Over the last several days, I’ve been sharing my “Ten Commandments of Dieting that Your Doctor Will Never Tell You.” The first five commandments to permanent weight loss success are 1. Thou shalt not worship food as your god; 2. Thou shalt not worship a false image; 3. Thou shalt not murder, 4. Thou shalt not steal and 5. Thou shalt not covet. Today, we review the sixth commandment:
6. Thou shalt not cheat against thy confidence and self-esteem.
Has prior diet cheating or diet failure harmed your self-esteem? Failed dieting cycles can hurt something much more important than our wallets—it can hurt our self-respect and confidence to succeed.
Many people spend money on diet programs that falsely guarantee rapid weight loss. These devilish diets use false marketing claims and untested plans to give us false hope. We hungrily try to deprive ourselves of food on these diets against our own common sense. Then we feel guilty and humiliated because we’ve either cheated on the diet or strictly followed directions to only achieve minimal results.
Sound familiar?
This dieting pattern produces emotional damage in our confidence to succeed. We start doubting if we will ever be able to look beautiful and fit. Our self-esteem darkens.
If you have fallen on your face because you trusted in one of these false hopes, you are not alone. Millions of dieters have unwittingly trusted in unattainable promises, only to fail and suffer the psychological consequences. There is one word to describe companies claiming 10 pounds of permanent weight loss in one weekend: Liars.
Small successes are the “best medicine” to start healing injured confidence and self-esteem. We will rebuild our self-respect and confidence better than ever. How? Winning the small battles over and over by taking the small steps.
Our Nutritional War will be won inch by inch. Every small win will help us build more confidence to win the next victory. To the victor, go the spoils—a beautiful and healthy body living a life that can be loved. As each inch is conquered, our waistlines will continue to shrink.
Choose to rebuild your self-esteem, confidence and health by winning the small battles.
Aaron Tabor, MD., is a diet and nutrition expert and book author. You can learn more about his weight-loss philosophy and weight-loss system by visiting DrTabor.com.
Next: Thou Shalt Not Lie
