Weight Loss Psychology: How To WANT To Eat Right?

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Video: Weight Loss Psychology: How To WANT To Eat Right?

Video: Weight Loss Psychology: How To WANT To Eat Right?
Video: Why we must stop ignoring the psychology of weight loss: Alisa Anokhina at TEDxUCL 2024, March
Weight Loss Psychology: How To WANT To Eat Right?
Weight Loss Psychology: How To WANT To Eat Right?
Anonim

There are two important milestones in the process of losing weight: starting point and staying at a new weight upon arrival. In other words, the most difficult thing is to find the strength to start losing weight and stay in a new shape after the intense period of losing weight is over.

After analyzing my weight swing, I discovered a paradox: I finally managed to lose weight only after I reduced the importance of a slim body. Only after I managed to love and accept my wonderful body at the moment when its forms diverged from the society's idea of beauty, my figure began to change - and the result was successfully achieved.

Sounds attractive, but how do you do it?

Today in the article I will describe the psychological process that I started on my own and led to a comfortable weight for me. I’m lying if I say that maintaining this weight involves effort. Effort is the deliberate deprivation of something for the sake of achieving a high goal, be it time, food, or any other physical or mental adaptation to an uncomfortable lifestyle. A certain amount of moral discipline will certainly be needed at the very beginning, as well as in the process of forming each habit. However, it is the very change in the psychological approach to the process of losing weight that will help to find the desired result - and as a result find your new life, full of new achievements.

So, the mistake of the majority of those who lose weight lies in the fact that we have high hopes for “later” and ignore the “now”. It seems to us that we will be able to love ourselves only “provided that…. (fill in the blank)”.

It is always difficult to keep the motivation “later”, because a conflict is created: a person lives in an infinite “now”, but tries to ignore and suppress this natural state of existence. Thus, a powerful internal conflict is created: we know that in reality we are always in the “now”, but mentally we go in search of another reality, thereby creating a gap between the situation, which we subconsciously feel as “real”, and the situation, which is ephemeral to us. Since the gravitational center of a person beginning any practice lies at the starting point, it is necessary to generate a powerful driving force that will help overcome the attraction.

If you've tried working with affirmations and didn't get the expected result, this may be the exact reason why you didn't succeed. Most of us grew up in a materialistic, scientifically oriented society, where we take the existence of the material world as an axiom. We find it difficult to force ourselves to believe in the potential existence of something in the future, especially at times when we are physically depressed (for example, during a severe diet). There is no free energy to maintain a positive mental image, and we return to the gravitational center of reality, where we are dissatisfied with ourselves.

We absolutely naturally associate a healthy weight with a healthy diet. We understand that in order to lose weight and stay at the new weight, you need to start eating right. To start eating right, you need to want to eat right!

Oh, if only one could use volitional effort in order to want to eat right!

To find a solution, you need to honestly look deeper into the problem. Ask yourself a question:

What prevents me personally from starting to eat right?

The obvious answer, one that resonates with most of us, is that we associate healthy eating with bland, unpalatable foods that we must force ourselves to eat. Sweets and cakes, on the contrary, add bright colors to our life.

It is not that we eat too many sweets, smoked meats or baked goods that makes us fat. What makes us complete is the fact that we eat it automatically.

Unconscious eating.

With TV and YouTube, when our attention is captured by the story on the screen, we eat much more than we need to maintain a healthy life.

Contrary to the concept of multitasking, or the ability of a person to perform many tasks at the same time, we achieve maximum efficiency by concentrating on one task at a time. An attempt to combine myriads of actions leads to the fact that we become practically unable to fully perform any of them. We get the result: one task, usually emotionally involving (TV / YouTube), drags all conscious attention onto itself, leaving the rest of the tasks to the care of the subconscious (the nutrition process).

Our subconscious attitude to tasty, high-calorie food as a source of pleasure is formed in our youth. This attitude is intensified by the behavior of parents based on the introduction of incentives, rewards and punishments. The little man grows up equating goodies with rewards ("First you finish this disgusting soup, and then you get the long-awaited chocolate bar").

