It seems obvious that, if you feel the need to get into shape, you don’t enjoy being out of shape! Whatever it is that’s bothering you now, you want things to be different in the future.

But the real question is,

How much do you really want, what you say you want?

It is well-recognised that the intensity of your desire will determine the size of the obstacles you will overcome. If you have a strong, burning desire to achieve your goal, no obstacle will obstruct your way for long. But, if your desire is weak, there are obstacles ahead that could stop you in your tracks at which point you will give up.

If you have a strong “Why” the “How” becomes so much easier!

Does it make sense that you first need to develop a burning desire before you work on your plan?

Most people want easy solutions and rush ahead without thinking; they grab an off-the-shelf plan, the latest diet book, and start blindly following the instructions without really understanding. If they follow the plan they lose some weight, maybe a lot. Eventually the plan comes to an end, either success when they achieve their goal weight or failure when they give up. Then it’s just a matter of time before they are back to square one.The proverbial yo-yo diet cycle.

Get the context right first

Beside the fact that most fad diets are unhealthy, 95% fail because they do not establish a proper context for the weight goal.

In 95% of cases, when people go on a diet they effectively step out of their real world situation and into a temporary, unreal world of dieting.

When the diet is over, they step back into the real world that is their life but nothing has changed in their real world life except that they may be slimmer than when they stepped out of it! There’s almost a 100% probability that they will be back where they started in a matter of months!

You are a real, whole person, not just a body!

This real person lives in the real world, interacting with real people! You fill a unique place on this earth! You are a son or a daughter, maybe a brother or sister, a friend and colleague, a husband or wife and maybe a parent.

Wherever you are, that’s your context and all of it has an affect on the quality of your life.

You gain long-term victories when your life is balanced and harmonious, where there’s congruency between your lifestyle and your goals, where each reinforces the other.

And you set yourself up for failure when there isn’t balance and harmony between your goals; where sometimes the pursuit of one goal undermines the achievement of another one.

How can you get ahead when your life is being pulled in different directions?

If you want permanent, constructive change in your life, you have to change BOTH yourself and the way you interact with the world around you. Instead of stepping out of your real-world life to achieve a temporary, short-term goal, learn to manage yourself and your environment in such a way that your goals reinforce one another.

This doesn’t mean that the world has to change to suit you, although a little support and encouragement certainly helps, but it does mean that you need to learn to manage your environment more effectively.

Get Empowered, Get Informed

You’ve heard it said that “Knowledge is power” but knowledge is really only the key to unlock the awesome power within you, you have to USE knowledge to experience its power.

Ignorance is guaranteed to undermine your power and potential.

So the first step to effective weight-loss is to find out what you really want for your life and then place your weight-loss goals within that context.

Give yourself the time to rediscover what you really want and why you want it before you rush ahead blindly.

Let the magic in!

My weight-loss experience.

Three events in my life have resulted in very rapid weight gain but each time I applied the same principles of personal goal setting to regain my form and health; each time I learned more and got better at fine tuning the principles. Why three times? Good question!

The short answer; in the first two instances my vision was short-term, get back in shape and get on with my life, but I failed to develop long-term strategies to alert me to the consequences of future changes in my lifestyle. When the changes came they caught me half-asleep and unaware!

Long-term, early warning strategies were integrated into my plan the third time around. Problem solved!

The long answer if you are interested!

The first instance was getting married and changing jobs in 1982. In less than a year I went from a fit 72kg (158lbs) to an obese 87kg (191lbs). I was blind to the change until the day I spotted a very unflattering picture of myself in a friends photo album. I was shocked to see how large I was. That was the trigger to get me going. I was fortunate to have developed effective goal setting skills early in life and within six months I was back in shape and stayed that way for nearly ten years.

But a career change in 1991 was compounded by depression after serving a sentence as a conscientious objector in the 1980’s. My new job involved travelling three hours back and forth between two businesses on a weekly basis and junk food was the main culprit, coke and biltong (jerky) to be precise. I packed on 13kg in 1992 alone but knowing that did nothing to stop me, I just kept going until by 1994 I was tipping the scales at over 91kg (200lbs). Another wake up call and a decision to get back in shape. But this time around I had the very good fortune, and sense, to make a study of nutrition which I added to my goal setting skills. Once again, by the end of 1995 I was back in shape at 75kg but healthier than I had ever been before, thanks to good nutrition ... and exercise of course.

The third instance in 2004 was a double whammy for my weight; a new development project found me travelling between businesses again but this time the problem was compounded by an enforced sedentary lifestyle after a knee operation. By April 2005 I had ballooned to over 106kg (233lbs)! A video of our family holiday in the Seychelles proved to be my wakeup call.

Another wake call and another set of goal planning sessions and I was on my way to getting back in shape. By the end of 2005 I was down to 96kg but then hit a plateau. I had to do something extra. Because of my knee operation, I had assumed that exercise was no longer a significant option and that I would certainly never run again. However, reading Body for Life by Bill Phillips was a revelation and inspiration! I have no desire to be a bodybuilder but the book inspired me to look at ways to work around my old injuries and especially at the benefits of weight training. After further research I was convinced that, with the goal setting skills and nutritional knowledge I already possessed, I could design an exercise plan that worked around my knee, shoulder, hip and back injuries. The results were phenomenal. I reached my target weight in April 2008.I also said goodbye to my paunch for the first time in 52 years!

A long-term strategy.

I also realised that it was not good enough to simply get back in shape and then get on with my life, I needed a strategy that would alert me to any future changes in the wrong direction. So my long-term strategy involves monitoring the following three things on a regular basis;

Weight: 78 to 82kg (check weekly)

Body Fat: 12% - 15% (check twice a year)

Fitness: >45 (test monthly on my Polar heart rate monitor)

If any one of the above measurements moves out of range it will trigger my alarm bells so that I don't get caught napping again! I know I can do it, I just need to be alert before a minor problem becomes a major obstacle. Prevention is definitely better than cure.

My context: I want to live an inspiring and productive life. Being healthy and in shape is an integral part of this greater vision. I am also motivated by a desire for my fitness level to rank in the top 5% of people my age.

The bottom line: If you develop a system that works for you, you will never be defeated!