MAKING THE CHANGE FROM 'DESIRE' TO 'REALITY'

It’s been said that the epidemic or plague of our times is the obesity  problem.   According to the most recent statistics, about 1 in 3 people reading these lines is obese.  And if they are all Mississippians, then it may very well be more than that.  

The fundamental equation that must be mastered in order to lose weight is the formula that says you expend (burn) more calories than you take in (eat).  Pure and simple.  The end.  How one goes about mastering this is varied but will always involve one or a combination of the following changes in diet, activity or movement, behavior, lifestyle, and desire.  How some are motivated and able to achieve this while others, wishing to do so, don’t even get started is something of a mystery in itself.  The ratio of people desiring to weigh less to those who actually achieve lower weight levels is quite high.  I’m not sure what
that ratio is but I would think it would be quite high.  

The psychology of motivation is an interesting one but for the most part boils down to meaning.  What you and I weigh today has meaning for us on a conscious and subconscious level.  Also, the meaning that our weight has for us today is also the result of the equilibrium that we have achieved in the calories we take in and the calories we burn off, also a function of meaning.

It’s something of a mystery, I think for most people, as to what your weight, and for that matter your appearance and physical fitness, means to you.  But at the point the meaning you have today truly changes to something else, is the point at which you convert wishful thinking into true desire.  And it’s at this psychological juncture that you have crossed over to the path that can create for you a ‘new you,’ in whatever area of life you wish this ‘new you’ to become. 

There are various techniques and methods espoused as to changing desire into material reality.  They all have to do with creating awareness: meditation, yoga, affirmation statements, prayer, group meetings, are a few.  If you are not aware, then change for the better or worse, will not come forth.  The more aware and the more attention you give a problem, the more likely and quicker the solution will come.

While there are various methods of transmuting desire into reality, the following six-step technique described below has been around in one form or another for many years and has been proven to be successful in achieving change in other areas of life, but here it’s modified to apply to weight loss.  It works ONLY if you apply it as it is recommended.

So to you who are obese and have crossed over from that line that
distinguishes the wishful thinker from the person who now has a steely desire to make a real change in their life, I share the following hoping it helps you to one day look down as you step upon your digital bathroom scale and see the number that represents for you a weight that is not obese, or not even overweight, but a number that says back to you, “Congratulations, Baby, you did it!  You really did it!”

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Step 1: Fix in your mind the exact amount of weight loss you desire.  It is not sufficient merely to say “I want to lose a lot of weight.”  Be definite as to the amount.  (There is a psychological reason for this.)
Step 2: Determine exactly what you intend to give, as well as what you intend to do in the way of food intake, eating habits, activity, lifestyle and behavior in return for the weight loss you desire and the weight you wish to achieve.  (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.”)
Step 3: Establish a definite date by which you intend to achieve the weight loss you desire.
Step 4: Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Step 5: Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of weight you intend to lose, name the time limit in which you intend to lose the weight, state what you intend to give in return for losing the weight, and describe clearly the plan by which you intend to lose this weight.
Step 6: Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning.  As you read -- see and feel and believe yourself already weighing the goal weight you have set for yourself.