So, many of you know that I want to be taken seriously within the field of both fitness and nutrition. Thusly, many of you know I am not just studying to become a personal trainer (certification test August 9th), but while I am studying I am changing my lifestyle. See, I believe that part of the reason why we as a society are not successful when we "diet" is simply because we call it "diet." (Granted, most people do not realize the true definition of diet really means simply, what a person chooses to eat. It does not necessarily have anything to do with food restriction.) However over the years, the word "diet" has become a very negative one indeed. All these negative connotations. Furthermore, people associate a diet with a temporary, part time gig. Most of us think "oh, well, I am just dieting until I hit "X" pounds. Then I can go back to eating as I like." WRONG, WRONG, and did I mention WRONG? This kind of mentality is EXACTLY why so many people get trapped on the "yo-yo diet" bandwagon. I am here to say (or write) that loosing weight is not only an ENTIRE LIFESTYLE change, but a PSYCHOLOGICAL and MENTAL mindset change as well. If one only does the physical work, WITHOUT looking into one's mind and soul, kiss your hard work goodbye because I can guarantee if someone is trying to become healthy just by doing a "temporary fix," or only "going hard" at the gym until they hit their goal weight, as soon as they stop the "temporary" all the weight WILL creep back on (and then some).
Take eating sweets for instance. Everyone likes them. No one sees the hard or the issue with them. We all think we deserve "cheat days" on Friday and Saturdays. NO and NO. Most of us have to change our psychology and mentality when it comes to food. As part of my path to weight loss, I have cut out to very big things: alcohol and sweets (except for the sweets picture below, and IF I choose to have any of the sweets pictured, I restrict it to one per day). These are the following sweets
I allow myself: Dole Dippers (only the strawberry or banana varieties (banana without the peanuts sprinkled on top) 60 and 100 calories per package, Luigi's Italian Ice (for budget conscious people, in yesterday's red plum insert, there was a $1 off 1 coupon for Luigis Italian Ice, or go to Red Plum's website to print off a .50 off 1 coupon. You can pick up the lemon or cherry flavors at Dollar Tree for only 50 cents or FREE depending on which coupon you have) which is 80 calories per 4oz cup, there is a new product out called Whole Fruit (organic, also, a month ago there were $1 off 1 for these as well, pick them up at WalMart with this coupon if you have it for a good price) where it is frozen juice and 60 calories per one pop, and finally bomb pops popsicles for 40 calories per popsicle. Honestly, I do not even always have one once a day. This is because I took time, real time, to take a hard look at myself psychologically and mentally. And I realized a couple things. Here's what I took time to think about:
WE ARE CONDITIONED TO SEE SWEETS AS REWARDS
Think about it. When we were kids, what was the number one thing our parents would take away from us first if we misbehaved or would not eat our dinner? SWEETS. If as kids we behaved, how would our parents reward us? SWEETS. In our society, sweets are seen as the modern-day forbidden fruit. What if as a society we changed our perception on sweets completely? Before we put that chocolate or cake in our mouth, we should all think "why am I eating this? Am I hungry? Am I stressed? Am I just eating this because everyone else around me is?" If eating due to hunger, first and foremost to know, no sweet of any kind is going to satisfy TRUE hunger, it will satisfy "appetite" (which is the psychological of eating and food, not the true biological need to eat to survive, which is true hunger). Also, instead of rewarding and punishing children with sweets, what if we do other things? Reward with maybe doing a family outing to a park, or if it financially allows, an amusement park. Or maybe if wanting to reward with food, allow the child to "choose" between 2 or 3 healthy meal options of your choosing? As punishment, perhaps a time out, or not seeing the movie they wanted to see for that day? If we stop making sweets seen as a reward or a forbidden fruit our whole perception on sweets will change, perhaps as far as to not feeling such an immense need for sweets because it is known that if the "forbidden" factor is taken away from anything in life (food or otherwise), that particular item or thing will instantly lose its appeal to many people.
WE MAKE EXCUSES UP WHEN IT COMES TO FOOD
"Oh, I can eat a 1500 calorie meal once or twice a week, as long as I eat healthy the rest of the time, it won't have any long term effect on me."
"I deserve this."
"A weekly cheat day isn't bad."
There are many more examples I could put down here on mental thoughts we tell ourselves when it comes to eating something we maybe know we shouldn't. Firstly: why do we come up with these kinds of excuses? Simple, to psychologically protect ourselves. We look for ways to protect ourselves all the time, whether be from our own mental to struggle, or to protect us from public's perception. Psychologically protecting oneself at times is a very good thing to do (i.e.: going through traumatic experiences). However, when it comes to food and eating, this is one example of how psychologically protecting our image or ourselves does more harm than good. And honestly, having a weekly cheat day or two, or having an occasional fatty 1500 calorie meal DOES in fact do harm. Granted, it is chronic, not instant harm, but the harm is still there. Arteries, as example, will begin to clog if these are habits people do once to twice a week. We are mentally protecting ourselves when saying things like "a weekly cheat day isn't bad" because it is something we desire; if we were to tell ourselves differently, that "having this once or twice a week cheat day is bad for my health, and it will cause me to gain weight gradually over time," none of us would ever do cheat days. Our mentality as a society when it comes to food has certainly changed a lot over the course of human history. Eating now has become almost purely something done for pleasure, whereas years and years ago, eating occurred for survival. This change in perception? Absolutely another reason why obesity is becoming such a prevailing issue. And yes, while exercise is absolutely important to do with weight loss, it is only 20% of the equation. The other 80% is what we choose to put in our mouths and digest. I love the saying (because it is absolute fact) "you can't out-run a bad diet." It is true; yeah, you may work out at the gym for three hours, but if you are then going home and inhaling half a box of oreos and half a sheet pizza, you just negated all the hard work you put in, so you got to ask yourself: why in the world would you want to do that to yourself? If we were to think of eating for survival versus pleasure and socialable, there would be dramatic drops in societies weight collectively.
These two points are the points I thought about the most when reassessing how I eat and what to eat. Honestly, I can say since changing my mindset almost three weeks ago, I can tell you I do not really miss alcohol or sweets. I have just been keeping my eye on the prize which equates to a few things: being taken as a serious professional in the world of nutrition and fitness, becoming the best personal trainer I possibly can be, and to have an overall healthy LIFESTYLE. Changing psychologically how one looks at food and fitness, is how one can achieve a lifelong change. Without that psychological component, one's change will never be that of something permanent.
A final example: this is what I ate for lunch or dinner the past couple days (image below). I basically
call it my own version of guacamole. It is obviously mashed avocado (1/2 of one), 1/4 of a sweet vadalia onion, 1/2 a tomato, and a serving of blueberries. Whole thing? About 210 calories. Before I actively made a decision to change myself psychologically, this never would have been enough in my mind to keep me satisfied. But, because I decided to take the mental step to change my whole lifestyle and view of diet and exercise, this was plenty and all I needed to be full. Full of healthy fats and complex carbs. I would recommend this to anyone for a meal. Avocados naturally have a very meaty and almost nutty taste to them, so my desire to have that meaty taste was satisfied.
All in all I leave you all with this final thought; if you want to make real lifelong changes for a healthy lifestyle that will last you all your days alive, remember this one key point: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND MENTAL CHANGE truly is majority of the battle.
Love yourself. Love Health. Love Fitness.
xoxo - Sarah
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