cindycullen.com

I did it!! Today is a happy day! I reached a minor goal on the road to my larger goal! Today, I hit the 30 pound mark. I have lost 30 pounds since October 6, 2011. Only 10 more pounds to my final destination! I am on track to reach that by the end of the month if not before.

Many people have asked me how I’ve made myself disappear like this. I give them the technical details of which diet I’ve followed, which is a really good plan. It’s been the easiest and best way I’ve found to lose weight without any exercise. But, it has not been easy and it may not work as well for other people. Why? Because, in my mind, it’s not so much the diet I’ve been on as the decision I made on October 6, 2011.

I made the decision to follow a plan to the letter. It really didn’t matter which plan I followed since I figured that any plan I found could show me several people that had lost weight following their rules. That doesn’t mean I didn’t shop around and find the best plan for me based on past experience, but it meant that I knew that the weight loss had to start in my head first.

Another thing I’ve learned from Bob Proctor is to be quick to make AND STICK TO decisions. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted and how much failure I’ve had because I failed to make a decision. Once I made the decision to stick to the rules, I didn’t even have to think about an answer when someone invited me to eat dessert or pizza. I didn’t even think about what I was missing very often. I knew that my decision was made and there was no turning back. I knew what I was allowed to eat. My meals were preplanned. I ate only what was on the plan.

I did make a couple of new decisions in December when I was about 26 pounds down. One of the reasons I had decided to lose the weight in the first place was so that I could splurge occasionally and not feel guilty about it. I want to really enjoy foods that I love occasionally. I couldn’t enjoy the delicious food I was eating when I was fat because there was SO much guilt surrounding my choices. So, in December, I made the decision to truly enjoy myself at the Christmas parties I attended without any guilt or limitations. And I did!

Those of you with whom I was lucky enough to visit over the holidays would never know that I was on a diet based on the food I piled on my plate. I overdid it! And wow! was it fun! I truly enjoyed my holiday meals more than ever before! Within a couple of days, the scales started moving in the right direction again because I jumped right back on the rules.

This post is not to encourage you to follow the rules, or even about weight loss. Although, I’m really excited about the weight loss, those things are non-issues to me. The real success for me was making the decision and then sticking to it!

I don’t think about what I’m having for dinner (well, I do think about whether I want chicken or steak with my salad) because I’ve already made the decision. I don’t spend 30 minutes looking over a menu in a restaurant. I look for the meal that will fit within my rules the best and the tastiest and I order that. As soon as I see something on the menu that doesn’t fit with my plan, I move on to the next item. If I find nothing, I eat nothing or ask for a special order.

It’s that simple because the decision is made. I can get some pretty strange looks when I refuse to cheat a little, but it doesn’t matter. I am determined to stick with my decision. It has paid off.

I will admit that there were days when I got tired and didn’t want to go to the expense of buying the food on my plan, but I had made a decision and was determined to stick to it, no matter what. That’s the key – ‘No matter what’. I wanted it THAT bad.

Make the decision. I made a lot of new decisions this year about a lot of different areas in my life. I now KNOW that I can make a decision and stick to it until I see the success I desire. I am determined to follow my plan until it succeeds. I will do whatever it takes.

I’ve made a lot of decisions in the past too and failed horribly. Why did I fail? Because each week or each day or each hour I was constantly rehashing the same decision. The first doubt would pop up and I would flop on the decision wondering if it had been the right decision. With the weight loss I refused to think about the decision again until it truly wasn’t working for me and was making me very uncomfortable. Anytime the thought came up about quitting the diet or changing plans or cheating on the rules, I automatically dismissed it from my mind, telling myself that I had already made that decision.

This year is MY year. I have found MY key to success. Make the decisions and follow through. Do whatever it takes to reach my goals. Put the habits in place that will make these decisions and goals no-brainers. That’s my decision and I’m sticking to it!