The Desire to Change

Based on my own failure to bring about significant changes in my body , I'm wondering what it is that drives people to follow through and really make changes.

I'd like to be thinner, more glamorous, better groomed, but why don't I have the motivation to do so when others do?

Is it a personality thing? I've always been confident in myself, generally my self-esteem is good. Maybe it is those with lower self-esteem who actually, ironically, are more likely to succeed in making a change, because the overall benefit is greater (i.e. increased self-esteem), whereas if you quite like yourself already, then after the change you only like yourself a little bit more, rather than a lot more. And that's the bottom line, generally, I like myself, I think I'm a 'nice' person, I'm not amazing looking but I'm not ugly, I'm not thin, but I have never, even at my heaviest, considered myself to be 'fat'. In fact I don't apply these types of labels to myself at all really.

I feel that self-image is clearly at the centre of all of this.

Questions raised...

• How many people manage to maintain the changes they make to lifestyle and body in the long-term?
• Is surgery popular because it is a longer-term option than say dieting, or getting a new wardrobe? Not just because it's seen as an 'easy' option.

To do this week

• Carry out and transcribe at least 2 interviews
• Write about interviews
• Finish Reading Flesh Wounds (Virginia Blum)