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MINDing Your Weight
Dr. John H. Sklare
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Imagine that you have just purchased a new car. Let us further imagine that this new car is the first manual automobile that you have ever owned and operating a clutch is now part of your everyday driving experience. Having never had to shift a car before, you find yourself constantly grinding the gears and popping the clutch as you struggle with learning how to properly drive this vehicle. After a few months your car begins to make some very unpleasant sounds and eventually refuses to move from gear to gear. After having your car towed to your friendly neighborhood repair shop, the mechanic regretfully informs you that your car needs to have the clutch as well as all of the gears replaced. He tells you that they have been damaged beyond repair through irresponsible driving. So you tell him to make the repairs and to call you when the car is ready.
After the car is repaired, what do you think would happen if you were to continue to drive that car in exactly the same way that you did prior to the repairs? The answer seems very obvious, doesn't it? Unless someone teaches you to drive that car more responsibly, you will undoubtedly end up in the repair shop again with the exact same problem! In other words, unless you get a little "drivers education" you will experience the exact same problem over and over again.
Now the reason for this story is to make this very important point. This same principle holds true in weight control. I mentioned earlier that our lives are comprised of two fundamental elements, the physical and the mental. As a matter of fact, the relationship between the physical and the mental are very much like the relationship between a car and its driver. That is, imagine the physical part of you (your body) as the car and the thinking part of you (your mind) as the driver of that car. Your mind is the driver of your body. Losing weight and working on your body (the car) is a very important part of weight control. However, unless you give a little "drivers education" to the thinking and decision-making part of yourself (the driver), you will most likely repeat those old thoughts and behaviors and end up in the repair shop again and again. This is commonly referred to as "yo-yo dieting".
Yo-yo dieting is the result of repeating old self-defeating, unhealthy thoughts and behaviors. Take the story about the man who goes to the doctor complaining of a sore arm? The doctor asks him what the problem seems to be and the gentleman explains that he feels a great deal of pain every time he raises his arm above his shoulder. The Doctors reply, without a moment's hesitation is, "Well then stop raising your arm". Even though this will eliminate the pain, it doesn't solve the problem. The reason that this does not solve the problem is that it addresses the symptom only and ignores the problem completely.
People, who are trying to control their eating, constantly find themselves in the same situation. You are told to "just eat less" or to "follow this or that diet" or given some other bit of simplistic advice. This advice, well intended as it may be, also speaks only to the symptom, which is overeating, and ignores the problem, which is why they are overeating. Until you learn what motivates you to overeat, you are not likely to succeed at weight control. Understanding why you overeat is the key to changing old eating habits and ultimately eliminating yo-yo dieting. Remember, the physical act of eating always follows the mental decision to eat!
It is important that you prepare both your body and your mind for healthier living. After all, psychologists have demonstrated time and time again that what we do and what we feel are a direct result of what we think. Healthy and positive thinking, results in healthy and positive living. If consistently making healthy choices was easy, everyone would be successful. The reality, however, is that weight control is much more mental than physical. As a matter of fact, you are probably nodding your head in agreement right now as you read this. We both know that this is true. The answer lies in identifying and eliminating those repetitive thoughts and behaviors that are at the very heart of most weight control problems.
The answer to eliminating emotional eating is to become a more mindful and more purposeful eater and this is precisely why I developed The Inner Diet. You simply must change the way you look at and use food, if you are to succeed, because you will never become who you want to be by remaining who you are. The answer is change and the time is NOW!
Wishing You Great Health!
Dr. Sklare
Dr. John H. Sklare
John Sklare received his doctorate in counseling from Northern Illinois University. He spent 15 years of his professional life seeing patients in private practice during which time he also served as a member of a medical team providing pre and post psychological services to surgical patients. He has served as a consultant to business and industry doing personality assessments and compatibility evaluations, taught psychology and learning theory to both graduate and undergraduate students and conducted numerous workshops and seminars on a variety of topics. Dr. Sklare has appeared on both radio and television and is also a USPTA certified tennis professional and is the feature writer for Atlanta Tennis Magazine. He also provides the "Daily Inspiration" wellness message for Lifescript.com, is a contributing author for the ASBP Medical Journal, and currently consults with Doctors, Dietitians and Corporate Wellness Programs on wellness, the psychology of lifestyle change and weight management. Dr. Sklare is also the author of The Inner Diet Personal Assessment System, a program that addresses emotional eating.
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