Could your weight-loss problems be all in your head? To battle the bulge, get your brain on your side.
You already know the secret to weight loss: eat fewer kilojoules than you burn and you’ll be zipping up those skinny jeans in no time. So why aren’t we all as svelte as Heidi Klum? Because lasting weight loss has little to do with crunching numbers.
“In focusing on kilojoules in and kilojoules out, the field of nutrition has ignored the most critical variable: behavioural and cognitive changes,” says weight-loss expert Dr Stephen Gullo.
In other words, if you don’t want to fall head first off the diet wagon the next time you get your heart broken, you have to retrain your brain. “To deal with unhealthy eating behaviour, we must challenge the thoughts, feelings and cues that have been built up over a lifetime,” says eating disorder expert Dr Cynthia Bulik.
Not to get too Freudian, but many doctors and weight-loss experts say that permanently altering your waistline means permanently altering your relationship with food. That means recognising and curbing emotional eating, of course – and exploiting your psychological make-up to make healthy eating easier. Behavioural psychologists have found that changing your negative thoughts, one by one, can eventually create a habit of positive thinking.
It’s the same with eating. And with the tips and exercises here, you won’t have to lie on a shrink’s couch to learn how.
Do your pants start pinching after a big fight with your best friend? It’s normal: women tend to use food for comfort. A US study found that we are almost twice as likely as men to binge when we’re depressed, though researchers aren’t sure why exactly. What they do know, according to research in the journalPhysiology and Behaviour, is that what women choose to fill up on is usually loaded with sugar, because eating carb-heavy foods temporarily boosts levels of serotonin – a brain chemical that regulates mood. “Brain scans have shown that some people’s brains respond to carbohydrate meals in the same way that an addict’s brain responds to drugs – once carbs or sugar are ingested, a high is experienced,” says Karen Thomson, who conceptualised SA’s first in-patient carb and sugar addiction programme at Harmony Addictions Clinic. “We often find people booking into the clinic for chemical addictions start to overeat once they have had to put down the drugs and alcohol.”
So the next time you feel like mainlining a tub of double toffee, stop, take a step back and ask yourself: what’s my emotional state right now? And why? For example: “I’m humiliated because my boss embarrassed me during a staff meeting.” Write that down, along with a list of things – unrelated to ice cream – that you can do to make yourself feel better any time you’re angry, sad or anxious. Maybe you could quietly confront the person who told your colleagues that you let one rip during a headstand in yoga class. Other good alternatives: hopping on your bike, going to see the latest Ryan Reynolds flick, playing board games with the kids. Keep this list with you so you’ll have it the next time the lady at the till asks you when your baby’s due.
Experts have found that the same people and situations can trigger emotional eating time and time again. Dr Ann Kearney- Cooke, author ofChange Your Mind, Change Your Body, suggests asking yourself these four questions: who are the three people I’m closest to? How do I eat before, after and while I’m with them? What are my expectations of them? (For example: is my boyfriend there for me when I’m having a crappy day and need someone to talk to? Does he turn off the TV when I want to spend time together without Boots & All?)
Finally, what can I do when these people don’t meet my expectations without straying from my weight-loss plan? You may find that you’re infuriated when your mom calls you during a busy workday to “chat” or that you always feel guilted into meeting your best friend over margaritas. Once you recognise these things, strategise accordingly: screen your calls so you can call your mother back when you have a free moment, or ask your friend if you can do a late dinner in lieu of happy hour.
To change your eating habits you have to know what they are. A handful of Tic Tacs, the three slices of salami you ate over the sink – all those kilojoules add up. Writing down what you eat is one of the most effective ways to control your weight, plain and simple. Record every morsel that passes your lips – from your morning coffee to the free hors d’oeuvre sample you scored at the supermarket. Write down the time of day you ate it, plus what you were doing before and afterwards. The point of all this anal behaviour? You’ll start noticing patterns that you can easily fix. For example, if you find yourself supporting the snack lady at 3pm every day, you may realise you just want something to kick you out of your afternoon slump. Go for a short walk instead – it can have the same pick-me-up effect as a samoosa. “However, if the underlying (emotional) reasons for mindless eating are not addressed, no amount of journalling will help,” warns Thomson.
Here’s a shocker: the way you feel about yourself strongly affects how successful you are at weight loss. “Many of these foods make us feel better as we have learnt to associate them with reward – such as a child getting an ice cream because she behaved well,” says Thomson. “What starts to happen is people begin to believe they need external substances to make them happy.”
