Love to Eat? So Do I!

I've had several friends lament to me that they want to lose weight, but they just love to eat. Well, hello--I love to eat, too! How do you think I got to be 25 lbs. overweight? In order to lose the weight, I didn't stop eating or curb my love of food. It took a major mind shift to get me to the point where I was in charge of what I ate, rather than vice versa.

Once you're committed to getting healthy, losing weight and looking better, saying no to that second helping will get much easier. Instead of living to eat, you'll eat to live better. It sounds trite, but it's true. I can always tell when someone is not ready to change their eating habits and lifestyle for life: they come up with lots of excuses: "I can't stop eating off my kids' plates," "But I get so HUNGRY after dinner," "I can't avoid cookies when they're in the house." I'm not saying these aren't problems. But finding a way to solve them without eating what they shouldn't is not their top priority.

To be truly successful at weight loss FOR LIFE--that is, losing the weight and maintaining it--you need to change the way you think about food. Not that you won't ever again be tempted by a croissant or a Dove bar, but you'll figure out ways to have those things without blowing your eating plan. Staying healthy and fit and maintaining your weight loss will become your true goal and inner philosophy--you'll finally be in control, instead of feeling helpless about food. Doesn't that sound like a plan?

But you have to be ready to commit to that. It's like exercising a new muscle, one that gets stronger each time you work it. And once you do, there will be no stopping you, no matter how many uneaten French fries are staring you in the face.