I've been doing some reading lately on the psychology of weight loss and its been a huge eye-opener for me. I have come to realise a few little truths which I know will make a big difference. With these little truths on board I have come to a decision- to join weight watchers again. I did weight watchers about 6 years ago and got to my goal weight very easily and became a lifetime member. Why I left is something ive always regretted and after reading into the psychology of weight loss ive realised that WW is the best program for me. So with this new chapter id like to welcome back any readers out there to follow along with a new looking blog.
Firstly, im going to share some of the things that really struck a chord for me and have had my little brain ticking over the last few days. The book I read is 'weight loss for food lovers', by Dr. George Blair-West. Dr. George is a psychotherapist who helps clients work through their psychological issues with weightloss and the techniques & truths he talks about are so true.
One thing that really stuck with me is what he calls 'Immediacy". Its when our minds block out the thought of the pain we would suffer in say, 40yrs time, from chronic illness such as diabetes or heart disease which is caused by foods we get immediate pleasure from. And pleasure always defeats pain. Its about training your mind to look at the food you eat and ask yourself if this food will lead to a chronic illness in your future and are you prepared to deal with that pain for the immediate pleasure you would get now? I can understand for some people this would be hard to visualise if they have never been exposed to people with chronic, debilitating diseases before and for me I also believe its hard being a nurse as I think im abit desensitised from it as I deal with it everyday in my job. If all nurses actually stopped and paid attention to this fact there would be alot more healthy nurses! After all, there are heaps of overweight nurses out there (me included!)
Another great topic was to distinguish between 'effort' and 'self-discipline'. Dr. George talks about how we need to focus our efforts on the things that will make all the difference and direct our energies from the things that wont. He talks about how its easier to make an 'effort' to put practices in place that make life easier instead of trying to 'self-discipline' our lives around things that are difficult. To put it more simply, it is easier for me to put a little effort into requesting Thursday mornings off at work to go to a WW meeting then to miss a meeting and feel guilty about it and then try 'self-disciplining' and beating myself up for it later and probably falling off track. Putting in a little effort to have my meals prepared for the next day if I know im going to be busy. Its about putting the effort into preparing our 'outside world' so we our plans for weightloss run more smoothly.
There are still alot of other topics I want to discuss but will leave it at this for now. This is just to let you know im back and in the right frame of mind this time. And its exciting. Its exciting to finding an understanding as to some of the reasons ive failed before and it makes sense this time. Its still very early days but I look forward to understanding it even further and bringing to this blog more frequent updates about my progress.
XOXO
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