Methods vs. Principles

As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I believe that there are countless ways to successfully lose weight.  A lot of them are even good ways.  I was hesitant to go into too much detail on this blog about the specifics of how I have done it, for fear that people would think I was saying, “This is the only way to do it.”  I ultimately decided that my methods are useful, but I try to tie them to their parent principles as much as possible.

For me, there is only one principle a person needs to grasp, and then everything else is methods to fit within it.  That principle is simple: in order to have permanent weight loss, you have to make permanent changes.

I don’t know if there are other solutions that could have worked for me.  What I do know is that nothing I’ve tried in the past 25+ years has worked, because I couldn’t make those changes permanently.  Run eight miles a day?  For a few months, sure, but not forever.  Stop eating ice cream entirely, forever?  Not gonna happen.  Etc. etc.

Having a grasp on the principle of permanent change allowed me to be receptive when I finally came across the methods that would work for me.

Posted in Uncategorized
3 comments on “Methods vs. Principles
  1. Amy says:

    I’ve been a little obsessive about reading your blog, Jeff, and my family is probably wondering why I keep talking about you, since I don’t have any weight to lose. I think I find you so inspiring because you are proving that people can actually change, in any category, weight loss or otherwise. I sometimes get sad that people I love (including myself) keep doing the same lame things over and over again, so I yearn for examples like you who have replaced those self-destructive and hurtful pieces of life with better things and better selves . There is hope! So there’s my internet-stalker confession.

  2. Jeff J. Snider says:

    That makes me happy, Amy. I’m proud to have someone of your caliber as a stalker. :-)

    Your comment fits perfectly with what I am hoping to accomplish here. Not everyone needs to lose weight, but everyone can make improvements in their lives. These principles apply to everything.

Leave a Reply to Jeff J. Snider Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>