My sister-in-law is a dietitian and was talking to a doctor one day about weight loss. He told her that generally, when he tells his patients to lose weight, they don't follow his advice. They don't change their daily routine to fit in exercise and they don't change their eating habits. And the next time they go to the doctor they either way the same or even more.
This may come as a shock that people are ignoring their doctor's warnings, since doctors only tell people to lose weight because they want them to avoid a slew of negative outcomes: diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attacks, and other problems. I know from talking to my clients that before they lost weight, they lived with a looming fear in the back of their minds that they could spontaneously have a heart attack one day and die. But that fear didn't equate to a strong motivation and actions to change. Why not?
One day seems like it will never come. One day you may get diabetes and one day you might have to take medication for it. It's different than, if you don't exercise today, you will suffer major consequences today! The reason that fear doesn't motivate well is that people become complacent and feel like they are getting by well enough. Maybe they don't consider their situation ideal, but it is not uncomfortable enough for them to get moving and make a change. They figure that to start changing their habits today would be more uncomfortable and inconvenient than just doing the same old same old.
So if fear doesn't motivate, what does? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, that will be about the BEST way to motivate yourself to adopt healthier habits.
To read FREE chapters from the book Stop Overeating Today!, visit www.stopovereatingtips.com
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