This first thing that we want to identify is your current eating patterns. Human beings are hardwired to create habits because it makes us efficient. One of the fundamental and ingrained habits we have is our eating behaviors, because we do them on such a consistent basis. As you go through your journal, try and identify some of these habits and behaviors. What time of the day do you always eat? What are the foods that you eat the most? When are the times when you eat too much of a certain food? When do you eat the majority of your food?

Why is this so important? Because 99% of the things that we do, think, and feel are the same as we did, thought and felt yesterday, and are the same as we will do, will think and will feel tomorrow! This is why every single diet that you take from somebody else will fail over the long run. If you drastically change your eating behavior and habits, your brain will repel and you will go back to your previous eating habits eventually. This is why almost everybody will regain weight (and more!) during their weight loss campaign.

So how do you change? By replacing your old habits with new ones. Although that may sound easy, changing your habits can be very difficult because your brain HATES CHANGE! This is because your brain is always looking for ways to conserve energy and it literally has to burn more glucose when we do something out of the ordinary. So when you decide to “go for broke” by changing  your whole eating behavior and introducing excessive exercise, any unplanned event in your life can easily derail the changes that you want to make. Your body literally runs out of energy to manage all of the changes, and falls back to what it knows best to get through the rest of the day.

With this in mind, over the next few weeks we are going to focus on making one small change. We do this by identifying something small that we want to change, establishing a strategy for change, and then implementing the strategy. If you do this everyday (for approximately 21 days) you will create new neural pathways in your brain and a new habit will be formed. While it may be frustrating to make changes gradually, it is a much more realistic approach for guaranteeing success because it requires less energy and won’t place unrealistic demands on your body. Remember, success breeds success, so it is much better to have many small successes that add up, than to take on TOO much at once, fail, and have to start all over at square one.

Week 3:

Evaluate your current eating blueprint. What is the one change you could make that you could feel like you could accomplish? Here are some examples to get you thinking:

Cut out or reduce your intake of ONE snack

Replace ONE starch with vegetables

Reduce your intake of calories from liquids.

Remove or reduce your intake of ONE desert.

Begin eating your meals NOT in front of the T.V.

There are hundreds of different eating behaviors that you can change, but what is important is that you change the ones that are relevant to you. Next week we will observe what eating behavior will be most beneficial for you to change in order to create your new eating blueprint.

So why is it so important to write down everything you eat? There are a number of reasons. First of all, we all have unconscious habits, especially when it comes to eating. This means that you will eat food at various times without even noticing it. Writing down every time that you eat makes you more aware of these occasions. Once you have enough data you will notice when these habits are most likely to occur. The next step is to either eliminate the habit by changing it, or replace the problem habit with a new and better one. But it is essential that you remember habit changing requires mindful diligence to the new behavior. Ritual makes habitual.  

Next, writing down every time you eat will give you a good indication of when you eat the most calories. You will soon recognize when this is. For most people it will be dinner or late at night. Another common time is during the weekend, because you have lost the structure of your Monday to Friday routine. Many people are also surprised to discover that a large portion of their calories come from snacks or nibbles.  Make sure you include every bite or sip you consume in order to have an accurate assessment.

Finally, writing down everything you eat will reveal to you what it is that you actually eat. When asked, most people give a totally different representation of their diet. What is more remarkable is that they actually believe what they are saying, even though it is so far from actual reality. Yes it is true …  our memories, even the strong ones, are often completely inaccurate.  When you write something down it will always be there, and you will not have to rely on your memory for an estimation of your average daily or weekly diet.

There are numerous other reasons that are just as important for writing down everything that you eat. Don’t worry this is not something that you will be doing for the rest of your life, but it is a fundamental step in creating your own blueprint. If you have not yet done so, buy yourself a journal where you can write down all of your information and keep it on one place. 

So the exercise of this week is to repeat last weeks exercise. Even if you are a part of the 1% who completed last weeks exercise, doing it again is still extremely beneficial. And when I say write down everything I mean everything, ESPECIALLY snacks!

Week 2:

Write down everything that you eat. Sounds simple right? Actually, writing down everything that you eat is very time consuming and requires attention and awareness. The goal of this exercise is to make you CONSCIOUS of what you currently eat. Most people are unaware of approximately 30-50% of the calories that they consume on a daily basis. Simply becoming aware of your unconscious eating habits and what you eat during the day will have a profound affect on your success in the future.

