What You Must Give Up

Here's how it usually works: We rip a diet plan out of a magazine or newspaper and post it on the fridge. We go out and buy some of the ingredients on the list (arugula, grapefruit) and vow to ourselves that we will stick with the 7-Day Miracle Plan. By day 2, we are rediscovering why we normally never buy arugula and by day 3 we are saying "The diet has failed."

The problem here actually isn't the diet plan. The problem is we went into the process, once again, with our same bag of attitudes and assumptions that we've always carried.

To succeed at getting fit, you and I both may need to give up the following ideas:

#1 That our bodies are special or different.
Across the planet, across the species, human beings are very much the same from the skeleton in. We all need 1500-2500 calories a day (not too many fewer and not too many more) to survive and be healthy. Calories in must be fewer than calories out if we want to lose weight. If I eat fewer calories than I use, my body will get smaller. So will yours. Calorie deficit works for every single person over time.

#2 Sooner or later, weight loss will become fast, easy and fun.
While I love some forms of exercise, you simply may not find your fitness niche. And as for food management--cheesecake versus spinach? Come on! There's no contest. It has taken most of us years, even lifetimes of making easy choices, of choosing fun over healthier options. Waiting for the day that the FDA will finally approve the magic pill (and no, Alli is NOT it!) means several more years of depression, self-disgust and stagnation.

#3 Exercise is something you do to burn off a few extra calories--it's better just to putter in the garden.
Exercise is like brushing your teeth--it is a mandatory part of personal hygiene. Healthy people with a healthy weight and no health risks should exercise most days of the week for about 20 minutes a day. If you carry a extra pounds, your body needs more exercise. Physical activity is not optional for anyone.

#4 Knowledge is critical for weight loss.
This is my personal bugaboo. After all, I'm an expert in the field of fitness! I have so many facts about fat loss stuffed into my brain and a library full of books on the subject. By virtue of the sheer volume of fitness material I know, the calories should melt themselves under the weight of it all. Facts, however, only take you so far. My body, just like yours, follows the calories in/calories out rules. Success for me and for you comes from implementing relatively simple plans and returning to those plans on the days when cheesecake wins out over spinach. Even if you don't know a thing about losing weight, you can still take daily walks and shed the pounds. Even if you don't know the calorie counts of your food, you can still ask yourself "Is my body truly hungry?" before taking a bite.

Which of these attitudes are crawling around in your subconscious, sabotaging your ability to make rational choices? For me, the very phrase "rational choices" sometimes makes me feel petulant, rebellious and cranky.

But at the end of the day, the very truths I kick against strengthen and support me. After all, my body works! The problems I have maintaining a healthy lifestyle are almost exclusively in my mind. And that, I can change.

You can, too.