Here is an article from sparkle that is very important to consider.. read on..

Weight loss can make smart people look silly, confound roomfuls of award-winning scientists, and baffle the rest of us, who are otherwise competent and brilliant in our own right. Somehow the mysterious answers still elude us.

Part of the mystery and frustration could be that we often look at the whole dieting question backwards. There are a number of assumptions and beliefs we often hold that are actually the opposite of what’s really true. However, there are some paradoxes (statements that seem contradictory but are actually true) that you should hold onto. Putting these to use will help you see progress and, more importantly, gain confidence.

There are 9 Goal Achievement Paradoxes that you can apply to your weight loss goals, or any part of your life. Here are the first three. Perhaps they can lend some insight for how to solve some puzzles in your own life:

PARADOX 1: Perfectionism does not lead to perfection.
Excellence is a good thing. So is working as hard as possible to create, build, and perform to the best of your abilities. But what you may not realize is that trying to be perfect can actually hinder your chances of being excellent.

The pursuit of perfection comes with an ugly flip side: a fear of failure, or fear of making a mistake. This fear keeps a lot of people from trying something different or learning a new skill. They'd rather not try than go through the anguish of not doing it perfectly. The perfectionist likes to stick with things she knows that she can do.

To succeed, you need to grow, learn, and expand your world. By erasing your opportunities for testing the water, perfectionism limits your growth, and takes away your chances of finding a more excellent path.

That's why your physical foundation is so critical. It gives you the confidence and support you need to take those chances, to recover from mistakes, and test the limits of possibility.

PARADOX 2: The harder you work, the more fun you’ll have- Really!
There's a time for work. There's a time for play. And sometimes they happen to be one and the same.

We all know people who say their jobs don't really feel like work. That's because they absolutely love what they're doing. They consider themselves lucky to have work that’s fun, or to be part of something they really believe in. The secret is, this can happen in any area of your life—not just your career.

Your goals reflect your interests, what you'd like to do, and what you care about. Can you think of a more fun way to use energy than on stuff you deeply enjoy and hold dear? If it sounds a bit idealistic, it is. But going after something you really want is what makes it fun.

You'll still need gallons of elbow grease, but goals shouldn’t seem like work at all. It's your playtime.

PARADOX 3: Focusing on only one area can hurt your progress in that area.
Building a healthy lifestyle while emphasizing a key part of your life is important. But that foundation is just the beginning, and can't happen by itself.

Your healthy habits can work together to take your life to another level. Improvement in one area helps—and depends on—the others. To reach your full potential in anything, you can't neglect all to zero-in on one.

For example, you could become decently creative if that's all you focused on. But for impressive progress, you'd also need to pay attention to nutrition, fitness, sleep and stress management.

Limiting your focus too much can not only hinder progress, but it can also be harmful. Losing sleep, eating poorly and living with stress are common mistakes people make when they're obsessed with a goal. In the short term, it may be effective, but results could reach new heights in the long run if these important needs aren’t neglected.

Weight loss can make smart people look silly, confound roomfuls of award-winning scientists, and baffle the rest of us, who are otherwise competent and brilliant in our own right. Somehow the mysterious answers still elude us.

Part of the mystery and frustration could be that we often look at the whole dieting question backwards. There are a number of assumptions and beliefs we often hold that are actually the opposite of what’s really true. However, there are some paradoxes (statements that seem contradictory but are actually true) that you should hold onto. Putting these to use will help you see progress and, more importantly, gain confidence.

There are 9 Goal Achievement Paradoxes that you can apply to your weight loss goals, or any part of your life. (Read about the first three here.) Perhaps they can lend some insight for how to solve some puzzles in your own life:

PARADOX 4: Following a regular program gives you more flexibility.
Which is easier to reschedule, a five-minute chat or a three-hour meeting?

Our lives may seem pretty full already. Lists get longer while available time gets more scarce — and the real world is always waiting to muck things up. When schedules change and new things come up, the toughest items to move are the ones that chew up the most time. They're also the easiest to drop for "convenience."

Regular, little bits of progress are easier to fit into your ever-changing schedule. By building consistency with these little bits, you won't need to block out huge amounts of time to do it all at once.

For even more flexibility, have several alternatives planned for getting at the same results. By regularly choosing from a variety of "little thing" options, you can make your life more flexible and manageable.