For many people such strategies can be quite helpful. They ensure that you are more mindful when you eat and that you pay attention to the signals of your body. One of the most common is – “Chew your food X number of times”. This is a good little habit to get yourself into, not so much because it will take you longer to eat your food, but because it will ensure that you eat foods that actually require chewing. Let me explain… 

Food manufacturers know that the quicker that you eat, the more you eat. The more food that you eat, the more you buy, so getting you to eat quickly is of high priority for food designers. This means that they produce foods that are specifically designed to break down immediately in your mouth.  Less chewing time means quicker consumption. Quicker consumption means more food consumed. You get the picture.

They do this in a variety of ways from putting water into chicken which makes it softer and easier to chew, to adding fat, simply to make the food break down easier in your mouth, and even injecting marinade into meat so the connective tissue is destroyed making it almost “pre-chewed”.

As you can imagine, processed foods also contain additives and chemicals that reduce the effort it takes to break them down and swallow. This means that you are often taking the next bite even before you have swallowed the first. So not only are the highly processed foods more calorie dense, but you are also eating more of them because they are designed to be eaten very fast. In most situations your brain will not register the fact that you have just eaten 1,000 calories in 5 minutes, so you continue to eat.

The most important point here is that when you are choosing foods to eat, make sure that you choose foods that you actually have to chew. Foods that don’t require chewing are designed that way, and almost guarantee that you will eat more. Foods that require chewing are usually healthier options and you will eat less because it takes you a little longer to consume them.

In the past we needed to chew a food around 25 times before we could swallow it. Now it may take you 2 or 3 quick munches for the food to be headed into your stomach. Stick to foods that you need to chew and you will magically see yourself eating a lot less.

All this chewing also gives you a fantastic side effect.  Chewing enhances flavor! It’s called savoring your food.  When the food stays in our mouth longer our sense of smell really has a chance to kick in and provide an extra flavor boost.  We all are aware of this on some level – every kid knows if they don’t like the taste of something they should try and AVOID chewing and gulp the food as quickly as possible.  

So slow down, chew and savor your food.  Eat mindfully.  Think about choosing foods that are less commercially processed and require a little more effort to chew.  Your stomach will be able communicate fullness appropriately and at the same time your taste buds can be really satisfied.

The reason that these diets are successful at the beginning is that you often have initial motivation, so you want to change, and they also provide you with a BLUEPRINT. These diets are also very clever by manipulating your calorie intake despite claims that you can “eat as much as you want”. They do this by fulfilling your sensory specific satiety, meaning that when you eat the same foods over and over, your brain simply gets bored and turns your “I’m full” signal on much sooner. Basically this means you don’t eat as much and thus you lose weight.

A problem arises when you realize that the blueprint you are following simply doesn’t fit your needs. This is no surprise, because everybody has their own specific blueprint, so following a specific diet template is rarely successful. There are many reasons for this. Maybe you get bored. Maybe you feel deprived. Maybe you lose motivation. Maybe you lose some weight and get complacent (very common!). The reason is not so important (yet!). What is important right now, is that you CREATE YOUR OWN BLUEPRINT.

We all love certain foods. We all have very habitual eating behaviors. We all lead different lives. Eating is so important to our survival that when you drastically change this behavior and follow somebody else’s eating plan, you have already failed. Please, please, please stop doing this. I know that you want to cut calories and deprive yourself of the foods you love, but this simply doesn’t work.

What does work is creating your own eating blueprint. This takes time, effort and dedication and has many different aspects. In the coming weeks and months I will teach you how to create your blueprint. For this week you will be writing down everything you eat. Here is your first exercise:

Week 1:

Write down everything that you eat. Sounds simple right? Actually, writing down everything that you eat is very time consuming and requires attention and awareness. The goal of this exercise is to make you CONSCIOUS of what you currently eat. Most people are unaware of approximately 30-50% of the calories that they consume on a daily basis. Simply becoming aware of your unconscious eating habits and what you eat during the day will have a profound affect on your success in the future.

I’m sure that you have embarked on many weight loss campaigns where your goal was to “lose 30 pounds in 30 days”. Maybe you were successful for those 30 days, but what about after that? Remember, real change takes time. 

Join us next week when we will go through the next step of creating your very own eating blueprint. Good luck and see you then!

