Each and every time I have tried to go on a diet I would go into a panic mode.  I would think that the diet starts on Monday so I need to eat all the pizza I can now because I will not be “allowed” to eat it next week.  Every time I would go on a diet, I would feel as if I am about to deprive myself from being happy. My history has demonstrated to me that each and every time my diet would fail. This failure was because of the mind set I had going into the “event” called a diet.  The reason for the continuous cycle of diet failures was because I looked at a diet as a thing I had to do to only get to a certain weight.  I would set my goal on being 190 pounds and that would be the ending event and then my life could get back to normal and the diet would end.  Hence, every single "diet" has been a failure.

Here I sit, at the beginning of another weight loss journey and there is a difference this time around.  I have decided to not look at this "diet" as an event.  I have taken the mind set that it is something I must assimilate in to fiber of my existence.  At the risk of sounding corny I have come to realize that it needs to be more of a "live-it".  The term even sounds a bit flaky to me and I have heard it time and time again.  Here is a case in point…  I go on a diet and feel as if I will not be able to stop at the golden arches of McDonalds.  I love McDonalds for more than just the food, I really enjoy the convenience.  As I drive down the road to work I realize I did not get up early enough to take the time for a proper breakfast.  I see the golden arches in the distance.  As I approach I would start to feel deprived that I was passing the forbidden zone, and had to go hungry.  This is the mind set of a diet but not that of a live-it.  Why can’t I stop and get something to eat at McDonalds?  To think that everything there was unhealthy was the pattern of my thought process that has set me up for failure.  There are only so many times a person would be deprived and go hungry before the diet would result in yet another failure. 

Let’s try it again.  I am driving down the road. I know I have to go to work, and I need to eat something since I am late for work.  I know that next time I will change my ways and allow myself the time to prepare a better meal, but at this point in time I have to tame the beast that is roaring in my stomach that says feed me!.  What do I do to sedate the urge of the barking belly beast?  I would stop and get the Egg McMuffin and water and move on.  This may not seem like a great diet choice but that is what a diet is all about.  It is a series of choices that begins from the moment you awaken for the new day.  If you chose to not prepare a well balanced home made selection that is a choice that led you to the golden arches.   Now that you are at the arches you are faced with your next choice.  Do I choose the deluxe breakfast with 1380 calories or will I be willing to get by with the Egg McMuffin©?    I for one would prefer to not be hungry and since the only answer in this scenario is McDonalds.  I would choose the better of two evils and resolve to wake up earlier tomorrow and have a bowel of Raisin Bran Cereal.  I would eat the McMuffin and move on and not moan and groan about how I broke my diet.  It does not mean the end of the world it is not the end of my diet because I have resolved to change my lifestyle and live a new and healthier way. 

The point of issue here is that a diet does not have to be an exercise in deprivation.  For a diet to work it has to alter your total perception of your existence.  You can no longer float through life and eat what corporation X has put in your food.  You need to make concrete adjustments in not only what you place on your tongue, you need to change your habits.  It is a lot like quitting smoking cigarettes.  There are habits in play and you need to recognize them, break them and move on.  You need to not only educate yourself; you need to bring this education into your reality.  If you want to lose weight you need to do more than just want it, you need to act.  You need to realize and accept that you gained the weight over a long period of time and it will not be gone by the beach season next month.  You need to make the changes in your life for the long term that will take your weight loss from what is a "diet", to what is a lifestyle.  Your weight not only affects yourself, but those around you.  You can not eat in a vacuum and you cannot force people to join you.  This is another problem you must overcome.  If your spouse hinders your diet and this upsets you do not worry, chances are statistically, your overweight partner will die before you.  If you really love your overweight spouse this is something you should do together because if you do not you will end up alone.  Who would allow a loved one to die alone, if they had a choice?  This is yet another choice in weight loss journey.  You must take into account that in order to be the person you want to be you need to take action to change your habits and change your lifestyle to change your life.  If you want to lose 100 pounds it may take a year if it is done properly.  How motivated are you?  Are you ready to change your mind set, your lifestyle?   Or are you just ready to go on another diet? 

You can't change the choices you made in your weight loss journey of the past. You only have the ability to start from the moment that is currently ticking on the clock. You, as everyone else, only can affect your future and your future begins with right now. You can change what you do now and are powerless to change what you did yesterday. Take a moment and put away the shame of your past and resolve to make a change for your future. You future begins now because NOW is all you can really ever have.

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