As I mentioned previously, I have become fascinated with the idea of neuroplasticity. (According to the dictionary, neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury. In other words, You can create new and healthier connections and pathways in the brain with purposeful behavior.) I started out just looking at techniques for creating new habits, then changing behavior, especially anxiety driven behavior and I stumbled upon neuroplasticity. All of these are intertwined. Even if you know or care nothing about changing your brain but only about creating healthier habits or whatever, you ARE changing your brain when you create a new habit. ;)
So, this morning, I was rewatching a video I had seen a couple of years ago on tiny habits. It's a TED Talk by B.J. Fogg, a Stanford prof who holds workshops and such on changing your life through the use of "tiny habits." (I'll link the video at the end of this blog entry.) I resisted this approach on one level because of my experience of juice fasting (a HUGE, all-at-once change) leading to a far easier transition to eating WFPBNO than I could have possibly made in any other way. I had tried the baby steps, small-changes-lead-to-big-changes approach to diet my entire life which led me to be 340 miserable, ill pounds by age 50. And I've witnessed virtually everyone I know failing the same thing. I'd been force-fed the miserable statistics on how ridiculously few people actually lose weight and keep it off my entire life. I KNEW this approach didn't work. But while listening to professor Fogg and taking notes and finding once again that it really made sense to me and that I really believed I could develop some better habits in this way, I had an epiphany. Now some of you may think this is common sense that should have occurred to me long since but it didn't, okay. Small changes do not work for physically addictive behaviors but may work quite well for many other behaviors.
I still believe that the baby steps approach is not the way to go for many people to change their diet, but it may very well be the best way to change most other habitual behaviors, and make no mistake, anxiety, fear, resentment and often even depression are HABITS and/or the result of habits. The "many people" that I'm referring to above is anyone who is obese or has any sort of eating disorder or who has struggled over a long period of time to lose weight and never successfully lost it or kept it off. There are some people who are a bit overweight and maybe even have diet-related illness who simply need education as to what food is actually doing to them. Once this is clear in their mind, they begin to make the necessary changes a bit at a time so as to cause less disturbance in their home, family etc. Many people in my facebook group, Let Food Be Thy Medicine, advocate this approach and I always cringe because I firmly believe that it isn't likely to work for most of the people who come to the group. But it is such an easier pill to swallow you see. Here is me saying, just do it! Jump in the deep end! Way easier, I promise! While Betty and Bob are over here saying, be kind and gentle with yourself. Cut back on meat to one meal a day and then cut back on cheese, and then... and then... and then.... But in reality, for anyone who has been obese for many years, this approach just doesn't work. If it did, they would have stuck to one of the dozens of diet attempts they made in the past (and they have pretty much ALL made dozens of attempts in the past.) Because if weight loss is your only concern, just about every diet out there will work if applied consistently. Why don't we apply them consistently? Addiction. Many of the problematic foods for the human race are physically addictive. And for we poor souls who also have addictive emotional habits, it is a deadly combination. Now, to be clear, even the lucky few with no true addictive tendencies are probably going to have to go cold turkey to break the physical addiction of certain foods at some point. Cheese and sugar, for example, are highly addictive, period. Cutting back on those a little at a time is going to be nearly as impossible as telling an alcoholic to drink a little less each week till they've cut it out. Any true alcoholic will tell you the folly in that notion. For a far better explanation of the addictive nature of food, please read the excellent book by Alan Goldhamer and Douglas J Lisle called The Pleasure Trap. Really a must read if any of this is of interest to you. And if it weren't, you surely wouldn't be reading my little blog so... read it!!
So, that's my epiphany for today. It may seem obvious to many but it is a huge realization for me. I can now give myself permission to change some things a little at a time and not feel that I am copping out or wasting my time while recognizing that this doesn't change the fact that where my diet is concerned 100% is the only way for me.
You can find the video I referred to here: https://youtu.be/AdKUJxjn-R8
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