Both the weight loss and target date need to be realistic.  A healthy rate of weight loss is 1.5 to 2.5 lbs. per week.  If you have medical issues, you should check with your doctor about your plan, especially about how quickly you plan to lose weight, the nutrition plan you will be using and details of your exercise plan.  Too rapid a weight loss can be unhealthy especially if you have certain medical conditions.  It took time to gain those extra pounds and it will take time to lose them.  Be patient!  Remember slow and steady wins the race!

You should also choose a start date to begin your weight loss program.  Give yourself some time to go through the planning stage for your program.  It shouldn’t take more than 2-3 weeks to get the planning done.

Finally, choose a trusted friend with whom to share your plan.  Tell them your start date, goal weight loss and target date.  Their role is to help encourage you when you feel discouraged and celebrate your successes with you.  Some people choose someone who has successfully lost weight themselves.  While that experience isn’t necessary, the strategies they used to overcome challenges can be useful.

Next time, I’ll continue talking about the other parts of your weight loss plan that you may wish to consider before you actually start your weight loss program.  If you want to get a head start on those topics, check out my website www.insightsforhealth.com where there are tools to Make Your Plan as well as many other features to learn about nutrition & exercise.  You’ll also find tools to calculate the nutritional content in foods, find the calories expended with common activities and to set up Health-e Texts to reinforce your new healthier behaviors.  To use some of these you must register as a member, but membership is free!

Your comments are welcome.

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob

What is motivation?   I think a useful definition in the context of behavior change is that it is the driving force that will enable you to do the work and make the sacrifices for you to succeed in changing your behaviors for the better.

Where should it come from?  The most effective motivation comes from within yourself.  Changing your behaviors, to lose weight or quit smoking is hard work.  You won’t succeed if you are just trying to please someone else, but, that external validation can add to your momentum.  Even though motivation comes from within, it can have an external component to it.

How do you get motivated?  Ambivalence often makes the decision to change difficult.  Those reasons to change need to be looked at along with the reasons not to change.  You may want to list the Pros & Cons of changing your behaviors.  Divide a sheet of paper in two by drawing a line down the middle.  On one side list the Pros, and on the other, the Cons.  Here’s an example for starting a weight loss program:

Usually this exercise results in many more Pros than Cons.  And the Pros are more significant advantages than the inconveniences of the Cons.

Finally, if after listing the Pros and the Cons you are still on the fence as far as changing, ask yourself this question, “What would have to happen in your life to make you commit to making the changes necessary to lose weight?”  Would you need to have a heart attack or develop diabetes?  While you may not be ready to start now, thinking in these terms can help move you along to where you will have the motivation to start.

Let me know what you think!

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob

I Need Your Help

In designing a weight loss program, building in motivating factors and supportive tools is especially important.  If you are currently struggling with or have ever struggled with your weight, I’d like your opinion.  Please fill out the following brief survey to help prioritize the key drivers that would motivate & help you to adopt healthier nutrition and exercise behaviors that will lead to a healthier weight.

Survey Instructions:  For each of the following 6 potential components of a Weight Loss Program, please rank their importance to you on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 indicates Least Important & 5 indicates Most Important.

What Do You Need To Lose Weight?

I recently saw a post on Facebook with a picture of a young girl, no more than 6 years old, holding a sign that said that her father told her that he’d quit smoking if she could get 1,000 “Likes” for that post.  The last thing she wrote on the sign was, “I love my dad!”

My first reaction was that this is wrong on so many levels.  The father has put his daughter in the position of being responsible for his trying to quit smoking.  If she doesn’t get the 1,000 “Likes” he won’t even try – and to her young mind, it will be her fault!  When he gets sick from smoking & possibly dies before she graduates high school, she may feel guilty because her post wasn’t good enough.

I thought, if the story is to be believed, the father has no intention of quitting.  He just wants to use this as an excuse to continue smoking.  As I said before, motivation has to come from within for it to be effective.  You would think that if he loved his daughter, he wouldn’t need any more “Likes” than her encouragement to quit!  If she gets the 1,000 “Likes” how will that translate into motivation for her dad?  Can dad call any of them to get encouragement when he wants to light up?  Though in my experience this kind of motivation is extremely weak, perhaps this will do the trick for this father, and he’ll feel compelled to keep his word.

Naturally, I was curious about how many “Likes” she did get, so I clicked through to see the original post.  It was originally posted in the Spring of 2014 and when I looked at it, there were over 5.9 million “Likes” and counting!!    I imagine this huge response was on behalf of the girl so she wouldn’t fail.  The ball was in the dad’s court.  Unfortunately, nowhere did I see any update that the dad had quit smoking.  I hope he has.  I hope he found the motivation he needed not from the millions of “Likes”, but from the look of love in his little girl’s eyes and his hope of living a healthier life and being part of her life for as long as possible.  I hope that dad has quit smoking for good so that he & his daughter can enjoy many, many Father’s Days together.

What motivation has helped you adopt healthier habits around smoking, eating or exercise?  Please share your experiences on this blog!

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob

The strongest motivation is internal.  That drive comes from within yourself.  Unless you want to make the necessary changes in your eating and exercise habits, they won’t happen!  But sometimes, despite that strength from within, you need a little push, or pull, from outside of yourself.  You know how it is – you planned to start exercising last Thursday, but something came up so you’ll plan to start it next week or so.  For most of us, it’s all too easy to let things slip.  That’s why external motivation almost always plays a role in a successful weight loss program.

Here are some external sources of motivation that seem to work:

• Identify a support person before you start and share with them your plan and a firm start date. Give them permission to nag you if need be.
• If possible, join others trying to lose weight to encourage each other and track your individual progress.
• If available, consider joining a weight loss competition where you can win prizes based upon your weight loss success.
• Put some “skin in the game.” Some competitions require an entry fee.  You could also buy some new clothes in your target size based upon your goal weight.  You’ll be so proud of yourself when you reach your weight goal and can wear them comfortably!

What are some other sources of motivation that you’ve used?  Share them in a comment.

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob