how to make a commitment
 

how try to make a commitment to myself, but it's like im a liar tomyself. how do i do it, like stick to it? i start thinking this is only me so who cares about it? how do i stop that?

You care . . . and you are the most important person in your life . . . and everybody at 3FC cares, too . . .

We are all in this together, Jasmine. All we can do for ourselves is our best and all we can do to support everyone else around here is really helping us to support ourselves, too.

You can do it, Chickie . . . :yes: you can. :hug:

I've had a lot of problems trusting myself again. After gaining back the 40lbs I lost a few years ago, its hard to trust yourself when you say you are going to try and lose it again. I consistantly made promise after promise to myself and I broke every one of them. Each time I did this, I lost faith in myself. The only way you are able to change your life and lose weight is to want it with everything you have. YOu can just kinda wanna change or it wont work. you have to put yourself into it completely and you are the only person who is able to make the judgement of how badly you truely want to change.

The best information I've gotten is to take things one step at a time and to start out slow with little successes so you can rebuild faith in yourself that you lost. The more you stick to what you say your going to do, the more likely you are to continue that in the future with bigger things

It's kind of hard to explain how you do it: you just....DO IT. I know that's not very helpful, but I went through years and years of NOT doing it and then something clicked and I just...did it. I got up every day and I made the choice to do the right thing for myself and for my health, and I can't begin to tell you how incredibly glad I am that I did. I'm your height, and at the beginning I weighed a bit more than you do now. Now I weigh about 160 and I'm a runner. My life is completely different and I'm honestly happier than I've ever been. Imagine if I hadn't made the choice to commit myself to those changes? All that time would've passed and I'd be right where I started. Don't do that to yourself. Make the right choices now, and after some time passes you'll be saying the same thing I am: I'm soooo glad I made the commitment to improving my life.

You know, that's a great question. As LisaMarie said, it really is hard to say HOW you make a commitment and stick to it.

I think part of it is making a commitment that's realistic for ourselves. I set exercise goals each month, but take care to think about what's going to work for me and how many minutes is realistic.

Also, a commitment without a plan is doomed to failure, too, I think. And maybe that gets back to the first part... Anyway, let's say you commit to eating a certain number of calories each day, but then don't figure out how you're going to do that. It might make more sense to plan out what foods you're going to eat and actually get to the store to get them and then, actually have them around when you need them.

A third thing that occurred to me was that commitment is great, but what happens if you do go "off plan"? Do you see it as though you have already broken your commitment to yourself, so why bother going further?? That kind of all or nothing thinking kills countless weight loss attempts.

Don't know if any of these ramblings help...

I have had a lot of problems at sticking with it myself. What I've found is that when I flub up, I stopped beating myself up and saying "I blew it" and I just let it be and picked the healthy eating back up as soon as I could. Forgiving myself was important because when I was angry at myself, I just ate more (I mean, that is part of why I am overweight in the first place: I eat when I am angry!). So, little by little, I picked up little good eating habits and pretty soon (fairly lately), I was getting it right! I don't have too many problems with committment anymore, when I mess up I am confident that I can and will get back on track. That helps a lot to have confidence in yourself.

Commitment is deciding on a course of action. Discipline is taking the actions you've committed to. Both are needed for success.

Some folks may have no trouble coming up with a plan, psyching themselves up for the challenge, etc. But, along comes the first thing they can't have because of their plan, and they fail at discipline.

It's best not to "beat oneself up" over slips, but at the same time, that shouldn't make slips "OK." We all have them, sure. We would rather we didn't.

So, decide! And then do! It's simple, but it's not easy. :yes: Many have reached their goals this way!

Jay

Jay -- Oh, great distinction between commitment and discipline. I sooo agree.