This post continues to focus on the Healthy Weight Week suggestions made by the medical staff of Flushing Hospital in relation to what the BrainWeighve phone app offers, to turn ideas into reality.
Make a deal to indulge
So says Flushing Hospital, but it might not be a good suggestion for everybody. Although many successful losers of weight have felt that, without the occasional “cheat day,” they could not have made it, others must strictly follow a program without deviation, or else they will, in Alcoholics Anonymous parlance, fall off.
This term comes from the old days, when the Temperance crusaders, who were against alcohol, would board a horse-drawn wagon and proceed through town, displaying banners and speaking through bullhorns to their neighbors. Anyone who agreed to take the non-drinking pledge was welcome to climb onto the wagon and ride with them, to show the townspeople that one more citizen had decided to get sober. To renege on that pledge was to “fall off the wagon.”
Once you fall off the wagon, another AA phrase takes over, the one called stinkin’ thinkin’. How does it work? Your sneaky brain says, “As long as we opened that bag of chips, might as well finish it off so they don’t, you know, go stale. It’s shameful to waste food. My mom worked hard to buy those chips. If I don’t eat them all, it would be a disrespectful insult to my dear mother.” You see the problem, right?
Now let’s back up for a moment and look at the expression, “cheat day.” Whom are we actually cheating? Mainly and mostly, ourselves. So, here is another idea instead. How about if we decide to indulge in something other than food? What if we strictly adhere to our plans for four weeks, and indulge in the reward of a spectacular pair of shoes?
Begin a manageable workout program
A workout program for many people will be most successful if it is convenient, which for some means home, and for others means any place but home. This could come under the heading of Rechanneling, which of course is redirecting overflow brain energy to non-food behavior. Needless to say, the app helps out with this part. It affirms that “you can control your displacement mechanism,” which of course is a feature of the brain that causes people to overeat. Rather than dwell in the land of harmful eating behavior, that process can be redirected to healthy movement instead.
Have a friend help you
Here is wonderful news! With Brainweighve, you can make a ton of friends, who all face the same difficulties that you do, and who just might have a good idea or two about how to make your journey a bit easier. They will share their struggles and listen to yours. They can hold you accountable, with a supportive expectation that you are a person whose word means something. And in return, you can share with and support them — which of course are important aspects of friendship. It goes both ways. The coaches are there too, prepared to offer extra insights and suggestions to keep a person on the path.
Drink plenty of water
This should go without saying, for just about everybody, all the time. Have a headache? Drink water. Too many beers? Drink water. Constipated? Drink water. Feel hungry? Fill up the tummy with water, it will probably help. There is barely a human ailment that can’t be helped by H2O absorption.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “National Healthy Weight Week,” flushinghospital.org, 01/20/21
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