by Natasha Levy

Created on: March 05, 2009   Last Updated: May 18, 2010

The Power of Honesty

Sabotage. We won't admit to it. Never. No amount of photographic evidence, torture by temptation, or candy-addict intervention will make us confess. It's just a little extra here and there, right? That chocolate bar will remain in the vault that is your stomach - - until you get honest with yourself.

Sabotage is the greatest source of weight loss shame. This guilt alone can be enough to ruin your mission. The key to success is honesty. Honesty with no one but yourself. It does not matter what your friends think, what your trainer says. Not even the stern reprimand of a nutritionist can make you feel. If they do, then you're in this for the wrong reasons. It's on your shoulders (and your waistline) alone. It sounds scary, but there is no greater sense of accomplishment than claiming your power to control what happens to your body.

Many of us are not even aware that we sabotage. A routine forms and we get comfortable. So then, what's got into the bathroom scales lately? Why the sudden rift in your relationship? You start to avoid one another. Things get awkward and you take a break. You're angry, hurt, and before you have time to question your own responsibility, there's a feud between you and the inanimate object on your bathroom floor.

But, you consider yourself a strong willed, disciplined health-pro?! Or, you're just like everyone else? You eat what they do? Why is this happening to you when you haven't done anything wrong? It's this harsh, over thinking mind set that's got you into this feud and together, you me and the bathroom scales, are going to get you out of it. We're going to sit down for a safe, friendly, but ultimately honest conversation about your weight loss.

1) First on the agenda, is the most common, the least difficult of the sabotages to uncover. Deliberate over-extension of your caloric intake. Commonly occurs during sudden bouts of difficult emotion, be it stress, depression, anxiety. (If you are certain that emotion is not the culprit, then you are most likely accustomed to eating a certain way. You learnt your eating patterns through childhood and you have not questioned them in later years. It takes time and education to break a lifelong habit.)

For many, food is a comfort, something to distract us from the pain of a particular reality. When we were sick, chicken soup was by our side, when we were good, the cookie jar said well done. The holidays all have their traditions - - food! Easter eggs, turkey, pudding. We

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