When you're overweight, losing weight can feel like a challenge, no matter how much you want it. Sometimes it might seem like our minds are working against us, making up excuses and ways to get us off the hook.
How Our Minds Influence Weight Loss
Why is it so hard to stick with a healthy eating or exercise plan? Why do we slip up or go back to our old ways? A lot of it has to do with the habits we've developed over time.
We humans are creatures of habit. We tend to get settled into established, fixed ways of doing or thinking about things. Old habits can be hard to break. Because losing weight can mean changing quite a few habits at once, it can take more than just willpower to stick with a weight-loss plan.
Here's an example of a situation you've probably been in: You're out with friends. Everyone's eating pizza. Before you sat down at the table, you were feeling motivated to stick to your healthy eating plan. You knew your goals, and you planned to have one small slice of pizza and fill up on a healthy salad.
But as your best friend reaches for her third slice of pizza, you suddenly find yourself thinking something like, "I LOVE pizza! All my friends are eating it — and they're thin. It's not fair if I have to eat salad while they eat pizza. Maybe I'll just have that salad tomorrow."
Thoughts like these are powerful, and they quickly replace all your good intentions. Old habits can be strong. In fact, just seeing or hearing the word "pizza" probably gets you thinking about that food!
You can see how easy it is to give in. We've all been there. But after you've had the pizza, the guilt and regret set in. You might feel mad at yourself or self-critical. You may think, "Oh, I should have had the salad. Now I feel stuffed and my jeans feel tight." You might feel discouraged and tell yourself things like, "I can't stick to my plan." Or, "I'll never slim down. This is too hard."
It's like your mind is working against you.
This is where counselors (like psychologists or weight-management social workers) can help. They are trained to understand how people feel, think, act, and relate. Weight-management counselors are there to help us deal with things like cravings or overeating. They can help us develop new habits — and new ways to think — that allow us to change.