PARADOX 5: The more time you spend on SparkPeople, the more time you’ll have for important stuff.
Most people don't think they can do anything about all the stuff they "have" to do every day. In reality, it's about choices.

You can simplify your life, first by finding goals to focus on, then by getting rid of things that don't support any goal in particular.

The more you focus on what's important, and the more you "do a little bit every day" to go after your goals, the more your days will be filled with meaningful activity. Everything you do has meaning when you're working toward your goals or a purpose. Even the stuff that fills your schedule now will look, feel and smell more important—if there's a juicy "why" involved.

Imagine living a life of doing things because you want to, not because you have to.

PARADOX 6: You can get more results with less effort.
Opposite of everything you’ve ever been told, how is this possible? Simply put, as you build yourself a strong foundation, you don't have to stretch as far to get what you want.

Pretend you're collecting walnuts from a tree by throwing rocks into the branches. At first, you'd have some success, but the effort outweighs the results. Now, suppose you started to build a ladder by grinding the used walnuts into a woody pulp, a ladder that grew as you collected more walnuts — a cycle of growth begins. The higher the ladder grows, the closer you get to the walnuts. The closer you get, the easier it is to hit and collect more walnuts for your ladder, your foundation.

Eventually, you'll reach the branches. Then, just by shaking the branches, you can collect hundreds of walnuts in just a few seconds. Ta-da! Results outweigh the effort.

You'll also be in a perfect spot to go after a higher tree.
Weight loss can make smart people look silly, confound roomfuls of award-winning scientists, and baffle the rest of us, who are otherwise competent and brilliant in our own right. Somehow the mysterious answers still elude us.

Part of the mystery and frustration could be that we often look at the whole dieting question backwards. There are a number of assumptions and beliefs we often hold that are actually the opposite of what’s really true. However, there are some paradoxes (statements that seem contradictory but are actually true) that you should hold onto. Putting these to use will help you see progress and, more importantly, gain confidence.

There are 9 Goal Achievement Paradoxes that you can apply to your weight loss goals, or any part of your life. Here are the last three. (You can read about Paradoxes 1-3, and Paradoxes 4-6 first.) Perhaps they can lend some insight for how to solve some puzzles in your own life:

PARADOX 7: There is such a thing as a good mistake.
A mistake, or a step back, doesn't have to be a negative thing. It depends on what you do with it. You can mope and stress about it, cutting back your efforts so you don’t "fail" again…

Or, you can move past a mistake with a little more insight and wisdom to plan for a better future—a future where that mistake doesn’t happen again. This is how you learn and grow. Mistakes force you to evaluate your actions, change the way you're going about your business, and improve. Why else would you do any of these things?

Mistakes are part of the natural growth process, nearly as important—definitely more educational—than success. Just keep it in perspective. Thomas Edison liked to say that he knew only one way to make a light bulb, but discovered thousands of ways not to.

Without mistakes, you may become competent in a skill, but you'd never master it. Without heeding the lessons that mistakes teach, you're doomed to repeat them again.

PARADOX 8: Dreaming can give you practical results.
There's no reason your wishes can't become goals. The biggest contribution you can make to the world will always come from something you're passionate about.

It's true that society is interested in the practical, the useful, the realistic. That's fine. It's also true that the best results—the outcomes with the most practical impact— happened because someone thought "what if." (And then he worked his tail off to make it reality.)

To turn your wishes into goals, the same is true. You get practical results when you apply "what if" to your own life. Your desire to see it through grows as your idealistic vision takes hold.

Success doesn't happen without a vision and hard work. When you have both, they sprout from a passion that's rooted in idealistic thinking.

In the end, the grander the vision, the greater your accomplishments.

PARADOX 9: The best time to act like a kid is when you’re an adult.
When you were a child, you were full of energy, dreams, imagination and the joy of discovery. Those days and weeks seemed to last forever.

But you couldn't just do whatever you wanted. You had to ask permission for everything. You survived on a few pennies or dollars each week. You had to go to bed early. "If only I didn't have to do those things," you thought, "I could have some real fun." Well, now you can.

Playing hasn't changed. You can dream just as big, and play just as hard. Except now, you have the clout to do it right.

You have the freedom. You have the resources. And you can stay up as late as you want.