The people who know things and research stuff tell us that the majority of us have broken our New Year’s resolutions by the last week of January.
For many people, the good intentions have waned and they have found out that when they said, “I should do this,” they were actually saying, “I have no intentions of doing this.”
It’s the word ‘should’ that creates the problem here and has to be replaced with ‘I will.’
It’s not easy.
You’re driving home and you know you have a Tupperware container in the fridge containing carrots and celery sitting beside a piece of leftover chicken from last night and some nice cold bottles of water.
“I should go home and have that for dinner,” you say.
But at every red light there is a fast food place that is offering a bacon covered, double patty burger with a side of fries dripping in grease and salt and a large ice cold cup of soda pop.
It’s right there.
You should go home, but all you have to do is turn on your signal, go through the drive thru and you can have it all eaten before you get home.
No one will know the difference, if you haven’t spilled anything down the front of your shirt.
My doctor suggested I lose some pounds as one step to reducing my blood pressure. I decided to go about it sensibly and set a goal date of my birthday in March.
I said, “I will lose the required amount of weight by the first week of March.” I was doing OK until someone pointed out that next week is February already so, more carrots, less of the stuff that tastes good.
A friend of mine got into trouble at Christmas.
His wife had told him she wanted to wake up Christmas morning and see something in the driveway that would go from zero to two hundred in four seconds, so he bought her a bathroom scale.
He is still alive but he walks funny now.
I mention that because I needed a new bathroom scale. The one I have was purchased at a garage sale about four years ago.
It still has the little bright green, round sticker that says $1. But it is old technology and when you step on it, springs and gears start whirring and the needle on the dial bounces 50 pounds each way before it settles down.
It is hard to read without my glasses and I leave them off because of the added weight. I don’t wear rings or a watch either.
When you are on a weight loss program, a little swing one way or the other is cause for either elation or depression.
My new scale has a larger platform to stand on, a bright blue digital readout that I can see without bending down, and it has the tenths on it as well which is also encouraging some mornings when you can see the rice cakes you devoured have allowed you to lose one tenth of a pound since yesterday.
It’s still early in the year.
Re-adjust your thinking, set new goals and start saying, ‘I will’ instead of saying ‘I should.’
Take over the management of your mind and body and do what is right for you, not what some paid spokesperson on TV says you should do.
At least that’s what McGregor says.