If you start that weight loss program, find the RIGHT support
As millions of Americans get ready for day one of their 2009 New Year’s resolution to lose weight, a compelling new survey conducted by ZoneDiet.com (founded by the amazing Dr. Barry Sears) shows some rather intriguing statistics about how we REALLY feel about the weight loss experience especially when we do it together with a friend or family member.
According to the survey, two thirds of Americans don’t mind sharing their dieting experience with another overweight or obese diet, but about the same number of people also believe the other person is lying about what they are eating. It is unclear from the survey why there is such skepticism and mistrust with people they know. But it does expose a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” mentality that exists in a lot of people when it comes to weight loss.
When I lost my weight in 2004, I did it alone–meaning I didn’t have anyone else losing weight with me. My wife Christine was there encouraging and loving me every step of the way as I melted away from 410 down to 230 pounds. But I didn’t have anybody to doubt whether they were eating what they claimed to be or not. Only myself and it’s very difficult to lie to yourself about what you put in your mouth!
Now, I suppose we can chalk this next set of survey findings up to The Biggest Loser phenomenon or something, but competition seems to be the name of the game when people start on a new diet. The survey shows that more than 60 percent of Americans say it would tick them off if their weight loss buddy lost more weight than they did. In other words, they want to have the friendly competition to motivate their success, but the don’t want to lose! At the same time, 70 percent of those surveyed expressed sympathy to their weight loss partner by saying it would upset them if the other person didn’t lose ANY weight at all.
While I didn’t have a formal “buddy” losing weight with me, I was a part of a competition on a local afternoon radio talk show in Greenville, South Carolina in 2004. Four other people were all competing to win an array of prizes valued at around $3,000 and we’d call in each month with our progress. I was disheartened to hear that two of the competitors dropped out after a couple of months, a third one quit at 5 months, and my final competitor was hospitalized on the day of the live public weigh-in. So, I won the contest simply by being the only one who showed up. But it didn’t hurt that I had lost 140 pounds in the nine months the contest ran either!
In my case, I would have been disappointed if one of the others I was competing against beat me just as all the contestants who go on The Biggest Loser probably hate it to get on the show and then not walk away with the big money. That’s a strange psychology, though, when there is no money or prizes on the line, though. Is it just a competitive nature thing or what? I would think this would be more true of men than women, but I know some women who are fierce competitors, too (just look at the past two winners on The Biggest Loser).
This is why having a quality support system in place is so essential when you start a new weight loss regimen. That is one reason why I started my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Discussion” forum to give people a safe haven to talk about their weight and health struggles in a friendly environment full of loving people ready to walk that journey with them. Me and my super-encouraging moderators (abnormalslc, Cartbabe, ChrissyLizzy, FormerDonutJunkie, Hogsfan, LindaSue, moonius, PatTee, and Sparkys Girl–THANKS guys, you are AWESOME!) stand ready to provide non-judgmental support to you regardless of what stage of livin’ la vida low-carb you happen to be in.
And we expect to see lots of new faces at the forum in the next week or so with a full 56 percent of Americans expected to try yet again to resolve to lose weight and get fit, according to the survey. However, as most people already know, the temptation to “fall off the wagon” for good is strong and a full 58 percent drop out in less than a month. Over three-fourths of those who quit their resolution to lose weight and get healthy say they must have a lack of willpower.
I’ve got a few things to say about this. Anyone who tries a weight loss program has to give it at least three months to see if it is effective or not. Giving up after only a few short weeks is a lame excuse and proves your heart really wasn’t in it to begin with. If this is something worth doing in your life, then you will commit yourself to it in your mind first which in the end will make you the success you deserve to be. One small screw-up isn’t worth ruining the investment you’ve made in yourself. Just pick yourself up and get back to it again.
Now, let me address this business about “willpower.” I don’t believe there is any such thing as willpower. Whoever thought of this concept in regards to weight loss was an absolute idiot. If all it took was strong willpower to make things happen, then I wouldn’t have gotten fat to begin with. Instead, I’m a BIG believer in people having a steadfast resolve to make smarter and better choices for the sake of their health and that will be the key to their success at losing weight or not (my fellow low-carb blogging friend Regina Wilshire also hit this topic about a year ago). Using a variation on that old high school football chant, “You got to want it to lose it and we want it bad!”
What about giving a weight loss gift? Have you ever gotten one of those? How did it go over with you? Well, according to the ZoneDiet.com survey, 44 percent of women wouldn’t mind getting a diet book or weight loss tool of some sort. But their male counterparts wouldn’t touch that topic with a ten-foot pole and you can’t blame them! Although, when the roles were reversed and my wife and her parents decided to get me a copy of Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution for Christmas 2003, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. And the rest, they say, is history.
The ZoneDiet.com survey was conducted via telephone interviews during the period of November 6 – 9, 2008. The survey included a national probability sample of 1,003 adults comprising of 503 men and 500 women 18 years of age or older, living in the Continental United States. The survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation with a margin of error of plus/minus 3.2 percentage points for the general population.
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! By all means, start livin’ la vida low-carb TODAY to be healthier than you’ve ever been in your entire life. And if you are making a resolution to lose weight, let me encourage you to find a proven plan that will work for you, follow that plan exactly as prescribed by the author of that plan, and then KEEP doing it to the end of your weight loss and forever thereafter. You’ll be beaming with success sooner than you even realize! YOU CAN DO IT!!!