“People who are trying to lose weight are often held back by negative core beliefs about themselves, their capabilities, their attractiveness and their worth as human beings,” agrees cognitive therapist and weight management specialist Dr Rene Zweig. Challenge these beliefs with an exercise that Zweig gives her patients – it sounds cheesy, but it works. Write “I am” 20 times along the left side of a sheet of paper, then fill in the blanks on the right. Answers can vary from positive things (“I am good at making people laugh”) to negative ones (“I am an unlovable cow”). Take out the list every night and write down something that happened that day that’s inconsistent with each negative statement. For example, for “I am a failure at work,” write “I met all my deadlines.” Doing this every day for a week will show you that the facts don’t support your beliefs. Continuing to challenge the negative thoughts about yourself with little reality checks will do wonders for your self esteem (and your waistline).
Eating should be an activity in itself, not something you do while you’re reading, typing up a memo, or watching Generations. It takes the brain 15 to 20 minutes to register signs of fullness, so slow down and focus. Really take the time to taste and chew your food. Try eating with your nondominant hand and putting your fork down between bites. Make the meal last at least 20 minutes, and when you feel satisfied, stop. Take these steps and we guarantee you’ll eat less than if you’d scoffed your chicken mayo between emails.
“We know from sports psychology that when people visualise themselves changing a behaviour, it’s more likely to happen,” says Kearney-Cooke. So before heading to your grandma’s (where there are enough pastries to feed the whole Bulls squad), visualise Ouma’s sweet spread – and her insistence that you dig in. Then prepare yourself to say something like: “They look delicious, Ouma, but I’m here to see you.” Once you’ve got your plan down, you’ll be better able to survive family dinners or your friend’s bridal shower unscathed.
“Recognising hunger and fullness cues is essential,” says Bulik. If you have sudden cravings for specific (usually unhealthy) foods, wolf them down till you’ve grown a food baby and feel guilty afterwards, you may be mistaking some other emotion (boredom, loneliness) for hunger, says Thomson. Real hunger comes on gradually, can be satisfied with any number of foods (including, say, a nice fresh salad), will disappear when you’ve eaten enough – not when you’ve cleaned your plate for the second time – and won’t leave you regretting the meal.
If you eat when you’re moderately hungry, not ravenous, you’ll be less likely to inhale that box of Smarties. To figure out what “moderately hungry” means, give your hunger level a numerical value between one (not hungry) and 10 (could eat a dirty running shoe) and eat only when you’re between five and seven.
To avoid level-10 hunger, eat on schedule. “One of the principal predictors of failure at weight control is skipping meals and not establishing a regular pattern of eating,” says Gullo. The first reason is physiological – the body functions more efficiently if you eat every three to four hours. The second is psychological – skipping breakfast can lead to thoughts like: I didn’t eat this morning, so I can have this giant piece of cake. Every night, write down in your food journal the times you’re going to eat the next day (say, 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm). Then stick to that plan – over time it will become a habit.
Studies show that when it comes to food cravings, the mind is easily distracted. Remember that the next time you think the only thing that will ease your discomfort during an awkward dinner with your husband’s family is one of his mom’s chocolate éclairs. “In the moment, people think their craving will last forever – or at least until they eat the food,” says Zweig. “In reality, five minutes is long enough for many people to forget they had the craving in the first place.” Set a timer, then pick up that half-knitted scarf, take a bubble bath or do a Sudoku puzzle.
It’s no secret that stress can make you tear through the cupboards faster than Fernando Alonso on race day. “When the demands in your life are really high and your resources to deal with them are low, your eating habits can suffer,” says Kearney-Cooke. Taking time to unwind is just as important to your weight-loss efforts as dieting. Set some time aside each day (even 10 minutes helps) for a little mental holiday: make a massage appointment, read a magazine or just sit somewhere quiet and breathe. Go to bed an hour earlier too. Studies show that women who don’t get enough sleep eat more than those who get their eight hours. Why? Being short on shut-eye can alter your levels of appetite-regulating hormones like ghrelin and leptin – so you mistake feeling fatigued for feeling famished.
Gullo believes it takes – gulp – a full year for dietary changes to sink in properly: “Success at weight loss is, in some ways, like overcoming a loss. When a loved one dies, you have to get through that first birthday, anniversary and festive season without the person. When changing your lifestyle, you have to get through that whole cycle without your old habits.” So take it slowly, and give yourself a big pat on the back for meeting mini goals as you go. For example, promise to buy yourself that pair of stilettos you’ve been coveting if you manage to dodge your samoosa cravings for a week.
“Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you don’t deserve a new outfit until you’ve lost weight,” Zweig says. Get those jeans now, even if they aren’t a size 10.
www.womenshealthsa.co.za
Tags: Reward Yourself, Wait Out Temptation, weight loss
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