Lost Weight?
Checking my latest echocardiogram, my cardiologist mentioned something awful sounding about regurgitation in a valve and aortic root swollen to 4.5 and if it gets to 5.0 because of the danger of rupture, he would refer me to a surgeon. I was already on medication. He said the best thing to do was to lose weight.
Not that I knew what all that really meant, but it jolted me as much as my first asthma attack on an airplane back to the U.S. from Korea when I began trying to quit or cut back on a pack of unfiltered Camels a day.
The Satiate Hormone
Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells in our body that inhibits hunger. So take away fat cells and away goes your leptin with the fat. Without leptin your hunger is not satiated. Not good, because you don’t know when you are full. You get hungry and eat. And sometimes you eat and eat and eat and eat!
Willpower
Got willpower?
It takes willpower to resist the urge to eat. You have limited willpower. Willpower trying to keep from eating leaves less willpower to keep from losing your temper or keeping up your productivity. Burn up willpower and you bring on the comfort foods – nonstop.
Defended Body Weight Range
The brain “protects”against falling below its Defended Body Weight Range. This is much like homeostasis where the body maintains a temperature around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit whatever the temperature outside. So with weight, say you drop below a Defended Weight Range of 160 to 175. Your brain kicks in and gets your weight back up. When you drop below your Defended Weight Range, your brain is afraid you may be starving your body.
A diet sets a goal in the future. Your brain protects the self in this present moment. Eating is one of our least controllable behaviors. Unless you are willing to devote all of your willpower to counter your brain, no diet will work.
“Other than brain lesions, illness, toxins, and surgical interventions, very few manipulations can permanently lower the defended body weight in obese individuals.” From: “Overweight and the Metabolic Syndrome: From Bench to Bedside“.
Mindful Non Dieting
The answer to this dilemma is not another diet, but mindful non dieting. Eat what you like and stay within your brain’s Defended Weight Range. Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt, author of “Why Diets Make Us Fat” says you can find your Defended Weight Range by giving up dieting and food restriction. Eat when you are hungry, but mindfully stop before you are full. She says, “Within six months to a year, your body weight should stabilize within your brain’s desired range.”
Aamodt offers non dieting mindful suggestions:
Eat before you are starving because people who are starving tend to eat too fast.
Eat more slowly and enjoy the taste sensations.
Experience the appearance, smells, flavors, and textures of each food.
Pay attention to how the body feels before eating.
Check on hunger and how body feels in mid meal.
If you feel stuffed after eating that is a lesson about how much food you need.
Be aware of changes in taste, ie getting tired of something and want more variety.
I am within my Defended Weight Range. OCD has its perks. A huge motivator to stay within this range is no longer waking four a.m. drenched in a cold sweat as I did when I was thirty pounds above my Defended Weight Range.
You need to be constantly mindful and this is a daily challenge.
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
