Secret 7: Turn off the Tube
Time spent watching TV is time spent being completely sedentary (and thus expending minimal amounts of calories) and often eating as well. Most people mindlessly consume snacks while mesmerized in front of the television, not noticing the rapidly multiplying calorie intake. Case in point: The successful NWCR “losers” watched less than 10 hours of television per week.
Secret 8: Retrain Your Brain
Interestingly, most people who have lot and kept off the most weight tend to be “lower left” brained, meaning they are organized, controlled, methodical and disciplined. This is not to say that those of us who thrive on spontaneity or embrace clutter are doomed- it’s just a matter of retraining our brains. Encourage clients to become better organized by writing a grocery shopping list and sticking to it! During your next sessions, ask your clients to plan their workout schedule for the next week and make a promise to stick to it. These efforts will help solidify their lifestyle change and make permanent weight loss more of a reality.
Secret 9: Start Today and Don’t Cheat
It’s easy to put off starting a serious lifestyle change to a later date. Likewise, it’s easy to “cheat” and eat an extra piece of cake here, a pizza there. It’s important to be diligent when attempting to lose weight, because people who don't cheat on a regular basis are 150% more likely to maintain their weight loss. Encourage clients to adopt a “doable” healthy lifestyle they can stick with; this will reduce those compelling urges to unwittingly sabotage their weight management success.
Secret 10: Know that Birds of a Feather Stick Together
A study of 12,067 people followed over 32 years concluded that obesity spreads through social ties. That is, obese people tend to have obese friends. Pairs of friends and siblings of the same sex seem to have the most profound effect on each other’s weight loss. Some researchers suspect that the spread of obesity has a lot to do with an individual’s general perception of the social norms regarding the acceptability of obesity. The logic works like this: If my best friend and my sister are both obese and I love and admire them all the same, then maybe it’s not so bad that I gain a few pounds. Clients can reverse this psychological phenomenon by inviting pals to work out at the gym or go for a bike ride with them to stay or get fit.
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