Healthy Weight Done Naturally

PART 1- When the Brain Makes a Deal

Food craving strategies

A lot of you asked for healthy ways to handle food cravings instead of GLP-1 drugs. I have more info than what belongs in one post, so this is Part 1. Part 2 is coming.

Challenges

If food is running you, it helps to see why cravings are so loud. Knowledge is power.

1. Addictive processed food
   Food companies pay scientists to make products that keep you coming back. One potato chip is never enough. Once I really got that, the temptation got easier to walk past. Every time I want a bag of chips I tell myself: Not today, Ruffles. Keep your seed oils, fake flavors, and chemicals. I am not taking the bait. Buying those chips is like a mouse taking the cheese when it already knows the trap. That cheese would be the last one it ever touches.
2. Society and peer pressure
   It is everywhere. Everyone is doing it. We get told “everything in moderation.” Really? When is a handful of potato chips ever enough? The only things I have in moderation are the ones I decided on ahead of time. Example: on weekends I might have more carbs, like potatoes — already planned, with protein and fat so they do not spike my blood sugar or insulin near as much. We can make our own chips. I almost never do, because it is a hassle. If I truly wanted them, I would make them. Try it if you have not. They beat store bought chips by a long shot.
3. Convenience
   A frozen pizza or take-out is easier than a cauliflower-crust pizza at home. The only fix I have found is prep. If I do not spend time once a week washing and chopping vegetables, grating cheese, and making a couple of salads plus dressing, I struggle all week. When I prep, there is no struggle. I can throw together a salad, a one-pot meal, a skillet (ground beef with cabbage and other vegetables is my favorite), or soup. Prep and cleanup are a fraction of starting from scratch.

Other challenges — the blown day, the tired night brain, other people’s food, using “healthy-ish” to keep the old habit — I’ll get into those in Part 2: Staying on Track.

Get the motive straight

When losing weight is the main reason I eat well, it never lasts. My brain starts a game called Let’s Make a Deal.

Me: I am hungry and I have nothing ready. It will take time, effort, and decisions. I should have thought of this earlier. I have to stop doing this.

Brain: Stop beating yourself up. It is just this once. Tomorrow is a new day. One plate of lasagna and wings will not matter. While you are at it, grab chips for later since this is the last time.

When that voice is running, reasoning is already gone.

If the motive is only a number on the scale, the brain can always say “it is just a pound, I can lose that in a day or two.” Or, in a low mood, “who cares.”

Thinking about what the food actually does in the body is a different story. I had a live blood analysis about 36 hours after a big pile of wings. That food does not just go in the mouth and out the other end. A lot of it is absorbed and travels in the blood to every cell. You really are what you eat. That test showed excess protein and fat in the blood, and more I cannot remember. Four months later I went back after a clean week — no junk, no night eating, no pile of wings. The doctor was blown away. He said he had never seen that much improvement that fast. The state of your blood hits every cell. What you eat changes that.

Knowledge keeps my head in the right place. I take in natural health information every day.

Motives that actually hold

Right now I want my body in the best shape I can get it before my next trip to Dr. Bergman’s clinic in TJ, so the treatments can do their job better. If I show up with unhealthy blood, extra fat around my organs, and I have not done the exercises he gives me — why go? Waste of time and money.

I have other motives too. I want to hike next summer on trails I would not trust my hips and knee on right now. I also want a tropical trip next winter without worrying I will get sore and not have my vibration plate and the other tools I use at home.

Most of this is not advice. I am not a weight-loss coach. I am sharing what worked for me. Part 2 is next.

What are some strategies you use to stop your brain from playing Let’s Make a Deal?