Why Dieting Makes You Fat? – Part 2
As promised, here is the second instalment of the weight loss post, spelling out exactly why you should kick your dieting into touch for good, this is what I call the psycho bit! Cutting to the chase – the reason your diet is not working has nothing to do with fat cells or how much water your drink or your genes in fact it’s all in your head…Kind of….Bear with me, I’ll explain and I’ll make it quick.
Very few diets ever take into consideration the universal law – where the mind goes the body follows and yes I am talking about visualisation. Now, don’t get me wrong, if it really was as simple as visualising ourselves into a size 8 bikini we’d all be Victoria Secret models, but we all know that it’s not that easy… Although, seeing ourselves the way we want to be, is definitely part of it, how we feel about things and more specifically, how we feel about our food is a huge part of long term weight loss success.
We all start every diet with the best of intentions and some people do really, really well, exercising the self-control and discipline of a seasoned military commander. Carefully planning every meal for days in advance, keeping an eagle eye on both portion control and calorie counting, you know the script. They might keep that going for a few days or weeks, some people even months and then something will happen and generally speaking it’s the same thing for everyone in slightly different guises….If any of the following resonates with you keep on reading if not, go back to part one – it applies to everybody.
1) Got sad
2) Got Lonely
3) Got tired
4) Got hungry
5) Got angry
6) Got bored
7) Got happy
8) Got drunk
9) Got pressured
For some of you, the above will trigger a memory or a certain way of feeling as you recall or think about eating that special (or not so special) food alternatively it will lower our resistance to keeping the tasty little morsel at arms length – literally, which in most cases means stepping or falling off of the dieting band wagon . When it comes to the battle of emotion vs willpower, emotion is the infinitely stronger suitor and always wins out in the end.
What I’m talking about is sometimes referred to as the elastic band effect. When we deny ourselves of something that we expect to bring us pleasure, it creates a tension, imagine drawing back an elastic band with two fingers, slowly . The longer we deny ourselves the more tension we create and what happens to the elastic band once it reaches it’s own critical point, and can no longer fight against all of that tension? It either snaps or pings back in the opposite direction. In dieting terms when we fail to alter our feelings about the food that is no longer on the menu, any of the above 9 points (or more depending on what ever it is that floats your boats) either accelerates tension build up leading to snapping or pinging back. Or creates a feeling or emotion of expectation about eating the food, that you anticipate as being sooo good…You end up snapping or pinging back AKA diving back into the chocolate hobnobs.
So, what I could have said in a single sentence, is in order to make long term lasting changes to your shape you need to be able to see and believe the size you want to be AND change the way you feel about the food that will help you achieve you’re goal. I’m guessing that if you’ve got this far, you’d probably appreciate some useful pointers on how to put all of this together right? Keep your eyes peeled for my next blog post which will have some helpful hints on how it is possible to achieve your weight loss in a healthy and long lasting way.
Photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0095009/photos/27620885@N02/
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0096009/photos/redvers/
