Don't Blame Yourself

Nina74

I was browsing realage.com ( you can take those tests- what is your body's real age. eeek! scary! :noway: ) but there are also tons of great recipes (including diabetic and gluten free) and I found this article for those of you (including me) who can feel discouraged.

Don't Blame Yourself

By RealAge Page 1 of 1
Most diets aren’t about action; they’re about thoughts. You spend so much time thinking about not having food, that you develop only two sets of standards when it comes to eating. Either you follow your diet or you don’t. It’s all or nothing.

And once you’ve blown it and deviated even an inch from the plan, that’s it. You head back to the locker room, game over. Diet’s dead. Pass the fondue pot.

What’s worse, you point the finger squarely at yourself. Deep down in your gut, you blame yourself. Not the fast-food industry, not the unrealistic body images of magazine covers, not the 60-hour workweeks at a desk or the cloud-soft recliner and reality TV programs that keep you glued to the set -- and sitting down -- all night. You blame yourself. And you start to play the "if only" game.

If only you had the willpower to step away from the mayonnaise. If only you could stop after four Pringles. If only you had the power, the strength, the discipline, the chutzpah, the energy, the drive, the motivation to control your waist, then you’d finally have the body you want.

Ultimately, you blame your mind for not being strong enough to win over your waist. You’ve placed all the responsibility for dietary success or failure on your little 3-pound brain, and you’re ashamed that it wasn’t strong enough to go head-to-head with such formidable foes as deep-fried taco shells and fettuccine Alfredo.

But you can’t outwit nature. The truth is, your body is built for eating. It’s full of hormones and neurotransmitters whose jobs roughly translate into "pass the pound cake." Here are just a few examples:

-Overeating works a bit like drug addiction. Studies show that obese people have reward centers in their brain similar to the reward centers of drug addicts.
-Stress eating is cyclical. When you eat to reduce stress, you activate the reward centers of your brain. When the feel-good effects wear off, you reach again for the thing that made you feel relaxed: food.
-Heavy people respond differently to certain foods. For example, in heavy people, the parietal region of the brain -- the control center for the tongue, lips, and mouth -- is activated by sugar. In skinny people, it isn’t.
-Some cravings are hardwired. When people on a rigid diet crave certain foods, the hippocampus lights up -- triggering a willpower-busting memory of the food.
-To expect that your will or your fortitude can override chemical messages like these is the equivalent of trying to stop a train with your pinkie.

To get on the road to waist management and stay there, you have to first strip away the guilt that comes with eating, the guilt that comes with diets, and the guilt that comes with occasionally enjoying foods that aren’t at the platinum level on healthy-eating charts.

And you have to start listening to your body and responding intelligently to your cravings and your emotions. You have to train your brain to stop obsessing about eating right -- and stop punishing yourself for slipups.

Over time, you’ll learn what your body is saying and why, and you’ll learn how to eat right to manage those cravings. Because the unrecognized truth about dieting is that when you stop overthinking, you’ll stop overeating.

Get started on the path to controlling cravings with this online menu planner. It’s quick, it’s simple, and it helps take the overthinking out of waist management.

Panda86

Pretty interesting article. I don't agree with it pushing the blame on TV, ads, etc... We do it to ourselves. Sure, they don't help. But I am the one putting that cheeseburger in my mouth. I am the one that turns on the TV. I think a lot of the problem is that we want to pass the blame to someone else instead of manning up and dealing with it. But that's my opinion.

TabiHerbalifeCoach

yeah, i dont agree with taking the blame off me, i do however agree with the, just cause you have a slip up don't throw in the towel and allowing yourself to have some of the "off-limit" foods every so often.

Panda86

yeah, i dont agree with taking the blame off me, i do however agree with the, just cause you have a slip up don't throw in the towel and allowing yourself to have some of the "off-limit" foods every so often.

I totally agree!

orlandosgoddess21

I think this is a great articles for those times when you think you have gone too far. I know with me, I will be doing great, then slip up a bit and then bam! I'm done with the diet and stop trying. I think it's important to realize that it took me 26 years to learn these habits and they aren't going to go away in 2 weeks. I am very hard on myself and I will remember this article when I feel like quitting. Thank you for your help!

cindyangotti

I also don't agree. We chose what we eat. Nobody is forcing us to buy the food in the ads.

Nina74

I don't think that blaming fast food commercials, etc, is right either, but you have missed the main point of the article.

The author's intentions was to highlight that in obese people there is research proven and currently being done that actually show overeating becomes a bit like drug addiction (" Studies show that obese people have reward centers in their brain similar to the reward centers of drug addicts. ")

Just like alcoholics or drug addicts, one drink or one hit may not make *you* crave more, but with someone with a full blown addiction, one drink is back into the cycle of drinking. They are likening eating for some obese people to that. Perhaps for a "normal" overweight person, you CAN control your thoughts, but for someone predisposed to this, it is more than simply "having the willpower".

I think the article also touches on, and for me, this is a big part of my journey, is forgiving yourself and knowing that your body is hardwired a particular way.

Obesity is current a hot field of research in the biotech sector..there is still so much that we are learning.

kspeach

I also read this article as having unrealistic expectations in front of us daily, hourly....magazines, TV, etc. And really, other than milk, what 'healthy' foods have you seen advertised? When was the last time you saw a banana advertised (Chiquita lady, back in the 70s!), or apples, or broccoli? In the scheme of things, probably less than .5% of the ads on TV. It's almost like a brainwashing for some people. There's no way we can look like (insert movie star/model name here), even if we DID weigh the exact same weight! And look, all those happy people eating McDonald's French Fries.

While I take full responsibility for my weight, I also see how society pressures make it difficult to 'live up to' expectations, and also give others false expectations of us. And when I was growing up, although we rarely, if EVER ate out or had fast food (I lived in the sticks....seriously!), the Happy Meals didn't have fruit, milk, or whatever.

Anyway my 2 cents!

Panda86

I don't think that blaming fast food commercials, etc, is right either, but you have missed the main point of the article.

The author's intentions was to highlight that in obese people there is research proven and currently being done that actually show overeating becomes a bit like drug addiction (" Studies show that obese people have reward centers in their brain similar to the reward centers of drug addicts. ")

Just like alcoholics or drug addicts, one drink or one hit may not make *you* crave more, but with someone with a full blown addiction, one drink is back into the cycle of drinking. They are likening eating for some obese people to that. Perhaps for a "normal" overweight person, you CAN control your thoughts, but for someone predisposed to this, it is more than simply "having the willpower".

I think the article also touches on, and for me, this is a big part of my journey, is forgiving yourself and knowing that your body is hardwired a particular way.

Obesity is current a hot field of research in the biotech sector..there is still so much that we are learning.

Sorry if it seemed like I missed the point. I should have also mentioned that I do agree with this part. I definitely agree that overeating is an addiction, just like anything else. But also, like any other addiction, its something that we do to ourselves. It's a good article, and very eye-opening. Thanks for sharing