|
  |
|
|
Use brain science to help you lose weight and keep it off
By Larry Barkan
You have to transform your thinking to transform your body. This isn’t rocket science but it is brain science. Let me explain. A woman I was having lunch with was telling me about the spiritual retreat she had just returned from. At the retreat, she had learned a spiritual practice that she had been committed to doing every day. When she returned from the retreat, she did the practice every day the first week. Then she did it four times the second week. The third week found her practicing only twice and, in the last two weeks, she hadn’t practiced at all. She was asking me why I thought she was failing to do something she had so clearly been committed to do. Does this sound familiar to you in your struggles with weight loss? Have you ever found yourself wondering why you are failing to keep your commitments even as you are eating that dessert? I encourage you to stop looking for the psychological reason why you are failing to keep your commitments. For example, I know people who, after years of therapy, now know that they over eat to get back at their parents who were critical of them when they were growing up. But knowing this makes no difference (in fact, in many cases, their parents had long since passed away). They still over eat. Even after you have a complete explanation for your failure to keep your weight off, you still have to keep your weight off. Knowing makes no difference. Only action will produce results. Consider that whatever we do, we do because we’ve trained ourselves to do it. You know that you have to train your muscles to get stronger. Well, you have to train your brain to change your habits. And the only way to train your brain to change habits is to change habits and do so repeatedly until the new behavior becomes an old habit. Change is uncomfortable not because there is something inherently uncomfortable about the change but rather because our old habits pull us back into old ways of behaving. We literally miss the old way.
For example, I haven’t eaten bread for two years. But when I was in France and they put those delicious smelling rolls on the table, you’d better believe I was tempted. But my new habit was stronger than the old one. Here's where the brain science enters the picture. With repetition, certain neural connections in our brain become “hard wired.” In some cases, it took years to create those connections and it may take years to make new connections. I’ve loved bread, for example, ever since I was a child. I remember, in fact, eating a full meal and then eating bread as though it were a dessert. Those who lose weight and keep it off have simply spent sufficient time creating new connections and, therefore, new habits that are stronger than the old habits. I’ve simply been avoiding bread long enough that I now have a new habit. It’s why we say that “time heals all wounds” (or time wounds all heels). Permanent weight loss is permanent because people have been willing to tolerate the discomfort of making those new neural connections permanent. Permanent weight loss occurs, by definition, over time. Whatever you choose to do to keep your weight off permanently, do it repeatedly until it is permanently a new habit.
Since 1984, I have been an an author, consultant and motivational speaker. I help people achieve breakthrough results in their lives. I am committed to helping people breakthrough their largely self imposed limitations in order to have power, freedom and full self expression in their lives. I am the author of "Everyone Wins! Playing The Game Of Conflict Resolution In All Your Relationships," "Present and Persuade: Create Talks and Speeches That Capture Hearts and Change Minds" and "Choose To Lose Weight: Transform Your Thinking To Transform Your Body."
|
|
 |
|
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
Maybe they should start having warning labels on bread like they do on cigarettes. SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Eating bread can cause obesity. Come to think about it that hasn't worked very well on cigarettes.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Maybe a stronger warning is needed: "Consuming this product will make you look and feel like you're pregnant. You will experience intense periods of nausea and cramps. Flowers will grow in your belly and you will ferment like beer." Or something to that effect. Good to hear from you.
Great intel. Making diet and exercise a habit is the key to long term success.
 | | dnewman Nov 21, 2011 19:42 |  appreciated |
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks for the comment.
Fermenting like beer might actually cause some people to eat more bread.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
It's 4 AM and I just read your comment and laughed. Thanks for brightening what is still night here.
The copyright for this content entitled "Use brain science to help you lose weight and keep it off" has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied, distributed, and modified, as long as a) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page, and b) if the work is modified, the result is distributed with this same license.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://barkan.qondio.com/
|
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
