Putting on Weight

I remember last year in June when i was fat, REALLY fat. My weight was about 80kg at that time. When i saw those numbers, I was shocked! Man! I'm so heavy now, I'd better do something about it. That was the time when i decided I have to lose weight. I managed to lose 8Kgs by the end of that month. Some of my friends in school have been asking me how i lost weight.

Firstly, you must have the motivation to cut down the fat and lose weight. Without this, you might give up half way through the losing weight process. I followed a book on losing weight - The Lean Body Promise "Burn Away Fat and Release the Leaner, Stronger Body Inside You" written by Lee Labrada. The picture on the ook is on the right. I did not really follow the exercises on the book but i did follow through the motivations and diet. So most of the information is listed in the book. I bought this book at HARRIS Bookstore for SGD$11.90. Considered quite cheap for a thick book.

Here is one of the thins that is in the Chapter: The Motivation - Overcoming the Ties That Bind:

Imagine that you're standing in a room between two walls. You're facing a wall that we're doing to call "desired outcome". Maybe that wall has an image of you at 20 pounds lighter and three dress or pant sizes smaller. A healthier, happier, leaner you. You very much want to reach that wall. The wall behind you? That's called "the way things are".

What do you do to reach the desired outcome? You walk towards it. But wait; there's a catch. Seems there's a large elastic band around your waist tethering you to the wall behind you. Every time you step toward your desired outcome, the band stretches and the tension increases, trying to pull you back to the way things are. You want to reach that desired outcome so badly, but that blasted band is getting tighter and tighter and tighter...

Anytime you try to break out of an old habit, there's a certain amount of negative tension that tries to pull you bac toward that old habit. That's because your mind is like a cranky grandfather: it has an internal resistence to change. It's simply more comfortable to have things pegged. That wall behind you? It's familiar turf. Safe. Understandable.

The wall behind you is made of a number of routines we call habits. Good or bad, these habits become hardwired into our psyche by rote, and it's uncomfortable to break ut of them. To change our habits, we have to consciosly work hard for it. Even when we succeed, we then have to make sure we replace them with something else - good habits.

The lesson here is that when you have a desired outcome and work toward it, you're going to initially have internal resistence. If you keep at it, however, you will evetually reach the point where your positive actions will overpower the negative tension. The rubber band will snap, and you'll go flying toward your desired outcome, hopefully not too hard.

That's what motivation boils down to: countering the negative tension that tries to pull you back with positive action to propel you forward.