"I know what I should, I just need to do it”. I have probably heard this sentence more than any other when it comes to weight loss, in fact, it is usually the first statement that is uttered after introductions. And it makes sense. For most, weight loss is not a knowledge deficit but rather an implementation deficit. I think it is well understood that to lose weight we should probably reduce processed foods and increase whole foods, and I think most people would agree. The real challenge is making the change. Heck in the sentence itself it’s implying a change needs to be made “I know what I should do, I just need to do it”. This is where a more sensible approach to habit change tends to be the missing link.
It seems to be human nature that for most of us we approach things as either “all or nothing” meaning I’m either going to the gym every day this week or not at all or I’m dieting over the holidays or not giving a **** what I eat, and I’ll worry about come January. This mentality is understandable we want results, and we know how to get them, we just need to it. Here in lies the problem when we approach nutrition, as most lifestyle changes, as “all or nothing” we might get short term results though it is not sustainable, which by default means it will not be successful. Then when we do “fail”, and we will by design, we feel guilt and shame (“I have no will power”, “if I wasn’t just so lazy”). This is when we give-up only to repeat the same process down the road and this is also where incremental habit change can be a more successful approach.
We know that to be successful long term we need to change habits, aka our lifestyle, though we also know that changing habits is not easy nor quick. So why would we expect to seemly change our lifestyle overnight and then get upset when we fail? When changing habits, we need to pare it down, think of it as more incremental habit change over time rather than big changes overnight. A goal of getting to the gym every day might instead be going for a 20-minute walk over lunch M/W/F, a goal of never eating chips again thus becomes enjoying one serving of chips 2 days a week with lunch. The idea is that once the goal, or better yet experiment, that is being worked on starts to become more routine (automatic) then we can add another layer, walking over lunch 5 days a week or removing the chips from the house. Though keep in mind if we find that we are unable to achieve the experiment(s) we are working on, which is okay that is why we are experimenting, then make the experiment EASIER aka walk 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes or one 1 serving of chips a day rather than 3x a week. This is where we tend to go wrong, if we are not doing what we think we should be doing we quit and end up with nothing rather than thinking of why we aren’t able to achieve it and CHANGING our approach. Incremental changes over time add up to HUGE results, the focus just needs to be changed from “I know what I need to do” to “this is what I can start doing”.
-Jason