When it’s about losing weight, nothing superficial works in the long term...
though things might work for shorter periods. For example, a weight loss pill may work for a couple of weeks, but then people can’t lose any more weight and usually regain the weight they lost. Surgery works for a couple of years, but soon people start gaining the weight back.
The real problem is the habits that are still there. Those same behaviors will make the person regain the weight. When I sit with our members at Custom Body Fitness, I always listen to their stories. I can make a lot of conclusions from these stories and give our members feedback. One of the reasons why people can’t change their habits is because of their beliefs.
Beliefs are what make us...
For example, the other day I had a discussion with a friend about our different beliefs. She said that she had a thyroid condition that is genetic, and I told her that there is no disease that is predetermined by genes. She said that I was wrong. My goal was not to convince her about my beliefs versus her beliefs. So I told her that I do respect her opinion, and she is entitled to think what she believes is true.
I have another friend who had the same thyroid condition, and, after she did some research, she knew that her way of eating was bad and was a big factor in her thyroid condition. Even though her mom had the same thyroid condition and the doctor told her it was genetic, she opted to believe that the problem was under her control. She now has a healthy thyroid without medications and their side effects.
Based on their beliefs, friend number one decided she has no control over her thyroid problem, and therefore only medication can help her. However, friend number two asked for a second opinion from a different doctor and found out that she needed to change the way she eats to control her low thyroid, which she is successfully doing.
My point, whether the disease is genetic or not, is that based on their beliefs each took a different approach...
So many people come with a belief that a diet or any other superficial method for weight loss will help. For example, I interviewed one of our members who is doing the Keto diet. She said that she was eating more meat than veggies. She continued talking about this diet, and, according to her (because I do not know a lot about it), the diet is more meat, no sugar of any kind and no carbohydrates. She told me that fruits in this diet are out, and she also told me how cottage cheese is okay in this diet.
The Keto diet is now part of our new member’s beliefs, and even though we have talked about healthy eating, she forgot about some very important points that this diet is not taking into consideration. For instance, fruits are not only sugar, and there is not a considerable amount of sugar in fruits that will make people overweight. As a matter of fact, I have not seen an overweight person who eats only fruits. I have eaten fruits all my life and never had an overweight issue. Also, I have a friend whose diet is fruits alone, and he is one of the skinniest guys I ever met. Steve Jobs ate only fruit, and he was not overweight.
And that’s because fruits are not refined sugars; fruits are whole foods that come in a perfect state for our body to digest. The biggest percentage of a fruit will be water, followed by fiber and next the smallest amount of vitamin and sugar.
When refined or processed sugar is eaten, it goes straight to the liver, where it needs to be processed into fat and stored...
When a fruit is being eaten, the body needs to break it apart with fiber, which helps with digestion. Even the sugar is used for digestion, and no sugar is actually stored. Also, your body will allow you to eat only enough fruit. With refined sugar, usually the body does not know how to handle it and you may end up eating more than what you can handle.
Another belief when dieting is that everything that is allowed in the diet, such as nutrients (protein in this case), is okay to eat. For example, since it’s okay to eat foods high in protein in the Keto diet, it follows that cottage cheese is good. But one of the big factors of being overweight and having diseases is eating processed foods. Most cottage cheese brands have ingredients like grade A lactose, grade A whey, guar gum, carrageenan, locust bean gum, citric acid, lactic acid, phosphoric acid, potassium sorbate, natural flavoring, Vitamin D3 and enzymes.
Another example is when we hear the word vegan. We believe it’s healthy. Beer, alcohol, processed foods such as energy bars and McDonald’s French fries are vegan, but that does not mean they’re healthy.
So when we talk about beliefs, many people have different opinions:
the doctor, the other doctor, the nurse, the dietitian, the guru … everyone. The reality is that to find what is true we need to step back from everyone’s opinion — because that is what it is, an opinion — and do our own research from various sources, take our time to meditate on it and make the most educated decision without persuasion.
Weight loss is possible...
Losing weight is not about a diet or a specific exercise for the abs or a hormone treatment. Losing weight is about a lifestyle change, and this is why it is so difficult for so many of us to lose weight. We don’t want to pay the effort of getting off the couch or open time in our busy schedule to exercise, cook, buy whole foods, eat on schedule and make conscious, healthy choices. We want an easy and fast solution to our problems.
So to lose weight the first thing we need to take into consideration is our beliefs and to challenge our beliefs even though that makes us angry, sad or wrong and conclude that weight loss is possible. This will open a door to new solutions that will require action from us and yes, effort.
Custom Body Fitness is located in Glenwood Springs CO, Carbondale CO and Basalt (Willits) CO