In Response to the Voice

You know that voice in your head, the annoying one, that stands in the way of all your successes.  It’s the one that tells you all the reasons you can’t, won’t, or shouldn’t.  We all have it so I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.  I’ve been thinking a lot about this voice recently and have noticed some important things.   The voice does not work by overpowering you.  Its success comes from its endless needling at you until you give in without even realizing you have succumbed.   It’s small but relentless.  It never fatigues.  This is the voice that is preventing you from succesffully losing weight.  But you already knew that, its your voice after all.

Since the mission of this blog is to empower people to help them lose weight and live healthier lives, I figured I’d give you some strategies to battle this ever present mind infiltrator. The best way I know how to overcome this voice is to first, be mindful of it and, second fight it with the facts.  If you can shut this voice up with the truth there will be room left in your mind for progress.

So, when the voice says:

Being overweight is not really so bad.

You can respond:

Actually, it is pretty bad.

Being overweight has been associated with the following conditions:

• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Diabetes
• Peripheral Vascular Disease
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea
• Arthritis
• Hypoventilation Syndrome with Respiratory Failure
• Many Types of Cancer
• Premature death

So that’s pretty bad.  Even if your excess weight doesn’t kill you it will create a much higher risk for chronic medical condtions and their associated frequent doctor visits, piles of pills, high costs, and eventual disability.  If you want some more of the details read:  How Bad is the Obesity Epidemic? and The Myth of the Healthy Obese.

When the voice says:

But I eat healthy and still can’t lose weight.

You can respond:

Maybe you don’t eat as healthy as I think.

What do you even mean when you use the word ‘healthy’ anyways?  What makes something ‘healthy’ and how do we define the term.  It would seem to me that there are very few things that are absolutely healthy or unhealthy.  It all depends on quantity. As an example, everyone would say that it is healthy to drink water but did you know that you can overdose and die from drinking too much (I’ve seen it happen – but don’t worry you have to drink gallons and gallons).  Another example is vitamins.  Vitamins are supposedly healthy but a large research study showed that people who regularly took B vitamins had a higher mortality than those that didn’t (See my prior post The Vitamin Myth for more).

If you are looking to lose weight, eating healthy isn’t the primary goal as admirable as it may be as a goal.  You can eat ‘healthy’ and still gain weight easily.  What you are really looking to do is create negative energy balance. That’s a fancy way of saying you should burn more calories than you take in.  The way to do that is to very carefully control how many calories you eat.  The best way to do that is to measure your intake very carefully.  This can be done by calorie counting or using a point system.  The means is not as important as the result.  If you are not aware of what you’re eating you’re not in control.  For more on calorie counting check out this post:  McCalorie Counting.

When the voice says:

My metabolism is just slower.  That is why I can’t lose weight.

You can respond:

The more you weigh the faster your metabolism actually is.

There have been studies of metabolism that show that the more someone ways the faster their metabolism gets.  This may seem counter intuitive but it makes sense if you think about it. If someone weighs 150 pounds and carries a backpack with 100 pounds in it, they would burn a lot more calories than they would if they were not carrying the backpack.  Therefore,  if someone should weigh 150 pounds and they actually weigh 250 they are also burning more calories with every movement at the higher weight relative to the lower.  For more on this subject read this:  Is Metabolism Slower in the Obese?

When the voice says:

But I exercise and it doesn’t seem to work.

You can respond:

Maybe you’re not exercising intensely or often enough.

It has been shown in multiple research studies that people grossly overestimate how much exercise they are actually getting.  Exercise is crucial in successful weight loss maintenance. There is a large registry of people who have maintained significant weight loss (often >100 pounds) for a long time (>5 years) called the National Weight Control Registry. This is essentially a study of successful losers that researchers use to figure out what makes the successful people successful.  The NWCR has consistently shown that the people that maintain the most weight loss for the longest are the ones that are most committed and consistent to regular exercise. The ones that lost the most for the longest period of time were the ones that exercised the most. In other words, you can’t lose and keep it off without exercise.  For that reason it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough exercise and not wasting your time. For more on this read this:  Not Losing Weight With Exercise?, The Key to Losing Weight With Exercise, and The Importance of Measuring.

 

These are just a few examples of how you can respond to that annoying voice.  The key, in my opinion, is education.  Facts are the greatest weapon; knowledge is power.  That’s the purpose of the WLCR and the message of the book (available at Amazon.com in case you don’t have your copy yet).