You may have heard that you can change any bad eating habit in 21
days. So have you tried it? Did it work? Did you miraculously stop
craving sugary snacks in the afternoon? Did you successfully give up
bedtime snacking? The chances are that your 21 day habit change did not
stick. But, you can change your weight loss habits in a relatively short
period of time and with a few little mental tricks you can speed up
this change.
If you have been overweight for a long time, then you probably know that at least a portion of your problem has to do with your habits. We, as human beings, are creatures of habit. We tend to wake up at the same time each day and we tend to eat at the same time each day. We do this on autopilot, and for good reason.
Your brain tries to create habits because this frees thinking time so you can take care of new tasks. For example, have you ever driven home and pulled into your driveway and realized that you didn't remember any of your trip? This is because the brain prefers to be on autopilot.
Your bad eating habits are the same way. At certain times of the day you get a thought that says, "Now is the time of day that I get tired and head to the vending machine." This thought causes you to get up from your desk and start searching your pockets for change without a conscious thought as to whether or not you are hungry.
If you decide that you are going to take the next 21 days and force yourself to not visit the vending machine, without addressing these thoughts that are on autopilot, then at the end of the 21 days you will pat yourself on the back for reaching your goal... and head to the vending machine.
To really change your bad eating habits, you need to stick with your new habits for much longer than 21 days. In fact, from personal experience and from experience working with many clients trying to change bad eating habits, the amount of time needed to change is about 8 months.
However, you can change your bad eating habits much faster with a couple of easy mental tricks.
1. Know your hunger number. This is a simple trick, but you will need some practice to get good. Your task is to ask yourself throughout the day, "How hungry is my belly?" Then rate your hunger on a scale of 0 to 10 with zero being not hungry at all. After a couple of days you will realize that true "belly hunger" is much different than "false hunger" where you just eat, because it sounds like a fun thing to do.
2. Use Stoppers. One of the most common bad eating habits is eating past the point of being full. To speed up your shift away from this bad eating habit, start to use "stoppers." This is simply something you do to stop yourself from eating BEFORE you normally would.
For instance, if you have a 12 inch sub in front of you, then eat half of the sub, and then use a "stopper." You might want to pop a piece of chewing gum in your mouth or a menthol flavored mint. A "stopper" allows you to move away from the bad habit of overeating and gives your brain time to realize that you are actually full.
Use these two quick and easy tricks to change your bad eating habits and you will find that you naturally lose weight, even without stressful diets and exhausting exercise.
If you have been overweight for a long time, then you probably know that at least a portion of your problem has to do with your habits. We, as human beings, are creatures of habit. We tend to wake up at the same time each day and we tend to eat at the same time each day. We do this on autopilot, and for good reason.
Your brain tries to create habits because this frees thinking time so you can take care of new tasks. For example, have you ever driven home and pulled into your driveway and realized that you didn't remember any of your trip? This is because the brain prefers to be on autopilot.
Your bad eating habits are the same way. At certain times of the day you get a thought that says, "Now is the time of day that I get tired and head to the vending machine." This thought causes you to get up from your desk and start searching your pockets for change without a conscious thought as to whether or not you are hungry.
If you decide that you are going to take the next 21 days and force yourself to not visit the vending machine, without addressing these thoughts that are on autopilot, then at the end of the 21 days you will pat yourself on the back for reaching your goal... and head to the vending machine.
To really change your bad eating habits, you need to stick with your new habits for much longer than 21 days. In fact, from personal experience and from experience working with many clients trying to change bad eating habits, the amount of time needed to change is about 8 months.
However, you can change your bad eating habits much faster with a couple of easy mental tricks.
1. Know your hunger number. This is a simple trick, but you will need some practice to get good. Your task is to ask yourself throughout the day, "How hungry is my belly?" Then rate your hunger on a scale of 0 to 10 with zero being not hungry at all. After a couple of days you will realize that true "belly hunger" is much different than "false hunger" where you just eat, because it sounds like a fun thing to do.
2. Use Stoppers. One of the most common bad eating habits is eating past the point of being full. To speed up your shift away from this bad eating habit, start to use "stoppers." This is simply something you do to stop yourself from eating BEFORE you normally would.
For instance, if you have a 12 inch sub in front of you, then eat half of the sub, and then use a "stopper." You might want to pop a piece of chewing gum in your mouth or a menthol flavored mint. A "stopper" allows you to move away from the bad habit of overeating and gives your brain time to realize that you are actually full.
Use these two quick and easy tricks to change your bad eating habits and you will find that you naturally lose weight, even without stressful diets and exhausting exercise.
Losing the weight is possible but there are things you must do.
Get the complete picture of How To Lose Weight in my Free WEIGHT LOSS BLUEPRINT.
If you are considering going on a diet you need to read The Weight Loss Blueprint to get started the right way.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Becky_Gillaspy
No comments:
Post a Comment