The best way to lose weight – learn new habits
Have you ever wondered why you’re overweight? It’s something you probably think about quite a lot, but how did it happen? Well, there are many different reasons why you put on weight and equally, there are many reasons why it’s so difficult to get the weight off – and keep it off.
Somehow, fat just happens, doesn’t it? It can sneak up on you. One minute you’re fine and the next there seems to be a lot more of you. You start avoiding mirrors and scales. Eventually you decide to do something about it and so you step on the diet treadmill. Atkins, South Beach, Mediterranean, Cabbage Soup, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Sonoma, plans that promise you ‘fast weight loss’. You give them all a go, but somehow long-term weight loss eludes you. You feel depressed and unhappy and desperate to find an answer.
The main cause of weight gain is that we allow ourselves to develop bad habits. The problem is that we are unaware that we’re developing these habits and one bad habit tends to lead to another. We get into the habit of bad habits.
Habits on their own are not a bad thing. They’re a good thing. We couldn’t survive as we do without them. We develop habits by repeatedly practising a task or activity. Over time, as we repeat these over and over again, this ‘learned response’ becomes ‘hardwired’ in our brain. It becomes a habit. Habits are really useful because they allow us to do things ‘without thinking’. Our actions become automatic. This allows the rest of our brain to concentrate on more pressing tasks. It would be fair to say that habits help to make us more efficient.
What the brain does not do is to differentiate between a ‘good habit’ and a ‘bad habit’ and this is where the problem lies. We drink a litre of cola every day. We eat three bars of chocolate every day. We don’t walk anywhere, we drive everywhere. We always have a large cheeseburger and large fries for lunch. Soon all these activities become habits because they are done repeatedly.
But why is it so difficult to break a bad habit? Why is it so difficult to stop having a litre of cola everyday or a large cheeseburger and large fries for lunch? It’s difficult because the brain doesn’t like change. Your bad habits have effectively become your ‘default state’ and the brain will protect that state at all costs. This is why dieting is so difficult and why they just don’t work. They don’t alter your default state.
The answer is not to try and break your bad habits or modify your bad habits, because it won’t work. Your bad habits are hotwired in your brain and they’re not going anywhere. So what’s the answer? If you want to bring about lasting change, you need to learn ‘new habits’. You have to hotwire new habits in your brain, which will change your default state. This is what The Slim Habit will help you to achieve. It’ll not only help you to lose weight – to achieve permanent fat loss - it’ll help you to make the necessary changes to lead a happy and healthy life.
Learn more about the Slim habit here
