I just tried to read some new book on how you can change your brain to help your body become healthier. What a rip off! Thankfully, I got it from the library so I am not out the $25.99 it costs to find out what you already know and have heard in every self-help/diet guide there is. You know, get more sleep, don't eat junk, more healthy food, get exercise, blah, blah blah. My favorite one is, "use willpower!'
How can I use something I have little of and don't know how to strengthen it, if you don't tell me how? I think that would be more helpfull. Telling someone to use willpower is not enough. Give somebody the tools to strengthen or even develop willpower in the first place! It's like telling a dog to do a trick without teaching it the trick first!
Maybe that is the problem with our diet craving society and why diets don't work. We go with deny, deny, deny. No wonder people crash and yo-yo diet! What fruit is the most desired? That's right, forbidden fruit. Why do you think kids (and ALL of us did this when we were younger too) gorge themselves on junk, or do stupid things after you tell them not too? Because if the grown-ups told you not to jump on the bed, it MUST be FUN, unitl you fall off and crack your head on the cement floor, missing the carpet by a mere 1/4".....I digress.
So, if you deny yourself the really bad for you treat you want, that's all you think about. That's all you see around you, and why situations like a party are so hard to deal with. Will power is a term that is used in diet books and self-help books a lot, and is the excuse used by people on why people gain weight. Will power is not the big, bad wolf that blows you house down everytime.
Will power, to me, is a myth. I think it is something that has been invented to make the rest of us feel bad. There are so many mental,emotional, and yes, real medical reasons why people eat how they do and why. For most of us, we have some kind of family/ethinic background with foood involved. Most of us have parents who had parents who lived through the Depression, and were taught "waste not, want not", and to clean your plate.
It has been proven that consistant overeating shuts off your body's natural "I'm full" response. Most of us were taught to "clean our plates" even if we were full, we ate it anyway. I see parents now who give small children adult portions on adult plates, and expect their kids to eat all of it. See a pattern here? How about the "you're too skinny, eat some more!" attitudes that some ethnic traditions have. You know, hospitality to guests, guests must be fed, etc. Eating to be polite? See a pattern here?
How are we supposed to have "will power" if this is how we were raised? It is a part of us and no one tell us how to counteract it....
My feeling is this, eat what you want, just eat less of it. If you normally eat 6 cookies, at 5, then 4, then 3, etc. until you get down to the actuall portion size. Eat well, and when you know something is coming up, don't follow the diet that day. You will be surprised at how little you will acutally go off the plan. Drink more water. If you don't drink any, start small and work your way up to what you should drink every day. Park a little further away when shopping.
All of this is common sense, which I know is dying a slow death in this country. You don't need fancy books to do what's right, just be sensible.
We're all in this together, and I'm rooting for you.
How can I use something I have little of and don't know how to strengthen it, if you don't tell me how? I think that would be more helpfull. Telling someone to use willpower is not enough. Give somebody the tools to strengthen or even develop willpower in the first place! It's like telling a dog to do a trick without teaching it the trick first!
Maybe that is the problem with our diet craving society and why diets don't work. We go with deny, deny, deny. No wonder people crash and yo-yo diet! What fruit is the most desired? That's right, forbidden fruit. Why do you think kids (and ALL of us did this when we were younger too) gorge themselves on junk, or do stupid things after you tell them not too? Because if the grown-ups told you not to jump on the bed, it MUST be FUN, unitl you fall off and crack your head on the cement floor, missing the carpet by a mere 1/4".....I digress.
So, if you deny yourself the really bad for you treat you want, that's all you think about. That's all you see around you, and why situations like a party are so hard to deal with. Will power is a term that is used in diet books and self-help books a lot, and is the excuse used by people on why people gain weight. Will power is not the big, bad wolf that blows you house down everytime.
Will power, to me, is a myth. I think it is something that has been invented to make the rest of us feel bad. There are so many mental,emotional, and yes, real medical reasons why people eat how they do and why. For most of us, we have some kind of family/ethinic background with foood involved. Most of us have parents who had parents who lived through the Depression, and were taught "waste not, want not", and to clean your plate.
It has been proven that consistant overeating shuts off your body's natural "I'm full" response. Most of us were taught to "clean our plates" even if we were full, we ate it anyway. I see parents now who give small children adult portions on adult plates, and expect their kids to eat all of it. See a pattern here? How about the "you're too skinny, eat some more!" attitudes that some ethnic traditions have. You know, hospitality to guests, guests must be fed, etc. Eating to be polite? See a pattern here?
How are we supposed to have "will power" if this is how we were raised? It is a part of us and no one tell us how to counteract it....
My feeling is this, eat what you want, just eat less of it. If you normally eat 6 cookies, at 5, then 4, then 3, etc. until you get down to the actuall portion size. Eat well, and when you know something is coming up, don't follow the diet that day. You will be surprised at how little you will acutally go off the plan. Drink more water. If you don't drink any, start small and work your way up to what you should drink every day. Park a little further away when shopping.
All of this is common sense, which I know is dying a slow death in this country. You don't need fancy books to do what's right, just be sensible.
We're all in this together, and I'm rooting for you.