Any diet works, provided you stick to it. Permanent weight loss is entirely achievable, but trying to do this by making an enemy of eating is doomed to failure. To gain control of a burgeoning waist line requires just three things:
Find your compelling need. Foundational to permanent weight loss is finding something that really excites you, that you are passionate about, and in order to do that something, being a bit slimmer helps. For many, it’s a health scare: if you don’t lose weight you’ll not be able to have children/not live to see your grandchildren/not live for much longer/develop the many complications related to diabetes. But it doesn’t have to be health: it could be taking up a hobby where a slimmer frame makes it all just so much more fun.
The problem with losing weight because we think we’re fat is it’s negative. Yes, we go on some diet or other and this has to deprive us of eating (or drinking) the stuff that made us get fat. The desire for chips and gravy is still there, but temporarily will power alone stops you. If lucky, we achieve our goal weight – or we go on holiday – and then, boy oh boy, does the tide come rolling back in.
The point about having a compelling need, finding something that brings real pleasure and being a bit slimmer helps, is that the hugely positive drive to have fun will make the choice between eating a whole packet of biscuits, or choosing not to eat them, easy. Bit slimmer = more fun. Eating packet of biscuits = temporary fun, long term less fun. The choice becomes a bit of a no brainer.
Heal your old brain. This latter is much less known, even unknown in UK. Comfort eating is the bane of those trying to lose weight. Our brain is wired for survival and only interested in NOW. When we get an attack of the munchies, this is coming from the brain and will result in a temporary rise in the positive neurotransmitters – serotonin, gaba and dopamine. The second key to losing weight is to heal the brain so it no longer feels the need for a glass of wine plus a few (whole bag) of crisps.
What causes a brain to need healing? No easy answer to this one, but the three main contenders are stress, trauma and things not working very well, usually eyes and inner ears. Stress and trauma are pretty obvious.
A brief explanation of the last: both eyes need to be working together as a team, with one a bit more dominant than the other. They should be able to track moving objects smoothly and to be able to jump to another object cleanly. All 6 eye muscles in each eye are equally strong. Inner ears – the balance organs: if they’re working well you do not get motion sickness, don’t mind a fairground ride and can easily stand on 1 leg with the eyes shut. You certainly are not subject to vertigo or dizziness.
Stress, which our modern western lifestyle cranks up, is compounded massively by trauma (physical or mental) and imbalance in our eyes and ears.
All of this means that in order to lose those desires to comfort eat/drink/gamble/spend too much/smoke and so on, the brain needs to be working better, thus lowering base stress levels = we feel happier!
Heal your insular lobe. The insular lobe is the part of the brain that keeps us balanced between appropriate stress levels and levels of relaxation. Lifestyle alone messes up this balance, but add into this trauma and stuff we were born with, and this lobe goes into overdrive trying to calm us down. It is this lobe that decides it’s time for a cup of tea. And the chocolate biscuit that goes with it. Healing stuff includes yoga, meditation, stretching, warming/cooling, humming, gargling, all vagal nerve stimulations. Although this is third in the list, in fact it is the starting place; when this lobe is happier, we are truly happier and then we can let go of all that old rubbish that is holding us back, holding onto our unwanted blubber and keeping us miserable.
All this takes time and dedication. Promises to lose weight in 3 months are certainly true – whether that promise still holds true in 3 years is highly dubious unless we do the foundational work. If we do, any diet works because you can stick to it.