Self sabotage in weight loss. It’s a peculiar thing but it is very common. It seems we can be on a plan and doing really well and suddenly something happens and we decide to eat and eat and eat and then eat some more – and usually all in one evening.
The mind is an amazing powerful tool and there are brain like chemicals such as Dopamine that can have a huge effect on what we ‘want’ and I believe that this is a big part of the ‘lose control’ element that we all tend to have at some point during our weight loss. So what is Dopamine? Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter, a kind of body chemical which transmits signals between different neurons or nerve cells of the brain.
Dopamine plays an important role in human behavior, cognition, attention, movement, learning and is especially associated with the response of human brain to motivation and reward – and when we are losing weight the ‘reward’ element it plays a big part as we tend to go down the ‘reward with food path’ – but you can read our article on non food rewards to help you break this bad habit. It has a huge number of other functions too like stopping the prolactin production, a chemical which is responsible for breastfeeding.
I personally think that if we can understand what is making us crave foods it gives us better ammunition to control it and overcome it. The brain responds well to routine and habit but it takes approximately 4 weeks to break a bad habit and to start forming new ways but when you do start a new routine your brain will start reacting differently to cravings.
I also think self sabbotage comes from someone not feeling they can be that slim person as in their mind they can never see themselves getting there so they end up thinking “why bother” and pig out on bad foods as they don’t think they somehow deserve it to be slim. And this is a crazy form of self sabbotage as you are not allowing yourself to be that slimmer person when if you change your lifestyle you can and will get there.
Visualising yourself at your goal weight is really important as you can start to get excited about doing things and your mind will also get excited about that – it could be visualising yourself being slim and being able to chase after your kids without running out of breath, or it could be visualising yourself in a body hugging dress at an event where everyone will tell you how fantastic you look, or it could be visualising yourself in a bikini looking amazing and people asking you “wow have you really had two children?”.
How to beat self sabbotage
To win over the self sabotage tactics you really do need to apply the mind over matter thinking and when you have had your dinner and know that you have given your body enough food and are then sitting on the sofa watching TV and think “mmm, I would really like some chocolate/biscuits/sandwich” – you need to ask yourself:
- Am I really hungry?
- Why do I want that food?
- What will that food do to my body if I eat it?
- What ingredients are in that food and is it healthy?
- Am I just bored?
- Shall I have a cup of tea or glass of water instead?
- If I keep eating this food is it possible for me to reach my weight loss goal?
- If you are really hungry can you just have a piece of fruit instead?
Also some other good things to do to distract yourself are to take a bath, make a phone call, browse the internet, read a magazine or do some exercise like mini push ups/pressup/sit ups.
And the most important thing to remember is that you CAN achieve your weight loss and the top 5 things to do this are:
- Find a plan that works for you and your lifestyle – the Lose Baby Weight plans are dsesigned to fit around a mums lifestyle and they are quick, easy and nutritious – plus super tasty and the 28 day plan offers daily structure and guidance if you need extra smoothies
- Pinpoint what your motivation is and write it down and keep it on hand so you can always refer back to it – it maybe to get healthy, it maybe to lose weight for an event or it maybe just because you want to get back into your pre pregnancy clothes
- Focus on healthy eating and nutrition versus obsessing about weight loss – the weight loss will be a by product of your new healthy lifestyle
- Clean out your cupboards and throw out all fatty, junk and processed foods and from now on only buy vegetables, wholegrain bread and pasta, brown rice, fish, nuts and lean meats
- Start moving more – walk wherever you can and start thinking about more ways to fit exercise into your life
GOOD LUCK – YOU CAN DO IT!!
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