Interested or Committed?

"There is a difference between interest and commitment.  When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permits.  When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results."

I've written before about the difference between being interested in doing something (like losing weight) and committing to doing it, but I like the way this quote sums it up.  It's really true, when you stop and think about it.

To be honest, quotes like this one used to make me mad, especially as it related to weight loss.  I really thought I was committed to losing weight - goodness, I tried every new diet that came out!  Didn't that prove how committed I was to losing weight?  I sure thought so!

What I understand now is that up until I finally started on Take Shape for Life, I was just interested in losing weight, not committed to doing so.  I was interested and as long as nothing came up in my life, I was fairly compliant with whatever plan I was on and dutifully counted the obligatory calories, carbs, fat grams or points.  I was really pretty good, at least until something came up.  The problem, of course, was that something ALWAYS came up!  It was almost impossible to get through an entire week without SOMETHING coming up.  We'd go out to dinner with friends or our Bible study group would meet and there would be a homemade dessert or the kids would want to come over for pizza or . . . you get the idea.  Throw in a fair amount of stress (after all, I couldn't be expected to stay on a program when I was stressed, could I?) and a busy schedule that sometimes had me grabbing a meal at a fast-food drive-through and I was almost always more "off" than I was "on" any program I'd ever tried.  I was interested in losing weight all right, but I was only interested in doing something as long as it was easy and there were no obstacles of any kind in my way.

How frustrating that life is always throwing obstacles in our way!  If we're only interested in losing weight, those obstacles will trip us up over and over again.

However, when we're committed to losing weight, it's amazing how our attitude changes.  We see the excuses for what they are - excuses - and we're focused on results.  Once we know what we want, we figure it out.  I've seen this happen over and over again.

Are you interested in getting to a healthy weight or are you committed to reaching your goal?  If you're committed - if you've made the fundamental choice to get there - then the choices you face become much easier because you will make the choices necessary to get you where you want to be.  What do you want?  Be honest with yourself as you answer that question, then choose wisely :-)