by SactoBob » Tue Oct 26, 2010 8:59 am
Ben,
I hope it will all work out for you, and if I can do anything to help I am willing to do it. Since I was just giving you step by step instructions, I want to share with you my general plan. It's a concept that I developed as a result of a past failure to change my eating habits, and my current success.
I think that the commonly accepted way that we look at overweight is completely wrong. The common thinking is that people are obese because they are either unlucky genetically or lack some kind of moral or emotional balance. But I believe the science that Doug Lisle talks about in his DVD's.
Animals in the wild don't get obese because all animals have a very reliable system that tells them when to stop eating. The problem is that this system does not necessarily work well with foods that have been altered to increase their calorie density. Everybody's appetite works with foods that are part of an animals natural history, but not necessarily with other foods.
Dr. Lisle explains how lab rats will not gain weight even if they are deprived of exercise or put through tremendous emotional stress. However, if they are allowed chocolate, they will all get obese. So it is not a problem with will power or emotional strength. The reason people are obese is because they are eating a diet for which they were not designed, and they lack their appetite doesn't work with the processed foods.
Most people know what are healthy foods. But not many people eat these foods exclusively. The trick is in changing to healthy foods when so much in society tells us that it is ok to eat the processed foods. Just look at the commercials on TV or what is on the menu in most restaurants.
I think that you want to change what you eat, but lack the tools to do it. You have very strong habits regarding your old food. And even though you know these foods are bad, as Dr. Shintani puts it, when you are hungry, you are going to want to eat. And if you haven't prepared in advance to surround yourself with healthy foods, you are going to eat the familiar foods.
You are a teacher, and so necessarily pretty smart. You also know what you are doing to your life with your current lifestyle. Your main hurdle in my opinion is that you have no reasonable alternative to your current lifestyle because you don't know how to shop for and prepare healthy meals. All the will power in the world is not going to help if you are hungry and don't have good food available in advance. When you are hungry, you are going to eat. That is a hard wired instinct.
So my plan was for you to develop a repertoire of menus that you could cook in advance, and have you start getting used to these foods. The more the better. Next was to work on how to transport these foods to work and away from home. With that in place, you would have been able to transition to eating only healthy food. You would have still needed a lot of will power, because the transition can be difficult for 30 days or so.
But IMO, the only thing standing between you and dramatically improved health is some new food preparation habits and about 30 days. Once you get past that, it becomes natural and easy. But it is a steep climb initially.
I'm sorry that this thread didn't work out for you. I hope that you don't think that there is something about you that will keep you from success. You have the knowledge and the intelligence to succeed spectacularly. I hope we will see you succeed.
And I have learned something from my own failure here as coach, too. I doubt that I will try to help somebody online like this again in public. I have had success coaching people in person, and thought that I could translate it into a public forum, and I think I have changed my mind on that opinion. So thanks for giving it a try. It has added to my own experience. Best of luck and please contact me if there is any way I can help. This forum is full of people who have succeeded on this program, and there is nothing that can stop you from becoming one of them.