The God-of-The-Right-Frame-of-Mind

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“Why is getting in the right frame of mind the key to achieving weight loss results?” 

By starting that question with the word “why,” the person who asked it was conveying two things to me:

1. That he thought it to be a fact; and
2. That he assumed I agreed with him.

I didn’t, and I don’t.

For those who are perpetually over-fat and chronically dieting — and who, during the period of time between stopping a quick-fix shtick and re-starting another one, lull themselves into believing they’re happy being fat — it’s not about waiting to get into the right frame of mind or becoming “ready” to do anything about their weight. In my experience, most don’t get into the right frame of mind all by their lonesome. No. Instead, it’s almost always a major event in their life — heart attack, stroke, cancer, onset of diabetes, etc. — that is the wake-up slap in the face they wait for (and, I’m amazed at how many of those who do experience these events still aren’t “ready” . . . yet). When I hear this from someone at the consultation, I’ll flat out ask them, “What are you waiting for? Your next stroke? The one that perhaps leaves you paralyzed?” Or “When will you be in the right frame of mind? . . . when the diabetes turns into Type 1 and you’re on insulin?” “ . . . when the cancer returns and takes your other breast?”

Anyone waiting for the God-of-The-Right-Frame-of-Mind to appear in a vision will be waiting a long, long, loooong time. These folks need to own up to the fact that their fat is doing nothing for them, and they must lose weight whether they’re ready or not. They’re not going to wake up one morning, hop out of bed and say, “That’s it. I’m fat, I’m fed up and I’m in the right of frame of mind to go on a diet” — and then proceed to be 100% driven, focused, disciplined and achieve weight loss goals successfully, all in a straight line. It just doesn’t happen.

No one who has been battling excessive weight and eating issues, who has had no self-imposed restrictions on what or how much they eat or drink, ever looks gleefully forward to going through the emotional process of diet and lifestyle change. No one. But being fat, unhappy, unhealthy and uncomfortable; with your world becoming smaller as you become larger; and with the prospects of becoming immobile and dependent on others as you age — existing rather than living — should be the catalyst to at least start.

“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready . . .  we shall never begin.” ~ Ivan Turgenev

Weight loss success (just as with any addictions you want to conquer or bad habits you want to change) is a series of small steps, and you have to start before you’re ready.