When you think about how to lose weight, what comes to mind?
Granted, if you’ve followed my rantings for a while, you know it’s very complicated and not in our complete control. But I digress…
Most people believe two things:
1. You have to eat fewer calories than you burn. (not completely true)
2. You must exercise to burn additional calories. (Are you kidding? Do you know how long it takes to burn off a piece of chocolate cake?)
It’s the old “calories in-calories out” theory which is old, outdated and just not true.
You may also be aware that other factors affect our weight and/or ability to lose weight, like:
• sleep (true)
• stress (way true!)
• emotions (yes, for sure)
• hormones (been there!)
• genetics (you can’t fight them)
• [fill in your thoughts here…]
Well, take a look at the image below. You can click on it to see the full-size version with the fancy viewing tool.
This is called the “Obesity System Influence Diagram.”
I just learned about it in a video by my favorite “weight neutral” psychologist, Glenn Mackintosh. It’s good science (but I hate that they use the word “obesity” – it has too much judgment tied up in it).
So as you can see, there are so many factors that go into your weight and whether you can do anything about it.
You can click on the categories on the top left of the original image and those factors will light up. You can see how each category is tied to others and the enormous complexity of weight gain, maintenance, and loss.
The categories include:
• Individual Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Individual Activity
• Activity Environment
• Food Consumption
• Food Production
• Individual Physiology
• Physiology (in general)
You can see by all the white lines that intersect and connect to various factors that it’s impossible to control weight simply by working on diet and exercise. And, it illustrates the point that trying to change one thing won’t necessarily result in a change in weight. Too many other factors are involved.
So what’s the solution?
For one, stop focusing on weight loss. It’s NOT the biggest factor in health, happiness or a good life – it’s NOT, I promise!
And, instead of trying to lose weight, why not concentrate on things you CAN control?
As I’ve been saying for a while, your body is in charge of your weight. If you let it do its job by doing YOUR job, it will settle into your natural weight.
But that isn’t even the biggest benefit. The peace of mind and ability to live life to its fullest right here and now is what really matters.
It’s what we all want, right?
Isn’t that what you REALLY want? It’s not about the size of your body, it’s what you think reducing your size will do.
You can have that NOW. This is what my new program is ALL ABOUT.
Join us to learn what your job is and how to make it easy for your body to take care of itself and your health!
