Considering that you may count yourself among the many millions of Americans who have resolved to make this year, the year to lose weight by the end of the year (or tomorrow for that matter), you may want to consider the following principals.
1) Stop trying to lose weight! Setting intent to negate the negative sets into motion the reverse effect. The more neurons you invest in your determination factor to get rid of that blubber, the more energy you are sending to it. In other words, negative attention is a form of attention as well, and attention is a form of love. So stop lovin' it (and McDonald’s for that matter :)
2) Stop trying to not eat! The more you try to not do something, guess what you end up doing! Here is the ultimate test: Try not to think about your nose for 30 seconds. I bet I know what you’re thinking about! If you think all day about what you don’t want to do, paradoxically, you’re thinking about what you do want to do and what you’re going to end up doing.
3) Stop fighting with your body image! Your body needs and demands unconditional love. If you are the horse-rider and your body is the horse, berating your body is similar to whipping your horse. The more you whip it, the more it wants to rebel. When you accept your horse despite its imperfections, it is more interested in cooperation with you.
4) Stop focusing only on the end goal. Love every bit of the process. As Arnold Schwarzenegger is wont of saying, the way he has become so successful is because he enjoys his daily reps in the gym, as he was doing them. When confused fellow gym goers would catch Arnold smiling as he was straining his muscles, Arnold would explain that since he was working towards his clear positive goal of world champion, every step, every rep was one step closer towards his goal…
There you have it. Therein lay the key. In all your thoughts, actions, resolutions and considerations:
Work towards something! Do not work towards the absence of something.