Motivation for Permanent Change

In Dr. A's Habits of Health (a fabulous book written by Take Shape for Life's co-founder and Medifast's medical director, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen), Dr. Andersen writes "Change motivated by conflict will always be temporary; change motivated by desired outcomes can lead to permanent change."  His point is that to make change permanent, we need to move from solving a problem to creating something in our lives.

When I started my weight loss plan, I was trying to solve a couple of problems - my obesity and my diabetes.  My blood sugar returned to normal within one week of starting the program, so that "problem" began to improve almost immediately.  Week by week, as I saw the pounds melt off and I dropped size after size, the pain of obesity began to ease.  Had my focus remained on solving my problems, I'm not sure I would have ever reached my goal.  By the time I'd lost 60 pounds and was 200 pounds, I looked and felt a LOT better.  I was out of women's sizes and my blood sugar remained normal.  I was pretty tired of being on plan and I remember toying with the idea of quitting.  I remember walking through the grocery store, loading my cart with lean protein and my greens while smelling great things from the bakery.  I took note of all of the people pushing carts loaded with very Medifast-unfriendly food, and many of these people were quite a bit heavier than I was.  I remember being mad that I was still on such a restrictive plan while other people were eating all of the "fun stuff," and I began to rationalize.  I was 55, I had 4 grandchildren, I was wearing size 16, and I momentarily thought that where I was at was good enough.

Thankfully, I came out of that thinking pretty quickly, before I allowed it to take me down a road I didn't want to take.  What brought me back and kept me moving forward was a vision I had in my mind of being at a healthy weight and wearing a small size.  I imagined the joy at finally reaching my goal, and I knew if I stopped short of my goal I would feel like I had settled for less than what I really wanted.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I had done exactly what Dr. A wrote about - I moved from solving a problem to creating something in my life.  My focus was on moving forward towards something I wanted rather than moving away from something I didn't want.  Ultimately, that made all of the difference for me.

It still makes a difference.  My focus now is on continuing on the path to optimal health.  Optimal health looks different for each of us, but I have a clear vision in my mind of what optimal health is for me.  As long as I stay focused on what I want to create in my life, I am motivated to make the choices necessary to continue moving forward.

Today we each have to choose if we're going to look back at what brought us to this program, or if we're going to look forward at what we want to create in our lives.  I'd rather create than problem solve - how about you?  Creating something new and wonderful in your life will happen one day, one meal and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)