There are many misconceptions about obesity, such as most people can’t lose weight. The problem most Americans have is not losing weight, it’s keeping it off. However, just because most people aren’t successful maintaining a healthy weight doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
Just as the alcoholic in recovery knows it will take a daily effort for the rest of his life, so too must the overweight commit to daily weight management. Think changing your lifestyle, not going on a diet. Examine the choices you make, both in terms of what and how you eat. Too many healthy calories will still cause weight gain. Start today making healthy choices. As you do, start to see yourself as someone who makes healthy choices (even if you’re not actually experiencing good health yet). Congratulate yourself every time you make a healthy choice that you wouldn’t have made in the past. When I was a Weight Watchers leader, one of my favorite things to celebrate was when we chose to pass up food: the bowl of candy in the office, the banana bread a co-worker brought in, or our toddler’s half-eaten ice cream cone.
As you make healthy choices and change your thinking, your health will improve, most likely along with your mood and self-esteem. Then you can start to see yourself as a healthy person. With that identity, making healthy choices just becomes what you do naturally, because that’s who you are.