Single Biggest Mistake During Weight Loss Journey
- Jay Joshi
- Jun 10, 2021
- 4 min read
Today's blog is not a part of any series. This is a special blog for sharing out some invaluable sources to know about your body especially the food aspect of it. I know the blog title says about weight loss. Most of you might be happy with the shape they have but many of us suffer from obesity at one point in life. In other words, an abusive relationship with the food we eat.
Note: All this information is taken from the Bright Line eating Food Freedom-2021 hosted and founded by Dr Susan Pierce Thompson. I don't take any credits for the content, Just found it worth sharing. For more details, I'll link you to the bright-line eating page at the end of this blog.
So, starting with our topic - What is the single best hurdle in the weight loss journey? - maybe food, cravings, hunger or some other common things.
Does anything else come to your mind? - According to many studies, the single biggest mistake in a weight loss journey is Relying on Willpower or rather Self Control in general!
Yes, it might sound a bit weird but that's it. Willpower (Self Control) can simply be defined as the ability to resist temptations in order to achieve long term goals. But what kind of long term goal should weight loss be? We need food to survive rather than survive for food. Right? But most of us lose track and get back on the habit of rash eating.
Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
This whole mechanism of losing track to our willpower is known as the Willpower Gap. For instance, let us consider a scenario - you have been working on a diet plan for 4 days and the choices you need to make throughout the day were tough. Then you attend a party or a ceremony where you find yourself standing in a queue taking you to the food you crave. Would you stay on your track towards a healthy diet plan or would you like to reward yourself for the temptations you have been avoiding for the last 4 days? - The answer might seem obvious to you, following your diet plan and persevere through it. But most of the people become the victim of the second option.
If you still think you were the one sticking to your plan by implementing option 1 then I want to explain to you another aspect that has been proven to be the second mistake/trap we fall into. EXERCISE is the next big mistake that makes you the victim of the Willpower Gap.
Exercising should be about rewarding the body with endorphins and strength. Not about punishing your body for what you’ve eaten.
Most of the people have a tendency to think that exercise is the main thing in the journey of weight loss. But that's not true - your weight loss totally depends on the food and your eating habits. I am not a hater of Exercise - it's great, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, improves brain and cognitive functioning, stabilises our blood pressure and much more. But Exercise does not hold the key to weight loss.
In fact, think of the tedious effort you put in your exercise - you burned your calories. Good, but if you find a store providing your favourite dish or snack, you might want to have a chunk of it after all the efforts you put in. The reward system of our brain (anterior cingulate cortex) or rather the willpower battery is not charged enough to resist the temptation of having your favourite snack. So, you have a chunk of your favourite dish and then the calories you have burnt during the workout are again back to your circulatory system.
Solution:
You might want to purchase a journal for this (your choice as per your requirements). Have you ever missed out on your brushing routine at any point in your life? - No, you haven't missed out on any day whether you might be sick, or getting late to work/school or any such odd occasions (there might be some exceptions but not more than 0.13%).
Why do you think would this simple thing bother me much? - because it is under the influence of the autonomic nervous system and not the anterior cingulate cortex. So the solution to our problem is to devoid ourselves of the choices we need to make in our food and eating habits.
This might sound silly yet somewhat logical - as soon as you finish your dinner, plan and write down the things you might want to eat during the next day (the foods which are part of your healthy diet plan). Take a sticky note and note down those foods and stick it to your refrigerator. When you wake up the next morning, prepare your food accordingly and pack it in your bag. That's it, you have left no choices for yourself that might challenge your willpower to resist temptations.
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