Since March, 1988, when the Lefebre and Burke Weight Loss & Laser Centre opened, I have had countless number of patients say that the “Dimmer Switch” concept has helped (more than any other idea) change their thinking and attitude in respect to their weight control efforts.

If after you continue to struggle with your motivation to lose more weight and you’ve tried the previous motivational exercise as outlined in  my Benefits of Your Weight Loss to Date article, try one more step:

Fill in the sheet as shown below and write down all the benefits that you hope to achieve and then on the right side ,write down all the things that are, or could prevent you from reaching your goal.

If you’re not aware of what might be preventing you, try reading once again

Dr. Larocque’s Book, Be Thin Through Motivation.

When the day comes (and it usually does), when you reach a plateau and are unable to lose any more weight, try performing  this very effective motivational exercise.

Take out a sheet a of paper as shown below and write down all the benefits that you have achieved to date.Take into account all the benefits that you’ve achieved in all of the five dimensions of your health( as also shown in the diagram below).Write down major benefits, as well as all the little ones too.Allow yourself to pat yourself on the back and to be proud of what you have accomplished.

Next, refer back to my article , 12 Reasons to Lose Weight and try visualizing what it would be like to wake up in the morning and discover that  you had magically “won your goal weight”. After doing that, you should now be able to write down all the new positive things that you would […]

Before starting a weight loss program, fill in a sheet similar to the one below. Be sure and put down reasons that include all the dimensions of your optimal health.Please see the Five Dimension picture below. If you are struggling to find enough reasons, try visualizing what it would be like to wake up in the morning and you had magically “won your goal weight”. After doing that, you should now be able to write down all the positive things that you would feel as if you were at your newly found goal weight.

12 REASONS “WHY I WANT TO REACH AND MAINTAIN MY GOAL WEIGHT”

1. 7. 2. 8. 3. 9. 4. 10. 5. 11. 6. 12.

FIVE DIMENSIONS OF OPTIMAL HEALTH

As I mentioned in previous articles over the years, I like to focus on key concepts that have helped my patients gain better control of their weight problem.

In the past, we have talked for example, about setting success goals, the “dimmer switch” and in this article I would like to discuss the concept of preventing and coping with a lapse.

A lapse is simply a term for a deviation from your diet plan, a mistake, a slip, etc. If we continue to slip and string together a series of lapses we relapse back to our previous condition. When a relapse is complete and there is little hope of reversing this negative trend, a collapse has occurred.

To put this concept into practical terms, let’s analyze a few common errors in thinking.  (For example, let’s use a day, a weekend, a week and a holiday).

If we slip at breakfast (e.g. eating a donut) and […]

Since March of 1988, I’ve lost count of how many times that I’ve heard a patient say, “I just don’t have time for myself”. At the same time when these same patients do come in, they often feel guilty that they are taking time for themselves or are spending time and money that could go towards other obligations (e.g. kids, spouses etc…). As well, I have caught many patients nodding off to sleep while they wait for me, because often their visit to see us is the only time they have to themselves. When this type of dialogue or situation takes place during an office visit, I pull out the following little diagram from my desk drawer and start to talk about taking care of “Numero Uno”.

The diagram pictured above represents you (“Numero Uno”) and your five dimensions of optimal health. The physical triangle, of course, represents our body and the other four triangles […]

For most of us, who are working at controlling our weight, the most difficult days to get through are often the weekends, starting on Friday afternoon. We often do well following our “diet plan” and exercise routine throughout the week, then along comes Friday. I have a few ideas that I believe will help you with your weekends.

First of all, we have to realize what the weekends are. They really are societies’ reward system for working hard at our job or going to school for the previous 5 days. One of the hardest things on a “diet plan” is to get over the idea that we are depriving ourselves of our favorite foods, etc. The same goes for weekends. We get to Friday afternoon and we feel that we can’t have any fun because we’re on a diet and can’t go out for a few drinks, or out to our favorite restaurant to unwind […]

How often have you said to yourself that you “cheated” on your diet because you had a piece of cheesecake? No doubt this resulted in guilty feelings, self-punishment and contributed to lower self-image thoughts about yourself. In fact, I’m sure that many times the self-punishment ended up leading to more over-eating and a vicious binging cycle. These negative thoughts and actions stem from the guilt that arose from the fact that you felt that you “cheated” on your diet. It is a fact in life, that when you cheat someone or do wrong, and you are caught, a form of punishment is handed out. This is what you do to yourself when you feel that you “cheated” by having a piece of cheesecake. I have told countless number of patients over the years that when they would like to have a little dessert, for example, change the word “cheat” to “treat”. This will break the […]

How many times have many of you said to yourself –“Here I am 50 pounds overweight-if I had only done something when I was just 20 pounds over”? Obesity over the years has often been described as a disorder, or a disease of procrastination. Why do humans often procrastinate and in particular, why do overweight individuals put things off and not fix their weight problem “sooner than later”?

There is no one easy answer, but there are common thinking patterns.

UNREALISTIC VIEWS FOR SUCCESS

People who procrastinate often do not have a realistic view of how a successful person was able to achieve their goals. They think that it was easy for their friend to lose 50 pounds. This is unrealistic, as anyone who has lost 50 pounds knows that there are ups and downs, stresses, etc., that they went through in their journey. To be successful, one has to accept that there will be […]

After an absence from attending our office, many of you are holding back returning because of guilt or embarrassment that you have regained some weight. At our clinic, we are quite aware of this and as a result, we continue to pass on many reassuring ideas that have helped our restart patients deal with much of their guilt and negative self talk- which in turn has helped steer them back on the right course. Many times I have said that I should have a blinking neon sign at our front office door that says: “LEAVE YOUR GUILT OUTSIDE AND COME ON IN.”

Following are key concepts that will help reassure you, decrease your guilt and get you back on the right track:

REMEMBER:

It takes a lot of courage to restart. It is human nature to feel guilty to think that we have let ourselves or others down. Therefore, taking this first step is a […]