Do This Instead of Relying on Willpower for Weight Loss
WILLPOWER FAILS FOR SUSTAINABLE WEIGHT LOSS
More often than not will power fails in the face of daily choices to support weight loss, even if we have the best intentions. So what do you do if you can’t rely on will power to affect behavior change? The solution I am going to discuss, can be a powerful change force to point you in the direction of prioritizing your long-term health goals over in the moment temptations, while still participating in all the elements of food that bring you joy.
INTRODUCING A POSSIBLE WEIGHT LOSS SOLUTION FOR EMOTIONAL EATERS
Thinking of food choices in the backdrop of a “weight loss journey” can be anxiety provoking. We face so many food choices daily, and even with the best of intentions, more often than not will power fails. Reverting to the safety of our comfort zone and our unique mode of operating is human nature; it’s how we’ve been able to cope with our unique challenges of living thus far. So what do you do if you can’t rely on willpower to affect behavior change? While I don’t have a universal answer, I am developing a glimmer of hope for those who struggle with emotional eating contributing to yo-yo dieting.
EMOTIONAL EATING IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE COPING STRATEGY
I argue that it all starts with noticing and naming. But before I explain what I mean by that, let's define emotional eating. Simply put, emotional eating refers to over eating during unhappy, uneasy or dissatisfied mood states. This is common, and may have served as an effective coping strategy during a challenging time in your life. Like most coping strategies, emotional eating is helpful until it becomes harmful. If you have noticed that your weight gain or regain is linked to emotional eating episodes, then I think it's safe to say that emotional eating is no longer helpful, but harmful.
INTRODUCING MINDFUL EATING AND JOURNALING AS A HELPFUL TOOL FOR WEIGHT CONTROL
A daily practice that I have found helpful, once I was able to practice it with consistency, is journaling my experience of eating. This is where the noting and naming become an effective tool for behavior change over will power.
Noticing and naming my experience with different eating episodes provided a force to filter my wants and behaviors in the current moments. It gave my “stop” brain a chance to catch up to my “go” brain in favor of prioritizing the long-term goal over the short-term temptation.
MINDFUL EATING AND JOURNALING PROVIDES AN IN MOMENT FILTER TO INVESTIGATE CURRENT EATING BEHAVIOR
On the left is the current me. I am made up of my thoughts, my feelings, my life experiences, my likes and dislikes, my coping mechanisms, my personal philosophy and my personality.
On the right is the future me. The future me is happy because I’ve achieved some goal that I’ve set for myself because I found it important to do so…for example weight loss for health purposes.
And there is a gap between the current me and the future me.
How do we transform from the current me to the desired future me? In the past, I have looked to other people who appeared to be where I wanted to eventually be. Because they had achieved the goal I wanted for myself, I would think, “Oh! That method worked for them, so it will probably will work for me too!”
But that is actually the wrong way to go about this.
Attempting to implement methods that have “worked” for other people fails. It doesn’t account for the fundamental differences between people. These fundamental differences are paramount to the change process. Yet in the media, these differences aren’t fully explained, which makes evaluating the “goodness of fit” of that change method for our own change purposes impossible.
So, how do I get the current me into the future me where the gap between us is made up of my current behavior and how I operate in the world. Well ... .I need a change force to apply directly to myself.
I will represent this change force as a dashed line between the current me and the future me.
This change force filters, blocks, and gives time for the “stop” brain to catch up in the moment and help only the behaviors, thoughts and feelings that are going to be helpful to your goal to get through.
For example, as emotional eating is no longer serving as an effective coping strategy for us who struggle with yo-yo dieting due to emotional eating, emotional eating would be an element of our current selves that we aim to filter out of our operating procedures in order to support our long-term health goals.
I LOST 15 LBS IN 3 MONTHS BY MINDFUL EATING AND JOURNALING
By becoming familiar and willing to use this change force, I was able to start gaining traction on some of my wellness goals. I started doing this in October 2023 and since then I have lost 15 lbs. Equally as important as the weight loss is the building confidence that I can prioritize my long-term health in the face of current temptations. By no means am I perfect at implementing this change force daily, nor was it easy to start implementing. But once I leaned into it I saw that it started working for me in a way that made me feel good and was aligned with the way I want to live my daily life.
SEE HOW YOU CAN IMPLEMENT MINDFUL EATING AND JOURNALING FOR SUSTAINABLE WEIGHT LOSS
All you need is a desire to make meaningful change for the betterment of your long-term health and a notebook. I designed a template to help me with my own mindful eating journey. I wanted to approach each meal with joyful anticipation at the wonders of eating, rather than the anxiety and discomfort that came with trying to force myself to make healthier choices through willpower alone. This is how the Happy Eating journal began.