Thought for the Day--May 5, 2011: I Want, I Want, I Want...
No, you can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want And if you try sometime you find You get what you need -- The Rolling Stones Yesterday , I offered my take on how you can nudge your entire family to eat healthier; you may want this more than anything in the world, but the truth of the matter: you really can't force people to make changes, no matter how much you want it. You can change only your own behavior, but, even then, you really don't have that much control over the outcome. For example, you might set this goal: "I will eat 1,000 calories a day for 31 days [changed behavior] so that I can lose 10 pounds [expected outcome]." So you go on your new plan and stick to it (success); however, you lose only 5 pounds (failure?). You wanted to lose 10 pounds, but the outcome did not live up to your expectations. Is this an automatic fail? I don't think so; you lost 5 pounds instead of gaining 1 o...