Getting Out of Your Own Way
People on a weight loss journey tend to fall into one of three basic behavioral categories: Those who are highly motivated and do whatever it takes, sometimes to their own detriment; Those who are motivated, believe they’re motivated or are motivated by someone else in their lives and rise to the occasion; Those who appreciate the idea but are not overly interested in making any dietary changes or making any long term behavioral changes to achieve their stated goals.
People who fall into the first category will change their diet, sometimes to the extent of extreme dieting, exercise like crazy and even resort to potentially dangerous medications to reach their goals. The ones that resort to extremes will fail in the long run, having adopted an unsustainable approach. The ones in this category who learn about nutrition and make sound dietary and lifestyle changes achieve their goals and maintain them long term. They need minimal or no guidance once they’ve made up their minds or require some guidance to pull them back from extreme choices.
People in the second category genuinely want to lose weight but may not know where to start or how to proceed. They may have heard or read quite a bit, finding it all overwhelming or have difficulty sorting fact from misinformation. These people benefit the most from a little external guidance and organization and periodic reinforcement as they find their way through their journey. They learn to embrace the changes needed to achieve and maintain their goals as long as those changes are realistic.
People in the third category have the most difficulty achieving their weight loss goals. They recognize the need to lose weight and its benefits. They even acknowledge the need to make changes in order to achieve their goals but they have little to no interest in making realistic diet and lifestyle changes. The excuses are myriad. “I hate rabbit food!” “I never had this much trouble losing weight when I was (fill in any age here, usually remote from one’s current age)…” “…But I like/love (fill in any favorite food here)…!” “I really don’t eat that much…” “I don’t have time to exercise!” “I can’t/refuse to give up (fill in ‘hill-to-die-on’ food here)…!” Furthermore, it is often surprising to them that reducing calorie intake is just as important as making balanced dietary choices to optimize nutrition and lose weight.
You get the idea.
As a society, we have come to rely on the convenience of prepared and processed meals to fit eating into a busy lifestyle, to the sacrifice of sound nutrition. Basic nutrition is no longer taught in school. The ‘traditional’ family idea has been largely supplanted by households with single or multiple-parent households in which all available parents work, sometimes long hours, at the expense of the time required to shop for and prepare balanced meals daily. The newer meal services, such as Cook Unity and Hello Fresh, offset this a bit with fresher, healthier options on rotating menus, but the mainstay has become processed, quick prep grocery store meals, and fast food restaurants, which you can now have delivered to your door through various smart phone apps. These are all easy to personalize for differing tastes and can even be scheduled for delivery timed to your arrival home. Restaurant dining is also returning, with establishments increasingly listing the calorie content of each selection directly on the menus and offering lower calorie options.
If I’ve learned nothing else through personal experience and formal education, if one’s current diet and behavioral habits have led to being overweight or obese, losing the gained weight and recovering from deconditioning will require sustained changes in attitude, diet and behavior. No one has ever solved a problem by continuing the behavior that created it in the first place. When guiding my patients from bad habits to better habits, I generally review their diet, dietary preferences, cravings, activities and exercise habits. Most people only require a gentle nudge in a productive direction. Others need more structure. I make suggestions for changes gradually, letting those changes become new habits that supplant the old. I guide them to educate themselves on the concept of a balanced diet and healthy eating habits adaptable to their preferences. We discuss weight loss program designs such as ‘low carb’, ‘no carb’, ‘low fat’, ‘intermittent fasting’, ‘low calorie’, etc., along with the ramifications of any that come up in the discussions. The bottom line is that any meaningful effort to lose weight will always require an honest appraisal of current diet and lifestyle habits and a willingness to permanently change the behaviors that work against success.
