Change does not have a masking function

In graphics work, it's valuable to work with a "mask." That's why masking tape has that name; we use it to protect the woodwork from the wall color when we are painting a room.

Does the butterfly complain it is not
a caterpillar any more?

But it does not work that way with our bodies and our psyches. When we embark upon a change in our eating, it's going to change more than our pant size.

It's normal to think losing weight is only a matter of changing our physical shape. But we also hope for more, don't we? We hope it will let us be more active, more attractive, more outgoing and confident and assertive.

And yet... should our usual routines and meals become too different, then we sabotage ourselves with:

This is too much change.

Other people don't eat this way.

I miss that thing too much!

Until we are right back where we started, or even, worse off. If we regard our food changes as temporary, our results will be, too.

But sometimes we panic because we are changing too much. Who are we now? Well, we've changed. Isn't that what we wanted?

That is what change IS. It changes everything. But we are still ourselves; we just have the tools to be more ourselves.

That's our goal, isn't it? To be different from the way we are now? That will not happen unless we embrace it.

Because none of us gets to pick and choose all the ways we become different.