Will this time be different?

I’ve struggled with my weight all my adult life, believing I was too big and needed to lose just a little weight. Even though it’s only a little, that few pounds never stayed off, except when I was sick. And of course, the older I get, the harder it is for me to keep to a particular weight, even allowing for aging.

It’s suspicious. Every time I rationalize that losing those few pounds is good for me, then commit to doing so no matter how tempting it is to eat, I begin strong, and eventually quit in disappointment. Those pounds simply will not budge. And yet, over and over, I find myself really believing that this time it will be different.

Then I ask myself, if I were advising a client with this issue, I might wonder if they were approaching it in a way that was doomed to fail. It isn’t that they are deluded about their weight issue, but that they may be viewing it from an unhelpful point of view.

The definition of insanity, attributed to many famous people, comes to mind: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

What if, instead of judging the extra few pounds as necessarily bad, I were to work at accepting whatever weight I’m at and focus only on being healthy?

I have no idea if this will make a difference, or where it will lead. I do know that if I want to change the result, I need to change my starting point.

Quote of the Week

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. - Albert Einstein

How to motivate yourself to change your behaviour

Maryanne Nicholls is a Registered Psychotherapist.  To find out more, gain access to her weekly newsletter, meditations and programmes, sign up at www.thejoyofliving.co .