Perspective Reset

MamaBirdBoss wrote: »

TerriRichardson112 wrote: »

In our modern society, we are constantly fighting our inbuilt subconscious need to survive. Each one of us must satisfy basic needs for food, water and shelter. It is that basic need for food which can mitigate against our efforts to maintain a healthy body weight.

In pre-history, humanity had to grab every opportunity to eat. You never knew where or when the next meal would come along. You ate to the max in times of plenty, building up reserves for the lean times.

In modern Western society, with food available 24/7, there is no longer that necessity. However, the instinct is hot-wired into our genes from those times, when it was a case of 'eat or die'.

It is essential that we realise this and re-programme our brains to the live in the modern world. We no longer need to submit to this prehistoric process. We can choose to change our habits. However, this needs to be a permanent change. Healthy eating is a lifelong commitment. If you go back to doing the same things, you will get the same results.

It is a slow process, but with perseverance we can do this. Start creating a positive attitude to healthy eating.
1. Start by making one positive change in your diet for one week.
2. Add to the process every week by making another positive change.

Step by step you can change your life for the better. You deserve it. You are worth the effort.

I've maintained my weight in the low end of the healthy range for most of my adult life. I lost the time to do the hobby that I'd spent 4-10 hours a week on for years, plus added exercise, after I had my 3rd child, so I got/stayed heavy for a year and a half. I needed to replace my activity with something less time-consuming and to get rapidly back to my prior maintenance. For that, a temporary diet works fine.

Maintenance can be used to diet, if it helps you. Basically, if you want, you can choose your new maintenance at your expected weight level and just eat within those calories, arranging things as you figure out works for you. As long as you know what maintenance will be and accept the vigilance that comes with it, you'll be fine. A lot of people who have been heavy either "turn off dieting" or else don't react when they start gaining weight back because gaining has become normal to them. In those cases, really understanding where your maintenance will be can be helpful.

Now, I don't particularly need to make many changes to the diet I prefer. It's off from the range of IDEAL diets only in fruit consumption and it's one serving per day short on veg. Neither of which impacts my weight in the least. But I'm cutting to get a pretty fat deficit to get the weight off faster.

We get fat now because we sit more, food is cheaper than before, and we have ready access to foods that don't take much effort. If we had to cook something from scratch every time we wanted a little something, sheer laziness would prevent most weight gain in most people.

There is no pre-programmed inherent urge to stuff our gobs until our eyes bulge.

There are many people for whom a lifetime of being a healthy weight is a normal lifestyle, without special interventions. Derailment can come from a variety of sources. But it's not some great achievement against overwhelming social and biological pressures. It's just sensible choices, every day.

MamaBirdBoss wrote: »

TerriRichardson112 wrote: »

MamaBirdBoss wrote: »

TerriRichardson112 wrote: »

In our modern society, we are constantly fighting our inbuilt subconscious need to survive. Each one of us must satisfy basic needs for food, water and shelter. It is that basic need for food which can mitigate against our efforts to maintain a healthy body weight.

In pre-history, humanity had to grab every opportunity to eat. You never knew where or when the next meal would come along. You ate to the max in times of plenty, building up reserves for the lean times.

In modern Western society, with food available 24/7, there is no longer that necessity. However, the instinct is hot-wired into our genes from those times, when it was a case of 'eat or die'.

It is essential that we realise this and re-programme our brains to the live in the modern world. We no longer need to submit to this prehistoric process. We can choose to change our habits. However, this needs to be a permanent change. Healthy eating is a lifelong commitment. If you go back to doing the same things, you will get the same results.

It is a slow process, but with perseverance we can do this. Start creating a positive attitude to healthy eating.
1. Start by making one positive change in your diet for one week.
2. Add to the process every week by making another positive change.

Step by step you can change your life for the better. You deserve it. You are worth the effort.

I've maintained my weight in the low end of the healthy range for most of my adult life. I lost the time to do the hobby that I'd spent 4-10 hours a week on for years, plus added exercise, after I had my 3rd child, so I got/stayed heavy for a year and a half. I needed to replace my activity with something less time-consuming and to get rapidly back to my prior maintenance. For that, a temporary diet works fine.

Maintenance can be used to diet, if it helps you. Basically, if you want, you can choose your new maintenance at your expected weight level and just eat within those calories, arranging things as you figure out works for you. As long as you know what maintenance will be and accept the vigilance that comes with it, you'll be fine. A lot of people who have been heavy either "turn off dieting" or else don't react when they start gaining weight back because gaining has become normal to them. In those cases, really understanding where your maintenance will be can be helpful.

Now, I don't particularly need to make many changes to the diet I prefer. It's off from the range of IDEAL diets only in fruit consumption and it's one serving per day short on veg. Neither of which impacts my weight in the least. But I'm cutting to get a pretty fat deficit to get the weight off faster.

We get fat now because we sit more, food is cheaper than before, and we have ready access to foods that don't take much effort. If we had to cook something from scratch every time we wanted a little something, sheer laziness would prevent most weight gain in most people.

There is no pre-programmed inherent urge to stuff our gobs until our eyes bulge.

There are many people for whom a lifetime of being a healthy weight is a normal lifestyle, without special interventions. Derailment can come from a variety of sources. But it's not some great achievement against overwhelming social and biological pressures. It's just sensible choices, every day.

@MamaBirdBoss It's great that you feel that way. However, alternative viewpoints exist. I have my beliefs, you have yours. Both are valid. My personal experience is different to yours, therefore, my perspective is different. You are indeed fortunate that you are not subject to the subconscious urges which plague others. The Fitbit is a great tool for tracking physical activity. I use one myself. I don't think the mindset that regards diet as a temporary fix is useful to me. My past experience emphasises the need for a radical change in perspective to achieve and maintain a healthy weight for optimum fitness. 'Each to their own' seems appropriate, here.

Certainly. You were just giving me advice, and it simply wasn't relevant to me, and then you were backing it up with statements of fact that have no basis. Changing your perspective is great, and I'm sure you benefit from it. But you didn't have a wrong view of food because of some kind of genetic programming. Billions maintain healthy weights with plenty of access to food.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of going back to doing the same things I once did. My habits were once very good. I need them to be good again, if different from what they once were!