Simply watching another person perform any activity stimulates specific brain cells – ones that we previously believed were activated only by DOING the activity. Lets say you are minding your own business, going about your daily activities, and you decide to drop in to see one of your friends. You go into your friends house and she just happens to be having some chocolate chip cookies. You both sit down and begin to chat, but your attention keeps being drawn to the chocolate cookies. Why? Because as your friend goes through the process of eating the cookies your brain activates as you were eating them yourself. These are you mirror neurons. There is a problem however…you’re not actually eating any cookies. So as one area of your brain says, “Hey I’m eating cookies”, another area says “Nope, not getting any cookies here”. The common theme here is “cookies”, so all of a sudden you want cookies!

As your friend enjoys the cookies your brain tries to interpret how your friend feels about the cookies. “Are the cookies nice?”, “Does she like the cookies”, “How are the cookies making her feel?”. These processes all occur below your conscious awareness. Your friend doesn’t even need to tell you the cookies are great.  Your brain automatically monitors and interprets her body language. If she talks about how yummy the cookies taste your conscious awareness kicks in.  So you have your unconscious mind receiving information that the cookies must be really good and you have your conscious mind reinforcing this information.

Finally your brain begins to create an experience where it anticipates how wonderful the cookie would taste. Your brain knows that you have had cookies before and it uses your past experiences to gauge how enjoyable this cookie will be if you eat it. Finally, your friend asks “Would you like a cookie”. Somehow despite this intense activation in your brain you muster up the willpower to refuse your friends invitation of a delightful treat. After all you are “on a diet”.

The above example is called and ENVIRONMENTAL CUE. We experience these at multiple intervals during the day, like when you pass your favorite bakery on the way to work, or when you see an ad for burger king in-between watching a T.V show. In fact, studies show that we make over 200 conscious decisions and countless unconscious decisions about food every single day.  Environmental cues are everywhere, but the most powerful ones can come in the form of your social interactions.

Human beings have especially active mirror neurons. Many researchers believe that one of their primary functions is to facilitate social behavior.  These brain cells allow us to learn from each other subconsciously and they are responsible for many of the amazing feats we can accomplish. Unfortunately mirror neurons take in all the information around you and don’t make judgements.  They can help you learn useful social behaviors but they also indiscriminately respond to those less desirable actions that we encounter every day.

Lets take the above example of our friend and her cookies. Although you may have just eaten lunch and have absolutely no desire for a cookie, simply watching your friend eating one will ramp up your desire to do to same. In step 1, the motor areas of your brain that are required to eat a cookie are basically saying – “eat that cookie”. In step 2, the emotional areas of your brain that interpret your friends feelings are saying – “eat that cookie”. In step 3 the pleasure centers in your brain are determining how delicious it will be and are saying – “eat that cookie”. But guess what, not one of these structures work independently, so in one fell swoop you have the movement areas of your brian, the emotional areas of your brain and the pleasure areas of your brain all simultaneously telling you to “EAT THAT COOKIE”. All because you are watching your friend eat one. 

So can your friends make you fat? The answer is of course, yes. So many people are totally unaware of how their friends and social environment affect their behaviors. But here is the good news. If your friends can make you fat, then they can also make you thin. You just have to tell them how they can help you to do that. Here are some quick tips to get you started:

MAKE IT PUBLIC – Most people when trying to lose weight and change their eating behavior never tell anybody what they are trying to do. This can be a huge mistake. They are often embarrassed what people may think of them, especially if they fail to lose weight. By going public you can advise your family, friends, and others, how they can be the most helpful to you. Remember, it is very hard for people to help you if they do not know that you are trying to change.

CONTROL YOUR ENVIRONMENT – It is a lot easier to control your environment than it is to control your behavior. Read that again, it is critical to your success. When you are constantly exposed to food, you have to constantly resist temptation. One can only resist for so long. Start with your family. Ask them to get rid of foods that are problematic for you or at least make sure they are not storing them in plain view and eating them in front of you. Eliminating this environmental cue alone can make a big difference.

ELICIT HELPING RELATIONSHIPS – Seek the support of somebody that can help you with your behavior change. This can be anybody, a friend, a family member, a colleague, somebody who has already achieved the change that you want. It should be somebody who you think can understand and support you as you go through your behavior change.

FIND SOCIAL GROUPS – It can be very difficult to change your eating behavior if you feel like you are doing it all on your own. Seek out groups of people who are going through the same process that you are. You can learn from them, ask questions, find support and learn new strategies to help you along.

Changing your eating behavior to lose weight can be a long road for some people, and keeping it off is often more difficult. In order to create real change, you must understand to use your family, close friends and others to help you along. They do not have to change they just have to HELP YOU CHANGE. Make mirror neurons work for you and you will find that losing weight becomes a whole lot easier.