It’s always been fascinating to me how business, finance and weight loss parallel each other.
Take for example a personal bank account. If you add more than you take out, your account will get bigger and bigger.
It is the same with your body. If you put more in it through eating than you take it out through activity it will get bigger and bigger. It’s a simple truth isn’t it?
What about business? If a business owner does not look at his business on a daily basis and take action when necessary, his business will most likely fail.
It is the same with any weight loss program.
If it is not monitored on a daily basis and action is not taken when necessary, it will fail. Most businesses fail. So do most weight loss programs. This is also a simple truth.
I have been an industrial engineer all my life and years ago I read a book related to manufacturing by an Israeli physicist Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt titled “The Theory of Constraints”.
The main idea in the theory of constraints is that every real system, such as a profit-making enterprise, must have at least one constraint.
If this were not true, the system would produce an infinite amount of whatever it tried. In the case of a profit making enterprise, this would be infinite profits.
Because a constraint is a factor that limits a system from achieving more of what it strives for, a business manager who seeks greater profits must manage the constraint.
There really isn’t a choice in the matter. Either you manage the obstacles or they manage you. Constraints will determine the output of the system whether they are accepted and handled.
A business can have many constraints but I have found in my engineering career that there is usually one primary one.
All constraints must be managed but focusing on the most primary will improve whatever is being attempted. Perfection is never achieved but improvement can be accomplished.
It is a constant battle.
Does the Principle of Constraints Apply to Weight Loss? Absolutely! If there were no hindrance to weight loss then none of us would be fat.
Dieters can achieve improvement by focusing on their primary obstacle, just like a business manager, even though all obstacles must be managed.
It is a constant battle.
So what is the primary obstacle to weight loss? I think this is universal for all dieters. The cartoon character Pogo by Walt Kelly said it best. “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Yes. The primary obstacle to weight loss is between our ears.
We prefer to sit on the couch and indulge in the pleasures of the moment instead of striving for what we want in the future.
As far as weight loss is concerned, we can go hunting for unicorns or searching for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We are likely to seek them out in order to lose weight.
Good information about weight loss abounds but to lose weight you have to be active. Knowledge is not enough. You have to work on that primary hurdle. You have to get off that couch and do something.
Source by Jim Bolding
