Personal Responsibility for Weight Loss

Posted: May 21 in Health And Wellness by Dr. Lazarus

During your medical weight loss program, you will have the aid and assistance of your weight loss doctor and dietitians. However, the lifestyle and dietary changes necessary to maintain a healthy weight and an overall healthier lifestyle requires more than just your appointments with your weight loss team. Dedication and personal responsibility are important parts to the success of any weight loss program. You may know all of the appropriate steps you have to take for weight loss and wellness but it is up to you to actually take them. Personal responsibility brings those two things together and helps to foster successful weight loss and long-term weight management.

Personal responsibility means the following things:

• Acknowledging that you are the only one that can successfully manage your eating behaviors and lifestyle activities.
• You cannot blame others or external factors for your weight. If you are blaming someone or some external factor, then you will be distracted from doing what is necessary to reach your goals.
• Realizing that you are able to determine and decide how you feel about events or actions that occur in your life.
• The more focus you put into external factors, the more out of control you may feel regarding your weight.
• Learning to take an honest and positive “inventory” of your personal strengths, abilities, talents and virtues.

Why Personal Responsibility is Beneficial

Although it’s not always the easiest to accomplish, learning to take personal responsibility for yourself, your actions and your weight loss is an important step. Once you are able to start accepting responsibility for your actions and behaviors you’ll begin to realize that there is no one holding you back from your weight loss and wellness goals except yourself. When you take personal responsibility you are:

• Empowering yourself
• Allowing yourself to have an “in control, can-do” attitude
• Not relying on others for change (trusting yourself)

One way of taking personal responsibility during your medical weight loss program is by keeping a food log. In this log, you can record what you eat, along with your eating behaviors and also measure your progress. By doing this, you will be able to take note of any behaviors that may derail your weight loss efforts and you will be unable to place any blame or rely on excuses.

Choosing to complete a medical weight loss program shows that you are aware of what it takes to benefit your health. Your weight loss doctor will be there every step of the way, but first you must realize that you are the one who holds the power to make an impact on your life.