Manage Yourself to Success!

Would you choose to invest in a company that didn’t bother with the necessary bookkeeping to keep track of their sales, expenditures, and other related business data necessary create and maintain a thriving venture? Not likely!

Similarly "self-monitoring" the key behaviors necessary for weight loss, has long been shown to correlate with successful weight loss (and maintenance).

Weight loss (or more precisely, transitioning to the healthy lifestyle that results in weight loss) is a substantial and challenging project to manage. “Self-monitoring” or “record keeping” is the tracking of your diet and physical activity so you can use that information to problem-solve and manage your project effectively.

Tracking your behaviors this way focuses you on what you are doing in relation to your behavioral goals and objectives. It also forms a foundation for problem-solving the barriers that seem to block better eating and activity habits.

Key Point: The scale dropping is not a behavioral goal… behaviors are things that YOU DO. The scale dropping is the result of consistently engaging in the behaviors that create the desired outcome "weight loss."

The main pattern you are typically up against is one of “avoidance.” Avoidance of looking at, and problem-solving, how to shift from a current pattern of behavior toward a new healthier pattern of behavior. What you are looking for is incremental improvement, that you then continue to build on—not getting from A to Z (behavior-change wise) overnight!

Putting off healthy choices in eating and activity—the “I’ll start my diet tomorrow,” or, “I’ll get back on track tomorrow,” pattern is the hallmark of “avoidance.”

By choosing to monitor your behaviors through record keeping you put in place the key behavioral foundation for success in weight management.

Best,
-Dorene

For more on this topic also see:
What happens to your good intentions?
10 Reasons Why Record Keeping is Invaluable in Weight Management.
Would your food records look like a crime scene?