Don’t Wait to Lose Weight

“I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”-Scarlett O’Hara

Gone with the Wind was one of my favorite movies while growing up.  Scarlett O’Hara is one of those infamous characters that you hate to love, and love to hate.  She is flawed and selfish, but she is also real and unapologetic.  Judging by the quote above, she is also a great procrastinator.

I named my company Weightless, because I believe that reaching a healthy weight allows a person to fly.  Weight is more than just a physical reminder of your limitations, it is also a heavy emotional burden.  Shedding the weight allows you to shed any physical or emotional barriers you have to reaching your other goals in life.

But, Weightless could also be spelled as Waitless.  I can think of at least a dozen times that I put off eating better and exercising more, because it simply wasn’t convenient at the time.  I spent much of my time reading about diet plans and exercise, but did not take a single action to implement them.  I was a great procrastinator, just like Scarlett O’Hara.

What is it that you are waiting for?  What is holding you back from sticking to your health goals?

When it comes to your weight, is it worth it to wait?

I love the book “Action Trumps Everything”.  The book is about how entrepreneurs take a fundamentally different approach to life that is less risky and more effective.  The authors gave the following example of weight loss to illustrate this point.

“You can think about losing the weight all you want, but if you keep your eating habits and exercise patterns exactly as they are, your weight will remain exactly where it is.  Until you take action, nothing is going to change.”

I didn’t know it at the time, but I followed the entrepreneurial mindset when I first started losing weight.  I didn’t try to lose 100 pounds, or become a fitness buff.  Instead, I set out to track every thing I ate in a food journal.  That first month, I lost 20 pounds.  I stopped waiting, and I started doing.

Are you a great procrastinator like Scarlett?  Do you keep putting off your weight loss goals for one convenient reason or another? 

Take immediate action.  Your action can be as small as committing to a certain amount of calories per day, or increasing your activity.  It can be removing fried foods from your diet, or increasing your consumption of fruits or veggies.  No matter what your goal is, stop waiting until tomorrow. 

You don’t have to wait to lose weight!