I am strongly going to lead myself on a new journey again starting now. I just don't understand why I am always going back to my old ways when I feel so good while in the process of transforming my body/life. When I really get into the whole health kick and new way of eating, I always say that this isn't that bad, I forgot how good fruit is! Or, WOW, my body feels like it did ten years ago....I really think I have it in me to run five miles a day again. My question to you is, Why is it so hard to get back on that wagon and Why do we revert back so easily to those horrible habits? Do you guys ever feel this way?
I am just happy that I am still down 5 pnds... I quess I'm not at square one, again. CHEERS!
We expend so much extra energy monitoring calories, exercising daily, and living in a deficit means we expend energy trying to keep from eating the calories back, as our body does not like deficits.
Humans are actually quite lazy, we naturally conserve energy wherever we can. Have you ever taken a class at college, you love the topic and discussion, but the moment you hear the prof will be out of town next week and class is canceled, you rejoice?
So, just because we love something and it makes us feel good does not mean it is easy to keep up if we have to always expend extra energy doing it.
In the beginning, the healthy high is enough to keep us going. But this wears off. Eventually, we have to hope we have developed the right habits and have the right environment to keep out healthy lifestyle in check.
Our motivation, which also costs energy, will eventually run out as well. I mean, there are so many posts on this website where people are depressed - they don't understand why or when they lost the motivation. They want it back.
I'm sure there are ways to conjure up new motivation - I'm not sure what they are. Maybe an event in the future that you would like to prepare for?
So, my answer is quite physiological - it is just a guess.
I'm interested in reading what other people think!
There is a great book called Nudge that explores this. It's technically an economics book but economics is based on human behavior so the lessons and theories it explores are applicable to every facet of life- from weight loss to saving for retirement to quitting smoking.
Basically it all comes down to two types of human logic- one that conducts long-term planning and one that makes immediate decisions. It's easy when you wake up in the morning to carefully plan out your food plan for the day: you are removed from the emotions and temptations and able to think rationally. Six hours later when you're at lunch with friends and hungry and everything smells delicious and your friend just bought a huge order of nachos it's not so easy to be rational anymore. The short-term decision-making mechanism of the brain overrides the long-term decision making mechanism.
The short-term mechanism wins out when there are emotions involved or short-term gains. That's why losing weight is so hard- those nachos look AMAZING and you will reap immediate benefits (delicious taste). The long-term benefits (health/weight loss) are too intangible to grasp when the nacho is in front of you.
The idea behind Nudge is that you incentivize your short-term mechanism to make the decision you WANT to make- one that your long-term rationality would want to make. In other words, you nudge yourself to make the decision you ultimately want to make for long-term benefit, not the one you want to make for immediate gratification.
A lot of this comes down to an economic incentive. The example the book uses is a bet between two friends who want to lose weight. In 6 months they each have to be at their goal weight. If one isn't, he has to pay his friend $500. Then they have to maintain. At any point, one of the friends can call for a weigh-in. If either guy is over his maintenance weight, he has to pay his friend $100.
The idea behind this is that if one guy is really tempted to reap immediate benefits from diving into a plate of nachos, he remembers that he will actually feel IMMEDIATE pain- losing $100 if his friend calls a weigh-in! Creating immediate repercussions for something whose repercussions would otherwise be intangible (which is why it's easy to justify eating one plate of nachos- it's not like you gain all your weight back with one plate.)
The argument holds for other things too- quitting smoking (check out www.stickk.com where you pledge an amount of money to a charity that automatically goes into their bank account if you pick up a cigarette), writing a thesis (write 5 checks to your thesis adviser in the amount of $500 for the first of each of the following months- if you don't turn in a chapter each month he gets to cash it), etc.
Sorry I went on WAY too long about this, I just thought it was a great book and helped me understand decision-making better... especially why we don't always make the decision we know is best for us!
There's a reason why sustaining weight loss for long periods of time is so rare. It's easy to say you'll never go back when you are on a weight loss high, but you have to dig deep to keep it up. I've learned a few things, like having emergency portions of food frozen so I can eat healthy without expanding energy cooking, counting calories, etc.
You have to be committed even when you aren't motivated because at some point, you will lose your motivation, and it doesn't always return as quick as we'd like.
A lot of our culture is food = celebrating & food = bonding. Even if you stop feeling that way yourself, it's easy to see other people doing it and fall back into it. Also, I like exercising, but it's hard. I plan to keep doing it but it takes a lot of commitment.
Thanks for sharing, indiblue. I wish my econ classes had been interesting enough to read a book like that, lol. I feel like I heard about a website similar to the one for quitting smoking that is for losing weight. I can't remember where I read it. It may have been in a Weight Loss for Dummies book. Such an interesting idea.
Interesting subject. You have received some great points in the above posts. I think some of the reason I fall back into old habits falls into, I want to do what I want to do. I am a big girl , now with my own income, I can make my own decisions. My mother is not here telling me I must eat my vegetables, Darn it , if I want a doughnut, I'm gonna have a donut. Not very rational thinking, but it is what seperates us from people who never have a weight problem.