As we grow up, we gain a sense of control over our lives. And if the reactions of other people, events occurring against our will, and negative emotions that overwhelm us every now and then, we are not in power to control (although we are trying very hard), control over the pleasure that we get from food remains in our hands. We create pleasure for ourselves artificially where it is within our control. Being overweight is a side effect of such pleasures.

It is not surprising that the more a person tries to control the reality slipping through his fingers, the more prone he is to gaining excess weight.

You've probably noticed that naturally slender people have some kind of inner lightness. No matter how much such a person eats, due to the absence of bodily clamps and the accompanying spontaneity, ease of movement, the eaten does not linger in his body. Such people are naturally mobile and relaxed.

You might get the impression that the lack of concentration on a set of extra pounds, by analogy with the lack of concentration on eating in front of the TV, should increase the effect of high-calorie foods on the human body. Why is it the other way around?

It is necessary to learn to distinguish between concentration and control. You don't want your whole life to revolve around maintaining a healthy body, do you? Life is multifaceted. You should not reduce everything and everyone to achieving success in only one, narrowly defined area!

Diets, forced healthy lifestyles, titanic loads and painful surgical interventions are all superficial solutions to a deeply entrenched problem. Believing that after a grueling diet a healthy weight will begin to maintain itself is as ridiculous as hoping that cutting off the stem will destroy the root and the plant will not continue to grow!

My task today is to help you get started on the psychological aspect of losing weight.

Step one - learn to relax

Start by looking at where and how you continue to play the role of your punishing and rewarding parent.

Pay attention to the areas in which the incentive-punitive process has taken root in your life. What manifestations does it have? Start writing down the situations in which you choose to reward yourself with food. It is likely that you will come to the conclusion that goodies serve as support and encouragement for you. Support that you reward yourself with - which you can easily control. The very realization of this fact will help to reach a new level of communication with food.

Dancing, massage, vocals, meditation, tai chi - any practice based on body relaxation will help you establish contact with mental freedom. Don't put off your favorite hobby for later! Be in a flowing state often. Contrary to what our well-meaning parents taught us, let me assure you that being mildly hungry is normal! You will not die or get hurt if your favorite activity distracts you from eating for several hours. Your organs are looking forward to a little vacation!

Step two - learn to eat mindfully

Gastronomic rewards work because when we overeat, we learn not to notice the negative consequences: bloating, decreased vitality, blurred mind, drowsiness, creative crises, guilt, lack of self-esteem, self-flagellation, self-doubt, etc. When we were children, adults put in our heads a series of prisms through which we see reality. We have forgotten how to hear ourselves and trust our navigation system. Let us support you: all programs installed in us can be recycled and deliberately replaced.

Set yourself the following goal: throughout the week you will eat whatever you want, but on the condition that your attention is directed solely to the process of eating. Eat both sweets and cakes, eat sausages, sausages - BUT pay attention to how much portion you need to get satiated. At one point, you will get bored with eating. You will feel the urge to start new business.

Important: this exercise should be done practically, not mentally. You cannot stop overeating by intellectually understanding the reasons for overeating. Intellectual understanding is not enough!

Mindful eating is a practical technique that can help you eat less without forcing yourself to eat and cook things you don't like. Fighting obesity therefore remains a struggle, which implies an element of violence. If you've spent part of your life fighting pounds, you know how emotionally difficult it is to force yourself to eat certain foods if you don't like them.

Step three - with the curiosity of a scientist, observe how you feel after certain foods

Hamburgers and fries with sauce make you feel depressed and sleepy - but is it really so? Check it out in practice. Over time, your awareness will grow and you will genuinely stop trying to stuff yourself with foods that sabotage your well-being.

An additional step (but fundamental!) - learn not to judge overweight people

If you notice that obese people dislike you, it is an indicator that you are negatively attuned to your obesity. The more diligently you learn to accept yourself, the less judgment will arise. To learn more about the mechanism of judgment and overcoming it, read my article “How to Love People? Chronic hostility."

Remember, in order to start eating right, you need to sincerely want to eat right. Conscious attention to the causes of unhealthy eating can give you a new position, from which excess weight will disappear over time. A healthy position is the key to success.

Lilia Cardenas, integral psychologist, psychotherapist

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