Goal tending is very important when you want to achieve something as significant as losing the weight.

So, once you set your goal at losing the weight, you’ll need to keep that goal safe; you’ll need to protect it and defend it as you move towards it. What does this mean? It means you’ll need to do whatever you need to do so it doesn’t slip away from you.

Tending to a goal is a very individual and personal matter, but here are 2 essential things to consider that will help you protect your goal. First, and very important, is to try and maintain an attitude of flexibility as you take the steps necessary to reach the goal. Being flexible means that you monitor your progress, see what you are doing that is working, and what you are doing that is not working. Then, if you can allow yourself to bend a bit, you can modulate your behavior accordingly. The more rigid you are as you try to lose the weight, the easier it is to give up at the first or second slip-up. Then, of course, that wonderful goal you set for yourself vanishes. Being flexible, making necessary adjustments as you go, will bring your goal ever more within your reach.

A second important category under goal protection is planning for things that will hinder you. If you don’t do this, your goal will elude you for sure. You must prepare yourself for potential impediments, because they are inevitable. Don’t assume things will go smoothly or easily, because they almost never do. Anticipating the bumps in the road and thinking about how to get over them will go a long way to help you close in on your desired weight-loss goal.

These are two examples of goal tending. You can decide what other things you need to do.

Losing the weight is your objective. Tend to this goal. You can do it, even though it’s in the future. Guard it with your life. Often, that’s what it takes.

DON’T SET YOUR GOAL AT LOSING A CERTAIN # OF POUNDS IN A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME. This never works out, because our bodies simply don’t operate that way. Losing the weight takes whatever time it takes, and you can’t force it to happen in a pre-set time frame.

DON’T PICK A DIET THAT SEEMS MUCH TOO STRICT TO YOU. This is a perfect storm--a recipe for sure failure. Even if a diet is wildly popular, if the food plan seems too hard to you right from the beginning, listen to your instincts and find something that feels more doable.

DON’T START DIETING TO PLEASE SOMEONE ELSE. This may sound trite to you--you’ve probably heard it many times. But it is as true a dieting principle as there is. You can’t lose the weight for someone else. You’ve got to have your own reasons. It’s the only way to be successful.

DON’T TRY TO DO TOO MUCH WHILE YOU ARE DIETING.  Losing the weight requires a great deal of effort and attention. If you take on too many other tasks and responsibilities at the same time you are engaged in a serious dieting effort, it is almost certain to interfere with dieting. Life doesn’t have to stop, but pick a time to start dieting when you are as free as possible from other very pressing demands.

DON’T MEASURE SUCCESS ONLY BY THE NUMBERS. Some weeks you may lose less some of the weight, or possibly none at all. So if you measure your progress only by # of pounds lost, you’ll be very disappointed. Instead, measure how you are doing by the learning that’s taking place--for example, how your eating behavior is changing, how you are learning to have a new relationship to food. These are the true measures of  weight-loss success.

“You know how hard it is for me to confront you, tell you the truth.”

“Well, the truth is, you’re hurting me. I don’t think you want to, or mean to, but you are”.

“Thank you for listening, for letting me look you in the eye. It’s helping me already, helping me to think straight about this. I’ve needed it for a long time”.

“I’ve been needing to tell you that I desperately want to lose the weight, and a lot of your undercover shenanigans really prevent me from doing it. I want you to stop it. Can’t you be on my side for once? Can’t you? It’s about time, don’t you think?”

“I’ve told you a thousand times, don’t bring all those junk foods into the house. It’s too hard for me.”

“Also, stop criticizing me so much. For heaven’s sake, I’m only human. I make mistakes like everyone else. Can’t you forgive and forget, live and let live? Really, I can’t take it any more”.

“And please don’t laugh at me for trying again. Don’t assume I just can’t do it, don’t think ‘there she goes again’-it’s not fair”.

“Please be with me, not aginst me, I beg you”.

Joanna stepped away from the full-length mirror and fell into a chair, exhausted, relieved, hopeful.

Can your genes tell you what diet to go on?

There’s a new study that has come out from Stanford University this week. This study found that if you take a test to see how you burn and store calories based on your individual genetic makeup, you can then find the weight-loss diet that matches you best. It seems that finally, you’ll know whether to go on a low-carb or a low-fat food weight-loss plan.

Some weight-loss experts are skeptical of this study. But Mindy Dopler Nelson, a nutritional biologist at Stanford who conducted the study, reports that women on diets matched to their genes lost about 5 times more weight than women on random diets.

This certainly sounds like an exciting approach for women who want to lose the weight. After all, genetic research is now leading to all sorts of new ideas and treatments for illnesses and lifestyle issues.

Here’s what Dr. Robert Eckel, former president of The American Heart Association says with regard to the new study: STICKING WITH A DIET IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT DIET YOU CHOOSE.

We wholeheartedly agree. You can be tested and tested until a diet is found that matches your physical makeup and your metabolism to a tee. But even the most perfect match-up won’t insure that you will be able to STAY on that diet, will it?

No, sticking to it is a wholly different matter. The diet counts, yes, but the crucial issue is whether or not you can stay with that diet. Because if you can’t, what good is the perfect weight-loss diet?

Let’s say that genetic testing is valid, and you go ahead to have it. Suppose it concludes that you just don’t metabolize carbohydrates well. You are convinced. you  even know from past experience this is true. Let’s say you even tried a low-carb diet before and it seemed to work well.

So how come you’re not thin? Either you couldn’t stick with it, or after the diet you went back to your old ways and gained it back. These are the 2 MOST IMPORTANT factors in weight-loss success and long-term maintenance of that success. These are the issues that must be addressed, even when you go on the most perfect diet of all.

Sticking to it and maintaining are behavioral/emotional/psychological matters. There’s no getting around it.

Do you know your whole dieting alphabet? It pays to. It's your best friend and companion on the way to weight-loss success. So learn it and keep it with you at all times.

If you are just learning the alphabet for the first time, it could take lots of practice before you can put it to good use. If, like so many women, you've known your alphabet for years but had trouble remembering to use it, then here's another chance to see what it can do for you.

So go to it!