Ok, this is a chance to have, hopefully, a little fun by looking at the challenge of weight loss from a different angle. My career has been about solving problems. I’m in IT, so that’s basically the deal. So, when I come across a particularly difficult challenge that I haven’t conquered yet, I’ve learnt that approaching the challenge from a different angle can make all the difference. A change is as good as a rest they say 🙂

So here I am just giving you a chance to think differently about weight loss and see what insights, motivation, and support you can gain from it.

While walking my dog last night, I struck upon the idea that losing weight can be compared to paying off a big loan because

• It takes a long time.
• You need to set up a payment plan with regular payments
• You have to learn to trust your payment plan and forget about it otherwise, you go crazy
• The more you pay off the loan each time, the faster it gets paid off

The value here is that it allows you to think about your weight loss in a different way. The only long-term success I have had is through managing the pressure and stress the challenge presents. Big debts only get paid off if you suddenly get a windfall or if you diligently pay them off over time.

For you, your weight represents a loan of energy, so it’s like an energy debt you’ve got to pay back. Size is relative, so some debts get paid off sooner, some later. Smaller debts take, say, a month, six months or a year to pay off. Larger ones take a few years, and really big ones, like your mortgage, take decades.

Think about how you pay each of these debts off. Some of you might put a specific effort in and pay them off early because the end is in sight. A month or two of effort or less will do it or will take such a chunk out of the debt it was worth it. Smaller debts fit this category. Larger debts don’t really work like that. You have to accept they’re going to take a long time. Simply because you’ve got to get on with your life in between.

Larger debts require that you have a life in between. If you don’t, then you have nothing to distract you from the debt and how it is getting in your way. It might not even bother you, but everyone else might keep reminding you about it, or you might keep finding things you can’t do because you have less spare cash or, in terms of weight, spare energy.

In part two, I will consider this metaphor in a little more depth. Let me know what you think so far. Is this an interesting metaphor, and does it help you see how you can tackle your weight?