Master
The 5 Must-Do's Of Dieting
From
eDiets - The online diet, fitness, and healthy living resource
The summer issue of
Spirituality and Health magazine arrived at my home this week. This is
my first experience with the magazine and I found it stimulating. In fact it
provoked the idea for this article. I hope you find this information as useful
as I have.
Matthew Cross (wonderful name) wrote an
article about Hoshin -- I have applied his sentiments to the issue of weight
loss. His work can be useful for looking at any area of your life, but I
couldn’t resist the obvious application to our favorite subject.
Hoshin is a practice inspired by Edwards
Deming, the Total Quality Management guru. It helps corporate teams “break
through apparent chaos to find a hidden higher order and direction.” Cross
has taken that system and applied it to the life and issues of an
individual.
In Cross’ system the participant is
asked to look at eight important areas of her/his life: Health, Love Life,
Spiritual, Work, Life Purpose, Family, Financial, Joy and Fun. Each area can be
rated on a satisfaction scale of 1 (low) to 10 (perfect). Then a question is
formulated based on any area that the participant chooses. For this purpose, I
have chosen health in the form of weight loss.
“What are the key issues that must be
addressed in order for me to achieve/enjoy great success/fulfillment in my
weight loss goals?
After writing the question, we are
instructed to write "five diverse answers to our focus question." Cross
suggests that we "test each answer with our heart." If the answer does not lift
or inspire or move us in any way, we can drop it and substitute another more
effective one.
Why don’t you try it right now? Assume
that the question above is yours. Now see if you can write five useful and/or
meaningful answers to it. Each answer begins with the words “I must”
as in, "if I am going to achieve success in my weight goals, I must...
1. I
must-------------------------------
2. I
must-------------------------------
3. I
must-------------------------------
4. I
must-------------------------------
5. I
must-------------------------------
Once you have your list of five answers,
you will need to arrange them in order of importance. Cross then goes into a
rather complicated process that I will not explore here, but the essence of it
is this: Look at how each answer is related to every other answer. As you
explore the relationships between answers you will probably discover that your
priority list was not accurate. Some answers are now seen in a better light and
need to be placed higher in importance.
Now forget about Cross and Hoshin for a
moment and look at YOU. I assume that you made a list of five answers. If you
did not do that yet, then consider making a copy of this article and do the
exercise later. It will be worth your effort particularly if you are serious
about your weight loss.
Here is a clue and a suggestion for a
successful list of answers to the “I must” above. Make seven answers.
Two of them should be “eat differently” and exercise more.” That
will get the obvious out of the way. Now give the list some serious and
creative thought.
Look deep inside yourself and discover what
your heart is telling you to do. I am certain you will be inspired. If you
are not inspired, you have the wrong answers! There are at least five great
answers that will make a substantial contribution to your weight loss goals and
you have ALL of them in your own heart.
In my experience, most weight-challenged
persons do not look deep enough for the real answers to their weight loss
difficulties. They tend to look to the “experts” for guidance and
neglect their own inner wisdom. Now, I love experts (of course) but even we can
be wrong sometimes. Ultimately, you have to be the final authority regarding
what works for you.
So I encourage you to spend some quality
time searching for your own particular answers to the five “I musts”
above. You will probably be both surprised and inspired. Then make a plan to
act on each answer in a way that makes a difference in your life and weight
loss.
Inspiration combined with meaningful
action is a life-changing combination. Your long-term weight loss will be
one of the many gifts that arise out of your efforts.
Matthew Anderson, D. Min., is a
counselor, organizational consultant and seminar leader. He lives and works in
Boca Raton, Florida. To ask Dr. Anderson a question, write him at
mattcoyote@aol.com. eDieters can also
join Dr. Anderson for his weekly chat each Tuesday at noon. |
