Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 1647 of 3212

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Hi Debbie,

Keep the goals as few, short term, realistic, and
precise as possible, and stick with what it's in your
power to directly control. Remember Ben Franklin, who
only concentrated on one virtue at a time. Who are we
to be more ambitious? And don't trade off one of these
desiderata for another. 12 pounds in 6 weeks is
precise and not unrealistic, but it's something you
control only indirectly through your behavior. A
behavioral goal, "strict days on habit," will work
better. That's completely, directly under you control,
there can be no "stab in the back" of metabolism or
whatever not cooperating or making subtle
rearrangements. If you're strict for 6 weeks there's
no question you'll lose weight. The trick is how best
to stay motivated, and for this, "days on habit" is a
much better metric than pounds. No inaccurate and
clumsy machine is going to tell you "you actually
weren't strict yesterday, even though you were." Don't
timidly ask a scale for approval every morning. Demand
success through your behavior. Get a calendar and
start slashing out the days. You're a convict in the
prison of habit, but just 3 weeks good behavior will
get you out.

Hang in there Deb, we need you around to keep kicking
everybody else's ass,

Reinhard