Some notes about weight loss
Quick background: The picture above was taken 11 years ago. I'd recently lost 80 pounds and was doing triathlons. I kept the weight off for five years or so and then gradually started regaining it. I now weigh about 50 pounds more than I'd like to. I couldn't deal with it before when I had other fires to put out, but now I have been focusing on losing weight. I read behavioral psychology books and get tips, and now some psychology of eating podcasts. Here are some notes I am jotting down.
"Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life" by Wansink talks about the shortcuts people take without noticing, and how you can hack that to your advantage. For example, hide all junk food and prep and leave fruits and veggies in handy obvious locations. I have been noticing how even seeing a used wrapper for food triggers me to think about eating. Cleaning up more helps. (See also, rats!) Also, use smaller plates and taller glasses for drinks with calories. Pre-plate food. (And bring a steak knife to use while slowly eating instead of pre-cutting an adult's food. That wasn't his, but belongs in these hacks.) He also suggests dividing your grocery cart in half so that half is devoted to the fruits and vegetables that are supposed to be half your plate, because otherwise you won't have them in your house when you go to cook.
"Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely talks about how we get primed by stupid things. He talks about commitment hacks, like virtue bundling. He also talks about how the mind gets what it expects. Here's a good overview. It made me decide to do hypnosis. If I can create a healthier habit through creating new grooves in my brain, cool. I downloaded an app with subliminal suggestions and affirmations. It is hard to fit that into my day, though.
I am reading the "Power of Habits" by Duhigg now, and it talks about identifying triggers and rewards so I can change the routine in between to a healthier one. I did some of that years ago when I lost weight. I referred to it as identifying why being fat worked for me, and seeing if I could meet that need in a healthier way. It is worth trying again. I find that it is a good lens, but identifying triggers is hard.
A suggestion that I got is to write out an eating plan and then identify what I really did. It's a nicer version of food logging that I might prefer. I know it helps to keep a food log, but calculating points or calories or micronutrient ratios is just more accounting time than I will bother to do. But planning and then seeing where the plan failed is a good idea. The idea is that obstacles can be identified and solved in advance.
Another thing that came from the Power of Habit is handing things over to a higher power. I don't know how to solve this yet, but something bigger than me does, so I can use faith to believe it is solvable, and that I am on my way, despite there being no particular evidence that this is something that I can do.
The "Psychology of Eating" podcast keeps talking about eating slowly, chewing a lot, being "sacred" in relation to the food. This is basically "mindfulness" and it is really worth practicing. Some is a bit too woo woo. For example, Emily Rosen talks about "brain hemispheric synchronization".
There is a lot in the podcast that I am still digesting. The psychologist, Marc David, wants you to be kind and accepting about your body. For example, he asks, "if you knew for sure that you would never ever weigh less than this, what would you do different?" Today he asked a woman who had recently gained an alarming amount of weight "if you knew that you would KEEP gaining and would eventually weigh another hundred pounds, suffering from a medical condition that was untreatable, would you stand by yourself? Would you stand by your daughter if she had this condition?" This is a powerful question for me.
He talks about the fat being a message that your silent half of your brain is trying to send you. That you need to listen to the body and honor its demands, learn the lessons it has to teach.
I am starting to think about myself in a sort of bifurcated way. I am a mute animal, and I am a conscious soul that rides this body. I keep thinking that I am just the rider trying to control my mount, but that isn't right: I am either BOTH, or I actually am the rider but I need to be more compassionate and loving towards my mount. Or something in between. It is something that I have been contemplating.
Meanwhile, I am virtue bundling, trying to reward my animal self when I make myself do something in line with my goals. I am trying to get lots of sleep, which involves being careful about chocolate and caffeine at night. I am trying to build healthy habits. Right now I am on a thirty day span where I get on the Nordic Track every morning before getting dressed. I missed once - when I went to my desk first - but have otherwise been doing a good job. It is taking less willpower every day, and the workouts are slowly getting more rigorous (without me particularly trying to use willpower there - all I am trying for this month is to simply get there.)
There is a lot going on here, but it is starting to gel.
"Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life" by Wansink talks about the shortcuts people take without noticing, and how you can hack that to your advantage. For example, hide all junk food and prep and leave fruits and veggies in handy obvious locations. I have been noticing how even seeing a used wrapper for food triggers me to think about eating. Cleaning up more helps. (See also, rats!) Also, use smaller plates and taller glasses for drinks with calories. Pre-plate food. (And bring a steak knife to use while slowly eating instead of pre-cutting an adult's food. That wasn't his, but belongs in these hacks.) He also suggests dividing your grocery cart in half so that half is devoted to the fruits and vegetables that are supposed to be half your plate, because otherwise you won't have them in your house when you go to cook.
"Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely talks about how we get primed by stupid things. He talks about commitment hacks, like virtue bundling. He also talks about how the mind gets what it expects. Here's a good overview. It made me decide to do hypnosis. If I can create a healthier habit through creating new grooves in my brain, cool. I downloaded an app with subliminal suggestions and affirmations. It is hard to fit that into my day, though.
I am reading the "Power of Habits" by Duhigg now, and it talks about identifying triggers and rewards so I can change the routine in between to a healthier one. I did some of that years ago when I lost weight. I referred to it as identifying why being fat worked for me, and seeing if I could meet that need in a healthier way. It is worth trying again. I find that it is a good lens, but identifying triggers is hard.
A suggestion that I got is to write out an eating plan and then identify what I really did. It's a nicer version of food logging that I might prefer. I know it helps to keep a food log, but calculating points or calories or micronutrient ratios is just more accounting time than I will bother to do. But planning and then seeing where the plan failed is a good idea. The idea is that obstacles can be identified and solved in advance.
Another thing that came from the Power of Habit is handing things over to a higher power. I don't know how to solve this yet, but something bigger than me does, so I can use faith to believe it is solvable, and that I am on my way, despite there being no particular evidence that this is something that I can do.
The "Psychology of Eating" podcast keeps talking about eating slowly, chewing a lot, being "sacred" in relation to the food. This is basically "mindfulness" and it is really worth practicing. Some is a bit too woo woo. For example, Emily Rosen talks about "brain hemispheric synchronization".
There is a lot in the podcast that I am still digesting. The psychologist, Marc David, wants you to be kind and accepting about your body. For example, he asks, "if you knew for sure that you would never ever weigh less than this, what would you do different?" Today he asked a woman who had recently gained an alarming amount of weight "if you knew that you would KEEP gaining and would eventually weigh another hundred pounds, suffering from a medical condition that was untreatable, would you stand by yourself? Would you stand by your daughter if she had this condition?" This is a powerful question for me.
He talks about the fat being a message that your silent half of your brain is trying to send you. That you need to listen to the body and honor its demands, learn the lessons it has to teach.
I am starting to think about myself in a sort of bifurcated way. I am a mute animal, and I am a conscious soul that rides this body. I keep thinking that I am just the rider trying to control my mount, but that isn't right: I am either BOTH, or I actually am the rider but I need to be more compassionate and loving towards my mount. Or something in between. It is something that I have been contemplating.
Meanwhile, I am virtue bundling, trying to reward my animal self when I make myself do something in line with my goals. I am trying to get lots of sleep, which involves being careful about chocolate and caffeine at night. I am trying to build healthy habits. Right now I am on a thirty day span where I get on the Nordic Track every morning before getting dressed. I missed once - when I went to my desk first - but have otherwise been doing a good job. It is taking less willpower every day, and the workouts are slowly getting more rigorous (without me particularly trying to use willpower there - all I am trying for this month is to simply get there.)
There is a lot going on here, but it is starting to gel.