The other day, I met a person who called me on the telephone because of an article I had written in Old City Life magazine. Because of her health background we had much in common. We decided to meet to chat. Although I know her intention was to have a conversation with someone of like mind, we ended up conversing extensively about a nutritional supplement and weight loss product she has been endorsing for over 18 years.

My intent in blogging today is not to sell you a weight loss/nutritional product, but to admit a brief momentary lapse in judgement. Consider it a confessional if you would like!

Most of my adult life it seems I’ve been preparing for what I am doing now. I won’t go into the details, but let me say that it is a long held belief of mine that most weight loss products do not change behaviors. Yes, without a doubt they can enhance behaviors by bringing about a healthier vision of what one’s life may look and feel like in a healthy fit body. These products can center us so we feel motivated to do the healthier behaviors such as moving more and eating less. The problem is that such products are short lived. They transport us superficially to a healthier lifestyle, and quickly erode our confidence in our abilities to lose weight and feel fit because the vision that many products promise is not ingrained in our own minds. And the reason it is not ingrained in our minds is because we really haven’t done the work to become successful at weight loss and healthy living.

We gain confidence in our abilities when we do the work and no product can do that for us. A product can aid us, but what likely occurs is that the product eventually takes center stage as we get more and more de-motivated to do the hard work of exercise and clean eating.

So where is this lapse in thinking? I realized I was getting curious to the possibilities of how this product may better help my clients lose weight. I’ve been through this countless times before with other product sellers and endorsers and most often I would listen politely, but yet know I was not going to endorse their product nor be a part of the business in referring my clients.

Something was different this day. While I believe that the reason many people eventually fail in their weight loss and other health goals is they have not achieved a healthy, slow, patient, and consistent behavior change process that allows the brain to adjust to its new neural pathway patterns and brain map. I none-the-less began to consider whether this product might indeed work. For some reason this product description had me believing that, “Yes, maybe I can use this successfully with my clients, and help them speed up their weight loss!” Everything I believed in such as progressive, incremental behavior change, training the mind to train the body, and changing lifestyles in the context of joyful living dissipated. If I can be nearly convinced of the seeming possibilities of a weight loss product, then how can I expect to change people into lifestyle behavior advocates?

Many product sellers and endorsers have great intentions, however where I see us dividing is in the process of how to arrive at a healthy, fit, happy, life.

Since I’ve written this I’ve forgiven myself for the lapse in my usual behavioral style and positive living thinking methods. And although I have much in common with various product endorsers and sellers who aim to assist people with weight loss, and healthier lifestyles, what we don’t have in common is the approach used to facilitate a healthy, happy, fit, lean and meaningful life. I believe that ultimately many weight loss products have the opposite effect. They, similar to an aspirin, or other analgesics, treat the symptom rather than the cause and eventually erode one’s spirit and ability to do the work of being a healthy, happy, confident person.