Wednesday, February 27th, 2008...5:43 am
Could Your Dieting Plateau Be A Mental Thing?
Well it’s official, another week gone and the scale hasn’t budged — you’re stuck on the dreaded dieting plateau. It is true that the body sometimes takes it’s time to reward you for all your hard work but is your dieting plateau an entirely physical thing? Is it a normal and expected response by your body or could there be a more subtle mental mindset that is playing part in keeping you stuck?
You have a constant chatter going on inside your head, it is called your inner voice. If this voice is negative, then it is called your critical inner voice. The way you talk to yourself is a strong predictor of your success or failure.
A strong critical inner voice can be a barrier to your weight loss progress and lead to a dieting plateau because it convinces you that if you lose any more weight there will be consequences that you might not want to deal with. Whether the consequences are real or perceived doesn’t matter. For instance if you reach your goal weight, then…
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people might expect more from you
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you might not be able to keep the weight off
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you might get a lot of unwanted attention
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your best friend might feel abandoned or jealous
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you might have to exercise too much
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you might have to give up Friday Night Pizza
So in order to prevent these scary consequences your critical inner voice starts chattering, and it usually isn’t very nice.
“You’ll never keep this weight off, stop kidding yourself”
”You have been overweight all your life, what makes you think you can change?”
”This is not worth it, you are just going to gain the weight back.”
Your critical inner voice is not there to torment you, it is actually trying to protect you from the natural fear that comes with change or venturing into the unknown. If you listen to it, it is actually giving you excuses to quit and return to your old comfortable habits and behaviors.
You cannot avoid your critical inner voice but you can control it. Just remember that it is there because it is trying to help you avoid something uncomfortable — Change. Use this knowledge to accept the voice when it speaks up then simply acknowledge it, “Oh, hello, you must be my critical inner voice.” Thank it for it’s concern, “I appreciate what you are trying to do for me…” Then politely tell it to get lost, “…but I am ready to move on.”
So is it a dieting plateau or is it a mental mindset? I challenge you to test this for yourself and let me know what you experience.
If You Like This Post You Will Also Like:
What Would Happen if You Stopped Dieting?
Trouble Losing Weight? Maybe You Have ANTS in Your Head
Mindset Matters When It Comes to Weight Loss
2 Comments
February 28th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
That last one–”This is not worth it, you are just going to gain the weight back.”—has been my downfall.
I only recently, last year, realized that I’d lost weight, had the mechanics of it down, but hadn’t dealt with the core mental issues I have with food, and that is why I always regain the weight.
Always thinking there was no connection to my eating and emotions, I discounted doing work in that area. But I realize now that it is impossible to disconnect our “feeling” or emotions from our thinking.
That is not to say we must allow our emotions to control us…but if we want to control our emotions we must understand the inner workings and interplay that goes on in our “head”.
If eating chocolate makes me feel good, then my “feelings” figure into the situation of eating chocolate for comfort.
And until I learn how to accept that it is o.k. to eat chocolate for that reason and allow it, instead of restricting it which only makes me want it all the more, I won’t, I believe, make any headway in finding other ways to find comfort outside of eating.
I realize now that I should allow myself the comfort of eating…and that abusing myself mentally with the thinking that I am “bad” for seeking comfort in food, in no way helps me learn how to find comfort outside of food as well. But I also need to figure out how to be comforted in non-food ways.
It is a process and I am making progress.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Hi Dinah,
You are right, this is a process, but once you uncover these mental and emotional triggers for eating they begin to break down.
Thanks for your comment.
Becky
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