Diet Tips
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
MARTHA, REBECCA and JACKIE
MARTHA
Martha is 29 years old, 5 feet 2 inches in height and weighs 165 pounds.
Which makes her about 30 pounds overweight.
She wants to get down to about 130 pounds, but she never will.
Why not? (gulp)
Because Martha has a big problem.
She thinks she’s PERFECT.
Every time she starts a new diet she expects to follow it perfectly.
So when she has a bad week and ‘fails’ to lose weight, she can’t cope.
She thinks to herself: “I’ve failed again. I’m useless! I’ll never do it.”
The guilt she feels because she has failed is too much to bear.
So she gives up.
In January, Martha is going to try again. But the same thing will happen.
Poor old Martha.
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REBECCA
Rebecca is another dieter with the same problem.
Each time she starts a diet she thinks to herself:
This is it!
This time I’m REALLY going to do it.
This time I’m DEFINITELY going to avoid ALL bad things.
This time I’m not going to stop until I’m REALLY slim.
Unfortunately, 4-5 weeks into her diet, she has a bad day.
Followed swiftly by a bad week.
How does Rebecca react?
She does exactly what Martha does!
She feels disgusted with herself.
“I’m a useless piece of rubbish ” she says.
“I’ll never lose weight.”
And once again she gives up.
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MISS PERFECT SYNDROME
Martha and Rebecca are not unusual.
There are millions of other people just like them.
They all suffer from Miss Perfect Syndrome.
And until they are cured, they will never be successful.
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MISS IMPERFECT
Now meet Jackie.
Jackie used to be a Miss Perfect.
But she managed to cure herself.
Result? She has just lost 40 pounds.
She still has another 15 pounds to go, but she’s not worried.
Because now that she’s not a Miss Perfect, dieting has become so much
easier.
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HOW TO STOP BEING A MISS PERFECT
Basically, it’s a mental thing.
When you start a new diet, DON’T SAY something like:
“This time, I’m REALLY going to do everything right.”
This is a shoot-yourself-in-the-head sort of thing to say.
It’s a fairy story.
It’s asking for trouble.
Instead, DO SAY something like:
- I’m certain to make mistakes. But that’s normal.
- I’m certain to have bad days or weeks. But so what?
- I’m certain to go off the rails, so I’m going to plan how to cope.
- I’m certain to screw up, but all I do is go back on my diet afterwards.
- I’m not perfect, but it doesn’t matter.
- Mistakes don’t count – it’s how we RESPOND to them that counts.
Think about it.
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THE BOTTOM LINE (For a great bottom)
Perfection sucks!
Because if we think we’re perfect, then when (not if) we have a bad week,
we feel SO guilty, SO useless, SO helpless.
That we give up in disgust.
But if we KNOW we’re not perfect, then having a bad week is no big deal.
We just ride out the storm and go back on our diet afterwards.
Simple.