Some of you might be thinking that is impossible. Hopefully come of you will be basking me, "Tell me more!"
Hello, my name is Owen Clouston. Founder and head trainer at Owen Clouston Coaching Systems.
In today’s video, I want to talk about one of the early strategies that helped me enjoy some of my favourite foods and still lose weight. Why it is part of the Mediterranean Fasting Lifestyle I have created. How it will change your life forever.
Firstly, I would like to thank Dr George Blair-West, Weight Loss for Food Lovers. His system helped me to lose weight while still enjoying some of my favourite foods.
It is a game changer. It is easy to follow, understand and flexible.
The Role of Food in our Lives
Abraham Maslow identified food as one of the most fundamental needs we have.
The following is a modified excerpt from Dr Blair-West’s book, Weight Loss for Food Lovers: Understanding our minds and why we sabotage our weight loss. Alclare Pty Ltd. Kindle Edition.
After we are born and work out how to breathe, we are provided with food to keep us alive and to grow.
From that moment, food plays a deep and meaningful role in our lives.
Every time we get upset during these first few years, chances are we will have a nipple, fake or real, stuffed into our mouth to soothe us – and often it will work!
Every major event and celebration involve food – indeed often they revolve around food. Graduations, weddings, Christmas and Easter – even funerals are not complete without food.
And of course, there is the most important event of the year for every one of us – our birthday.
What would you think of your birthday party if there was no food, no birthday cake? Think about the key role of the cake – it holds the candles that, when lit, trigger the singing and hooraying.
There are few special activities that don’t involve food. What would a trip to the movies or a theme park be without popcorn, sweets or soft drink?
Fun and food become closely connected and live side by side in our minds.
By the time we reach adulthood, the association between food and having a party is irreversibly established deep in our mind.
Food becomes one of the ultimate forms of reward that we can experience as a human being.
Eating becomes ‘party time’. For many of us food is absolutely the ultimate form of reward in our day-to-day lives.
More specifically, certain foods come to represent ‘party time’ better than others. For example, chocolate would be the old faithful in this regard.
Think about the foods that cause you the most problems – your favourite stack-on-the-weight foods – how many of them are the foods you typically find at a party?
For many people I work with, eating their favourite or forbidden foods is really an escape from their stressful lives into their own brief little party.
The Secret Sauce
Dr Blair West’s Golden Rule: There are no foods that are forbidden. There are only foods we need to manage better.
His program is to divide party foods into 2 lists: High Sacrifice Foods (HSF) and Low Sacrifice Foods (LSF).
He identified that there are party foods that people can often give up without ever having again and not be bothered by this.
The other list are foods that people would die for and never want to live without.
From there, it is a case of managing them better so that you can still enjoy them and lose weight.
In keeping with this idea is the quote by Peter Drucker, best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers about management theory and practice, has said: “What gets measured, gets managed.”
The Problems
We often tend to bring those party foods into our everyday lives, things have the potential to spiral out of control.
As humans, we aren’t very good at giving up things. Science has a concept for this referred to as Restraint Theory.
Restraint Theory was tested during the Minnesota and Milkshake Experiments and proved that the reason diets don’t work is that we hate to be deprived and will rebel if this deprivation goes on for too long. Typically this has been measured at about 6 months. With people putting on all the weight they lost and some within 12 months of starting a diet.
The Answer
I have created The Mediterranean fasting Lifestyle, which includes the HSF and LSF strategies to help you.
To provide you a way to enjoy some of your favourite foods, while losing weight or remaining as healthy as you already are.
I provide all the tolls and help need to implement this into your life so you can lose weight, feel great and have a life.
References:
Blair-West, Dr George. Weight Loss for Food Lovers: Understanding our minds and why we sabotage our weight loss. Alclare Pty Ltd. Kindle Edition.
Minnesota Experiment:
Email: owen@activelearning.co.nz
Website:
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