I've been reading this book in my spare time for the past week. I've enjoyed it. I've learned a lot about my body. Like I'm learning the same words my husband is learning in his anatomy class! Okay a little less in depth than that, but it's very educational, on a very basic level. Here's a quick summary of what I've learned:
Losing weight is about changing your brain chemistry by eating the right foods. If you are trying to fight the battle of the bulge with sheer willpower you will lose 98% of the time. You psych yourself up, tell yourself you can do it, you are smart, you are strong, you can resist the twinkies. But eventually you'll cave. Because the chemistry signals from your brain are strong. In the book you actually learn the name of all the chemicals, what parts of the brain are involved, etc.
Starvation mode is real. When you fast for more than 12 hours your metabolism drops by 40%. Which is why eating breakfast is so important. You lose weight by eating. The right foods of course.
Anyway I just hit a part this is my absolute favorite so far because it summarizes my emotions perfectly. I'm actually going to try to copy it word for word because I love it so much. I hope I'm not breaking any copyright laws.
One of the psychological realities of being overweight is that many dieters - that is, people who know they need to lose weight and want to - are somewhat comfortable with their bodies. Yes, that body that may be twenty, thirty, forty, or more pounds heavier than it was the day she turned 18. But maybe she's used to post pregnancy weight, she enjoys Friday lunches with her friends, or she can't face a total wardrobe overhaul. It's who she is - and she's more comfortable living her life at that level than going through the struggles and hard work (not to mention the guilt and shame) of trying to shed weight.
So the dieter has two choices: She can remain on top of the hill where she's currently standing and (relatively) comfortable. Or she can try to get to the top of that beautiful mountain in the distance - the ultimate destination for all of her weight-loss goals. There, on the mountain, she'll find smaller sizes, leaf size bikinis..., higher self esteem and probably few health risks. Maybe that's where she'd ideally like to be. But the problem is that there's no easy bridge from that comfort zone of the hill to the peak of the mountain. To get there, she she must travel all the way down from her current comfort level, hit some rough terrain along the way, then climb, climb, climb, her way up this seemingly insurmountable incline. So she asks: Is it worth it to go through all the hard work to reach the top of the ideal mountain, or am I comfortable enough with where I'm standing right now?
It's easier to stay at the current comfort level at a less than ideal size than it is to go through a short period of somewhat uncomortable change - doing things like developing a physical activity program, or avoiding drive-throughs, or changing menus, or going through periods of hunger and irritability.....
So what we have to do is build that bridge - that bridge of smart food choices, of exercise discipline, or working smart, not hard. And we have to support the bridge with strategies and tactics that allow you to make wrong steps without falling completely into the abyss of chocolate nougat. How do we do it? By getting started. Right now. With small steps that lead to big changes.
Sometimes we think motivation to start a program has to come first, but oftentimes the motivation comes after the action: Make a small change (be it walking 30 minutes a day, or eating nuts before dinner to keep you full) and suddenly you feel motivated to make more changes - and to succeed.
[And then talks a bit about the program that it's in the following chapters]
Okay so this is so me. I am pretty comfortable where I'm at. But I do want to be at the top of that beautiful mountain. I thought this was a great analogy. And I can expound much more but I have babies needing my attention. And sorry if there are a million typos in this post, I've had babies on my lap, stealing my book, and writing on my legs while I've typed.
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