You could live a healthy life at a healthy weight all your life, then suddenly life will through a curveball (relationship problems, lose your job, illness in the family, work stress, or any other of life’s little surprises) and change your eating habits into a crutch. Now your new eating routine becomes a habit and now it’s harder to get back on track.
The psychology of food
Food plays a big role in your brain functions and mood. Food makes you happy which is nice during during those blue periods we all cycle through. Food is there when you need a change of brain chemicals to get your mind in a better place. It worked once so why not try it again. Wow it worked again this is great. Hmm I’m bored maybe if I eat something it won’t be so bad. Now you just created a new habit. Instead of just eating to pass time you have to find something to pass time so you don’t eat. The relationship between your brain and food is a very close one. When stuck into an eating habit our brains will send chemicals to our bodies to regulate our food intake by making us hungry. Though you are consciously thinking and are aware of your dieting goals your brain is involuntarily sending signals to your body that tell you that you need to eat making it an internal struggle to keep your hands out of the cookie jar.
A diet wont work without will power
The best diet and exercise plan do nothing if you can’t stay with it. The most important factor in dieting is Willpower. Never surrender to those weak moments. A lot easier said then done. No doubt we all go into dieting with the eye of the tiger and desire to fight off all temptations. The problem is that dieting is a long process and it’s hard to stay motivated with so many other things going on in life. Two weeks later and the panic starts to set in. I don’t see any results. I miss the foods I love. If this isn’t going to work I’m not going to starve myself. Just like that you give up on yourself without ever giving yourself a fair chance.
Eating every two hours can make things a lot less overwhelming for you. It’s a lot easier to hold back on seconds knowing that your next meal is only 2 hours away. As a bonus this will even help your metabolism. If you don’t overfill your stomach your body can finish its workload of digesting the food you just ate and use it as energy instead of being overwhelmed, unable to catch up, and ultimately just storing the excess food for later as fat. When your metabolism is optimized in such a way you will be more focused, alert, and energized.
Step 3 start consuming that many calories per day by eating every 2 hours.
This is a very aggressive way to diet and will be hell in the beginning but ultimately will be easier. All the struggles will be upfront and over with once you get used to your new routine. It’s like pulling off a band aid. With a conventional diet you will cut back so much, lose some weight, and either get stuck were you are because you’re at a maintenance level with your new weight, or you will cut back again and guess what that means… that’s right now that you finally got comfortable with your new routine you get to start all over and readjust to another cut in calories. Most people will just give up. Increase your odds of success. Make one big change and be set.
We all tried to hang in with extreme diets and felt the soul crushing sting of defeat stuck in an undesired body with no hope of getting out of it. Never being thin and feeling unfairly disadvantaged, or once being thin but somehow got sidetracked and slowly found yourself off the trail stranded, alone and lost wondering if you will ever get back to where you once were. We feel guilty and sad about what we have become so we punish ourselves with the most extreme fast working diets we can find. Caught off guard we get hit with a moment of weakness. No, food won’t get you through this one fatty! Why not? Because I’m dieting and losing weight. Well how long has it been and how much weight have we lost? Not enough . Well, being sad and fat with no means of comfort is worse than just being fat. And just like that, you’re off the wagon. Being overweight is a vicious cycle that feeds into itself. That’s why you should make sure to leave room in your diet for the foods you love. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Of course eat these foods within the framework of the diet. If your favorite meal is 700 calories make up for those calories by cutting them from other meals throughout the day. Remember diets work slowly but surely. So give yourself time to succeed and it will all get easier as your body adjusts and your habits change.
