The Most Important Weapon in Your Weight Loss Arsenal

I have a client Sarah, who has three kids and was recently diagnosed with prediabetes.  She came to me because she felt like she could not stick to her diets, but desperately wants to avoid developing full diabetes.  She wants to stay healthy for her children, but despite her best intentions, she would break down towards the end of the day and stray from her plan.  

The Best Intentions...

A typical day for Sarah would begin with the best intentions.  She would eat a healthy breakfast and lunch.  Her mornings and afternoons were filled with taking care of her three young children, one of which is a high needs child with autism.  Sarah would experience anxiety and stress during the day, and by about 4pm she was exhausted and her anxiety had reached a level where she just couldn’t make good decisions anymore.  When getting her kids snacks from the pantry, she would eat as well, usually foods high in carbohydrates and not on her plan.  On particularly busy days she would call her husband and have him pick up takeout or a pizza on the way home.  

As this pattern repeated itself, Sarah found herself with an extra 5 pounds of weight gain 6 months after her diagnosis, despite her best intentions to lose weight.  Sarah’s story is a very common one and stems from the difference between your primitive brain and your prefrontal cortex.

The Primitive Brain

What is the primitive brain?  The primitive brain is the basic evolutionary part of the brain that controls basic instincts.  Generally we are designed to seek pleasure and avoid pain.  The primitive brain is like a toddler running through the house and just doing anything fun, no matter how destructive.  The prefrontal cortex is like the supervising mother.  She has your best interests at heart and can see the big picture.  The prefrontal cortex understands why the toddler should color on a piece of paper and not the walls - but to the toddler, it just wants the fun of coloring in the moment. 

The 24 Hr Food Plan

This is why a 24 hour food plan is the most important weapon in your weight loss arsenal.  Everyday you should take the time to write down exactly what you are going to eat the next day for each meal.  All 3 meals should be written down in detail.  Make sure you have the ingredients on hand, or have a plan to acquire them early in the day.  

The purpose of the 24 hr food plan is that you are planning ahead and using your prefrontal cortex to make your plan.  This is the supervising mother than knows your long term goals of health are more important than just doing whatever feels good in the moment. 

Once you make the plan - stick to it no matter what!  What tends to happen is that our decision making capability is strong in the morning when our brains are fresh.  By the afternoon, particularly if we are tired, or have any stress, we lose the capacity for making good decisions.  We have decision fatigue, and our primitive brains take over.  If your toddler brain could choose broccoli or cake, which do you think it would choose?  This is when you rely on the plan you put together the day before.  Now you know exactly what you are going to eat - there is no decision needed.  You know you are going to stick to the plan, and you have the food readily available.  Armed with the 24 hr food plan, you are much less likely to stray from your plan.  

You can think of the 24 hr food plan as the Ulysses pact of weight loss.  The term “Ulysses pact” came from the story of the Odyssey.  When Ulysses sailed past the Sirens, he had his men tie him to the mast ahead of time.  He knew when he heard the Siren’s song he would not be thinking clearly enough to resist it.  Therefore he made a plan ahead of time with his rational, fully functioning brain to stay on course and not to succumb to the Sirens.  

The 24 hr food plan is a must for successful weight loss.  You will want to use this every day without exception.  It becomes even more important when going out to dinner.  If you have dinner reservations at a restaurant, look up the menu online ahead of time and decide what you will be ordering.  What will you do when the bread basket arrives?  Will you be getting an appetizer or dessert?  Plan it out in detail.

Sarah started using the 24 hr plan and quickly saw a huge difference.  She was able to stick to her food plan as she had written down, and the pounds started to come off.  It was not always easy, but as she kept at it, it became more of a habit each day.  

If you would like to work with me on developing your food plan and making massive progress on your weight loss goals, schedule a free consultation at https://TriciaRotterMDcoachscheduling.as.me/freeconsultation