Psychological Keys to Weight Loss

With summer on the way, a lot of my friends and family have been asking me what I did to lose the baby weight and how I maintain my weight now.

When I was doing my undergraduate degree I was getting a bachelors in Psychology and minoring in Nutrition. I cannot count the number of times someone would ask me, “how do those two things relate?” My answer was always, “how do they not??”

Everything we choose to eat we choose for a reason. Whether it’s a comfort food, a health food, something that reminds us of tradition, or any other slew of reasons. There is always a psychological back drop to why we eat what we eat and when we eat it! (Speaking of food, that was a mouthful!)

With that in mind, I compiled five of the most important things to keep in mind when trying to lose or maintain a healthy weight. Combine these tips with a little nutrition education and you will be well on your way!

1.Do not fall into the all or nothing trap. This is where, for example, you put yourself on a diet that says “no sweets”. You then go to a party, eat a cookie, and feel so guilty about the one cookie that you finish off a cheesecake and swing by McDonalds to pick up a Big Mac on your way home. All or nothing mentality is never helpful. If you eat something you didn’t want to eat, take a deep breath and let it go. Don’t let what you’ve eaten determine what you will eat next.

2.There are no “bad foods”. This thought process of good and bad foods will make you lose your mind. It causes you to be psychologically tempted to eat the “bad foods” because we all want what we can’t have. There is good food and better food, but no bad foods. Nothing is off limits. Everything in moderation.

3.You have to want it. You must want weight loss more than excess food. Note I say EXCESS food. You can still have food, just not in excess.

4.Have patience. You did not get to the weight you are in two weeks and you won’t lose the weight in two weeks either. Aim for a 2 lbs weight loss a week at the most. The slower you lose the weight, the easier it is to keep it off…and trust me, weight loss is a day at the spa compared to weight maintenance.

5.Walk. If you do no other physical exercise, walk. Walking will burn some calories, but more importantly it refreshes you psychologically and gives you energy to take care of yourself. A walk will put you in a better frame of mind to take care of yourself as a whole.

Take it from me. Last summer I looked like this...



and this summer I’ll be rocking a two piece with this physique...
(Okay okay, I had some help in the weight loss department by doing a little something called having a baby.)

What Our Dreams Mean (Part II)

In my last post I talked about the importance of dreams. I did want to mention that many of us have disturbing dreams. This does not mean we are disturbed. The subconscious does its best to piece together moments and memories to form a story that communicates to us a deeper meaning, but it is often not a perfect portrayal.

Sometimes we dream we are gaining a ton of weight, and sure enough we have a baby on the way. (This of course represents anxiety about the weight gain and possibly feeling out of control about becoming a parent as well.) Other times things are less obvious. We dream we are riding on the back of a pig running through the dessert and then Reggie Bush shows up dressed like an Egyptian and tells us to stop speeding. This one may be a bit harder to interpret. I encourage you, no matter how strange your dreams, to analyze them either yourself or through a professional therapist/psychologist. (I love dream analyzing with my clients). You just may be on a path to self discovery. When you dream your subconscious is trying to tell you something. Now you just have to decide, are you going to listen?

What Our Dreams Mean (Part I)

Dream interpretation sounds a bit new-agey and a little old-agey in a biblical sense too. In reality it’s perfectly relevant to the here and now.

I think any of us who have taken an introductory Psychology class are familiar with Freud, the “Father of Psychology.” He gets a bad wrap these days for the way he gave everything a sexual tone, and he probably did over sexualize in some aspects, but if we are honest here the man was a genius. Briefly, his most popular theory involved the personality being broken into the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.

Basically, the Id wants what it wants and it wants it now. The Id is the spoiled, tantrum-throwing five year old inside of all of us. The Ego has the job of meeting the needs of the Id but also balancing out what is acceptable in society. If the Id wants to run around naked, the Ego says, “now listen Id, we may get arrested for this. Let’s put on some underwear at least.” The Superego is our moral center. The superego says, “hey guys, let’s just keep all of our clothes on. There is no need to expose our body.”

So back to dreams. According to Freud, when we sleep our Superego and our Ego are also sleeping. Instead of suppressing the thoughts of our Id, the two Egos are snoring away. Because our guard is down, our subconscious thoughts, wants, desires, and fears are allowed to surface and present in the way of dreams. I believe we can learn a lot about who we are and what we want through our dreams. I don’t necessarily follow the interpretation school that says “a baby represents the future”, etc. but I do believe if we analyze our dreams we can find deeper and relevant meaning.

The End

I don’t know why we don’t face death more as a culture. Okay I do know why. Death is a strange and scary horse. It’s scary to us because none of us has ever experienced it, yet we know we all will at some point. Sometimes death sweeps in and steals someone away, and that scares us too. Life brings an array of different experiences to different people at different times, but two things in life are certain; we were all born and we will all die. My point is that we really need to talk about it because it will happen, I promise you that.

Death is on my mind today for two reasons. The first is that, of course, it is Easter. This is a beautiful day that commemorates when my savior was raised from the dead, thus conquering the grave…the very thing we fear! We do not have to fear death at all because He has promised when death comes knocking, He will be right there with us and we will not face it alone.

The second thing that has me thinking about death today is that I learned this afternoon a girl I grew up with had passed away. She was 25. Her life was cut very short and this was just a reminder to me of how very finite our lives are. We are reminded over and over that life is short. “Each man's life is but a breath” (Psalm 35:9) and “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14) To me this only motivates me to truly live each day to the fullest. It is so very easy to get wrapped up in wants or the daily grind or a number of other things we face here on earth, but we must keep are hearts fixed on eternity. We are on this earth for such a very short time that we must work fast and furiously to accomplish our purpose. If you do not know your purpose, well for the love of all that is good please go out and find it. Yes, I believe with all my heart that we all serve a unique purpose.

Because I do not want to leave you depressed on this beautiful Easter evening, please know that when those of us who have accepted Jesus into our hearts leave this earth we go to a place more breathtaking than any earthly site and sit joyfully in the golden presence of our maker eternally. Hello?? No more hurt and pain….and probably ice cream too? I believe Jentezen Franklin said it best when he said, “Do not grieve for me when it is time for me to go, for my last breath on earth will be my first breath in heaven!”