Motivation to lose weight: Where to look for it for an effective result

Once a woman turned to a psychotherapist who wanted to get rid of excessive, and quite significant, completeness. The question was formulated very clearly: “How can you lose weight by continuing to eat whatever you want?” “Only by reducing the volume and frequency of food consumption,” was the answer. The woman was unhappy: for some reason she believed that the psychotherapist possesses some kind of magical techniques that allow the client to fulfill any desire without the slightest effort on his part. What is the motivation for losing weight?

What is the motivation for losing weight

This example is far from the only one. People often turn to a psychotherapist as a magician: “I want my husband to stop drinking,” “I want the family not to break up,” “I want my son to return to college,” etc. But as soon as they find out that the therapist can help them to understand the complex problems inherent in themselves, and that in the end they will have to put in some effort, the enthusiasm for psychotherapy sessions disappears.

So this woman in the foreground was about the following motive: “I want to absorb everything, I like to indulge in gluttony, even if the psychotherapist makes it so that I do not get better.” With this attitude, psychotherapy sessions are meaningless.

Considering how to lose weight, we will tell you about another example: an elderly woman, rather obese, with flabby skin, every morning, in any weather, went to the park, did exercises awkwardly and did a short run. Six months later, she turned into an energetic, fit woman who deftly performed much more difficult exercises and carried out quite a long run. In short, dramatic changes have taken place. Obviously, her motivation for losing weight was very strong: she mobilized all her will and achieved an excellent result. An actor who enters a theater institute is actively learning the correct speech, manners and movements, realizing that without this there will be no success. He has a powerful motivation, so he repeats the exercises on speech technique and plastics for as long as

“I would like to lose weight”, “I ought to lose five to ten kilograms”, “I don’t fit into clothes anymore,” etc. – this is not a motivation for losing weight, but just distant reflections on a given topic.

With such reflections, starting any activity, be it diet, exercise, courses, hypnosis, etc., is completely useless. Moreover, it is a guarantee of failure and discrediting of any method. Either the person “holds out” during the course, and then immediately begins to gain weight, or withdraws from the race.

How Weight Loss Motivation Works while Losing Weight

It is impossible to get rid of the extra 10-30 kg in one month – this is a rather lengthy process associated with a change in lifestyle and diet. Fat is an inert substance, and even with intense physical exertion, carbohydrates, the lighter fuel, are consumed first. To burn excess weight, for example, 0.5 kg of fat, you need to perform one of the following feats:

• travel at a speed of 3.2 km / h a distance of 232 km;
• travel 107 km at a speed of 5.5 km / h;
• run 69 km at a marathon pace;
• ride a horse for 9.5 hours;
• dance a foxtrot for 16 hours;
• perform Beethoven’s works for 30 hours.

Why Beethoven? Because his music is very “energetic” and requires a tremendous effort from the performer.

Patients, as a rule, do not understand this, and therefore, having resorted to various methods of treatment (diets, pills, dietary supplements, hypnosis, etc.) and finding them insufficiently effective, they stop believing in success, feel their own helplessness and fall into depression. They naturally find “consolation” in food, and therefore their weight grows even more.

Strong motivation for losing weight can arise only when a person ceases to perceive any therapy as an encroachment on the very best in life; when will he be able to reconsider the usual forms of his eating behavior and ask himself: “Why gluttony has taken possession of me so, what interests and values ​​have been relegated to the background because of this?” Difficult questions that require a certain amount of courage to answer. Courage will also be needed in order to try to break out of the usual circle.

When a person realizes that he is not dooming himself to “hunger and giving up the joys of life”, but simply wants to improve his life, change the hierarchy of his own values, see his problems and start solving them, then limiting the amount of food will not be perceived as robbing himself. Then the most difficult first 2-3 months of the restructuring of eating behavior will progress more successfully. Understanding that any restructuring is accompanied by unpleasant sensations, that lengthening the breaks between meals really causes sucking in the stomach, dizziness and internal tremors, but that all this is not fatal, will help the body get used to the new regime.

“I want to eat, my body demands, I can’t cope” – these are the arguments of a person who does not want to part with his habits.

““ I can’t ”lives on the street“ I don’t want to ”” is a wonderful aphorism that sounded in one of the American films. People, unlike animals, have a special type of mental functions called higher mental functions, or simply consciousness. A person can set and implement goals, that is, control himself. Unfortunately, recently it has become fashionable to talk about the unconscious – in the vein that everything in a person is hidden, the reason for every action lurks in the depths of the subconscious, and only meditation allows you to “master” these unknown forces. Consciousness, thus, found itself in a pen, and without it, the life of a person as a rational, thinking creature is inconceivable.

People with low motivation are unable to achieve the desired result. Any method of weight loss seems to them to be untenable, and their own capabilities are limited.

Strong motivation for losing weight arises only when a person, having revised the usual forms of his eating behavior, realizes: gluttony has taken over him so much that other interests and values ​​have been relegated to the background because of this.

Since a person easily finds an excuse for his negative actions, he is able to justify his positive behavior, in particular, the transition to correct eating habits.

Diet and fasting

People tolerate food restrictions in different ways. The unpleasant feeling of sucking in the stomach appears 4-8 hours after the last meal. This feeling is usually accompanied by anxiety, which is always “overgrown” with some ideas. The centuries-old experience of mankind’s struggle for existence preserves terrible ideas about hunger (lean years, catastrophes, concentration camps, etc.), so the thought: “I’m hungry” – willy-nilly brings negative emotions. It is not surprising that people who are recommended this or that diet “get scared, thinking that from now on they will have an unbearable,” hungry “life.

However, diet should never be confused with fasting. A diet is just a limitation in the quantity and composition and a certain diet, which should not at all be accompanied by an oppressive feeling of hunger.

In order to get rid of the unpleasant feeling of sucking in the spoon, it is enough to eat quite a bit – the main thing is that the composition of the food corresponds to the chosen diet. There is one more recommendation for those who are afraid that they will not “cope” with the diet. You don’t need to specifically listen to yourself, as if asking, “Am I hungry?” – after all, the feeling of hunger, like any other sensations, becomes more intense when you focus on it. Find something to do to help you take your mind off your thoughts of food. People who are passionate about work, whether mental or physical, do not feel hungry. The opposite example: during a vacation, especially a passive one (for example, on the beach), a person constantly wants to chew something, is looking forward to lunch or dinner.

Now let’s talk about fasting. Fasting is a complete refusal to take any kind of food, which is life-threatening.

We will not touch upon the problem of forced starvation: I would like to think that in real, everyday life, the bulk of the population of our country still does not experience hunger (in the full sense of the word). Another thing is the voluntary refusal of food for any purpose – for example, in order to lose weight. People who decide to lose weight by intermittent fasting often have no idea what will follow. With complete starvation, after 2-3 days, the feeling of hunger disappears, the metabolism decreases, weakness and indifference to everything increase, mental and physical activity decreases, mental disorders often appear (the perception of oneself and the world around them is distorted), as a result of which a person becomes completely helpless. It is almost impossible to get out of this state on your own: specialized medical care is required. I would like to emphasize that fasting for weight loss, carried out outside the hospital, is extremely dangerous (I mean a specialized hospital, since not all doctors can competently provide assistance to patients using the fasting system).

People who want to lose excess weight should not at all resort to a complete rejection of food – the same goal can be achieved by making certain adjustments to their daily diet.