The Real Secret to Weight Loss

You’ve heard it a billion times. The latest diet, fad, book, gadget, berry, pill, whatever, is the next secret to weight loss. We fall for it almost every time, don’t we? Some how we think those three easy installments of $29.95 will solve all our problems and have us drop thirty pounds overnight.

Its sounds so appealing and we fall for it because we want there to be a secret. We want the magic pill. We want the undiscovered berry, the juice that acts as an appetite suppressant, or the ab gadget that will have us dropping three dress sizes in thirty days.

Well, what if I was to tell you there really is a secret? That’s right … there is! The real secret to weight loss is ... ya ready ... brace yourself ... (said in that infomercial voice)

Self-Acceptance.

That’s right. Accepting who you are now, at this very moment.

Are you scratching your head yet? Let me explain.

I have a theory that most people who are stuck in a yo-yo dieting cycle are there because they are unhappy with themselves. They hate the way they look so much, they seek external solutions to solve their problem. These external solutions, or secrets, are band-aids that tend to lose their stickiness before they lose any weight. Instead, these people need to focus their attention inwards. They need to accept who they are and how they look before they can learn from any external plan.

Life doesn’t start after the weight is gone. All will not be right with the world once you drop that extra weight. By embracing yourself now, you can break the yo-yo cycle and focus on being the best you can be regardless of your current size. You may be surprised how much you can accomplish when you realize how wonderful you are now, not “after.”

Originally published on Roni

55 readers liked this story.
From Around the Web:
03.20.2011
Susan Rawlings
I am in the middle of a diet right now and you are so right. I do a LOT better when I finally just relax and allow my body to work through it. Diet and exercise are important, of course, but you can't stick with it if you can't focus on your goal and allow yourself to be happy.
02.03.2011
Donna Hodges
What a wonderful article. My mantra: "Either get busy fixing it...or get busy accepting it"
03.29.2010
MiaDeanne
Hmmm....just had a conversation on this very topic tonight with my husband. Recently, I was kind of jolted to my core when he had mentioned that he would like me to lose weight. Aaaah! Now, granted, I have been in the past, one of those women constantly trying to lose weight, exercise (usually sporadically), and vowing that "this would be the year!" But, somehow, through all my dieting travails, I was always very comforted by the thought that "at least my husband always accepts me and tells me that I look great!" So, you guessed it! I finally got to a place where I accepted my body, gave thanks that I am pretty healthy, and THEN. . .
02.16.2010
Mary Bender
Your article is the way I have experienced it myself. Sometimes it's the " pressure" of wanting the weight to come off, believing it's necessary for a job or a relationship, that makes it the very thing whereby it simply "Won't come off " I think we are go though peaks and valleys in our weight; depending on circumstances in our lives, environment, genetic makeup.
02.13.2010
Mamie Owens
You said a mouthful. You must learn to be satisfied with self before anything can work.I don't care about diet fads.If a man doesn't love me for me,I'm sorry I can't be anyone esle for him.But myself and if he has a problem with that.I advise him to move on to the left.Picture this.Diet companies getting richer,and no one getting smaller.It's all a scam.
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