How 'Bout Those Resolutions?

We're one week into the new year, so how's it going so far?  I read an article that said, according to research, many people don't have the willpower to make their New Year's resolutions last longer than a week.  A week . . . which means that there are some people whose resolutions are already starting to weaken or have even collapsed.  

I hope that doesn't apply to anybody here!  I do know that successfully losing weight (and maintaining it!) requires a lot more than what is usually found in a New Year's resolution.  Most of my past New Year's resolutions were mostly wishful thinking with very little resolve to be found.  I know that's true because they rarely lasted a full week.  

The research identified the reason for failure as a lack of willpower, but I disagree.  Willpower really has nothing to do with it, because we almost always end up doing the things we really want to do.  We just need to decide what it is that we want and keep what we want in focus. 

When I decided that what I really wanted was to get to a healthy weight, that became my focus and there was a level of resolve that hadn't been there before.  Foods that had formerly been huge temptations suddenly became obstacles to me getting what I really wanted.  The food hadn't changed, of course, but my focus had and I wanted health far more than I wanted the food.  To be honest, I still wanted the food, and sometimes it was really, REALLY hard to walk away from it, but I was able to walk away because there was something else I wanted even more.

I've often heard people say that they can't lose weight because they don't have enough willpower.  Sorry, but that's a cop-out!  The truth is that they just don't want it bad enough, at least not yet.

The good news is that Take Shape for Life is designed to get us what we really want - if we really want to get to a healthy weight - and it will get us there pretty quickly.  We just have to decide if that's what we really want.  Once we decide, we'll make choices that support that decision.  Once again, decide what you want, then choose wisely :-)