We diet. We succeed. We stay at goal for a bit, then we hover around it. We take steps to reach goal again--like get back on the diet, even if it was a crash-unhealthy-restrictive one--and either reach the goal again, or hover closely to it. The ingrained problem with that is the notion that the diet was a temporary means to a permanent goal. At least, that has how it was for me in the past. I know how to lose weight, just not maintain the loss.
Crash diets have their place in getting the weight off faster--but they teach us nothing insofar as behavior modification and, instead, hammer home the "this or that" "all or nothing" behavior.
This is true of the majority of us, I would think. Its the rare dieter I've met whose first time around "got it" lost the weight and ate to keep it off forever and succeeded at that. I've been dieting for 30 years. FINALLY, I got it through my head that this has to be a forever change. There is no "this or that" "all or nothing". I have a target/goal in mind, and I'm working towards it, and I'm going to stumble along the way and my body isn't going to always cooperate. However, if I continue doing things right even 90% of the time, I'm ahead of the game, I'll still be able to reach my goal, and when I get there, I have the tools, knowledge and good habits in place to stay there. This time, is the last time I diet to LOSE weight. Next time, I diet to maintain weight. That will be an entirely new concept for me.
This, at least, has been my personal experience.
Over the years, I've read alot about diets and been on many. There was something I read about 20 years ago that finally, I get. If you woke up tomorrow weighing your ideal weight, that'd be an amazing "gift" and you'd be thrilled, right? There is one caveat to that, however: You must eat to maintain that weight. So, starting tomorrow, pretend you woke up at your ideal weight, and eat to maintain it. <--EAT TO MAINTAIN YOUR GOAL WEIGHT, and eventually, you'll be at your ideal weight, and be able to stay there. What a concept!
Last edited by 124chicksinger; 11-11-2011 at 08:27 AM.
Priorities can be a problem. Eating healthy and exercising is great when life isn't handing you lemons. But when there's a life crisis -- anything from a stressful work/school deadline, to relationship problems, to child raising issues, to a terminally ill parent, it's easy to stop finding the time to exercise and instead eat (too much of) whatever is handy.
As someone else mentioned, it's also easy to fall off a healthy wagon when most socialization involves less than healthy eating. Both family celebrations and nights out will usually add pounds. And it's hard to be the wet blanket that stops other people in your family from having dinners out.
Sometimes a bout of depression will knock folks off-kilter. It does take energy to stay on track and feeling depressed makes it hard to rouse the energy required.
And I also agree with the difficulty of making rational short-term/long-term trade-offs, particularly since each individual short-term decision may not seem to have a major impact in itself (Food pushers often use this to their advantage... "One piece of cake won't kill you!"). Actually, a single short term decision can have a major impact, if it causes an off-track spiral.
There also seems to be mounting evidence that formerly-obese people do have to continue to work harder to maintain their weight than never-obese. That doesn't mean that it can't be done, just that you need to work at it (and puts you in a vulnerable position when there's a life crisis or depression or just general lack of motivation).
For me? Emotional eating. I'm fine when everything is fine, but when stress combines with hunger, I make bad food choices that I would not make were I just stressed (that part remains under control as long as I'm more or less in a weight mindset) or just hungry.
WOW- I honestly never thought that I would get so many responses... and good ones at that. You all make great points and it really is interesting. I just hate the fact that exercise is one of the biggest stress relievers we have, and we choose food over that!!! Maybe it is the instant gratification, but getting up and going for a brisk walk is also intstant, but not as easy! Intigo is right on about the long term/short term reasoning and from now on I am going to try to ask myself what is going to be more gratifying, a donut right now or a five pound loss at the end of the month.
A lot of you mentioned the fact that food is such a part of our culture and family activities and that is why we have issues. For all of you, I will tell that before having my third child, I was in control of my weight! I would enjoy a night out once a week without any restrictions and that was the end of it. I plan on doing the same thing for the rest of my life! I look forward to that night out and it helps me stay on the right path. Knowing that I will be able to indulge on that day really helps me for the long term. I know a lot of people can't get back on the wagon when they indulge like that, but for me, it works. It gets to the point where sometimes you never even indulge on certain weeks, bc you don't really need or want to. Just a thought
THANKS GUYS>>>LOVED THE RESPONSES!
My question to you is, Why is it so hard to get back on that wagon and Why do we revert back so easily to those horrible habits? Do you guys ever feel this way?
I feel that way a LOT. I know for me that when I fall off the wagon it is due to my need to comfort eat. Eating for comfort started when I was a child and when I was a child (and a teenager) I had to listen to my parents fighting practically 24/7. I found solace in going to the store for candy or overeating a little at meals....eating food in my bedroom while watching my little bedroom tv with the volume turned up so I would not have to hear them figting. My comforst foods of choice were carby and sugary but they made me feel better as a child because my home enviroment was so out of control and I could not make it better...so I ate.
It is why I always revert back to my old ways even though I am a 50 year old woman and clearly in control of my own home. I do not have to listen to my parents fighting anymore (they are gone from my life now) but my overwhelming need to comfort eat is still there and it is a daily struggle to overcome it. I'm still comforting that little girl inside me who felt she had no control.
Feel so good, why revert back?
