Every year millions of people around the world start diets and the majority of them give up within a few days or weeks, leading to feelings of failure and disappointment.
It is easy to start but it takes some mental effort to keep going, but it is easier to stick to your diet if you have had a light bulb moment.
Most people start a diet to lose weight to look better and to feel better about themselves. Unfortunately this only works long term for the most dedicated or the severely vain.
Failures tend to erode our self-confidence making each successive attempt less and less likely to be successful.
The light bulb moment is when you discover a reason for maintaining your diet that is so important that you can overcome all of your past failures and all your subconscious resistance, and simply just turn your diet into a lifestyle.
8 Such reasons as:
- A serious health diagnosis.
- Feeling left out of some activity because of weight or fitness.
- Requirements for a great job.
- Revenge
- Special occasions.
- For a special holiday.
- Energy for children or grandchildren.
- Fear of aging.
- The need for wellness to care for others.
Of course there is one other very important consideration, it is that you have chosen a diet which makes sense, is sustainable and promotes health and not just weight loss. One celebrity lost weight by eating only potatoes for a year but the health consequences would be considerable.
The question is what is your light bulb moment where you realise that if you don’t take action you will lose out, or suffer, or pay a big price. And a simple way to make it stronger is to stack up two or more of these reasons.
Each extra reason will boost your commitment and by the time you get four or more you will have the power to push through any physical or emotional resistance.
The only problem is if we ignore these light bulb moments. Unfortunately this happens all the time, after all by the time a person becomes overweight or unfit they have ignored many such signals.
It is said that for many people the first sign of a heart attack is the heart attack itself. But I would challenge this. By the time of the heart attack there will have been many warning light bulbs, don’t let this happen to you.
