Rule 1: Take responsibility for your beliefs

Healthy habits make us healthy. Unhealthy habits
will make us sick sooner or later. And if we keep
ignoring that, the consequences will become
irreversible.

90% of everything that we do comes out of our habits. Almost everything we do on a daily basis is automatic. This also includes our dietary and exercise habits. Throughout our lives, everyone of us has developed a habit for satisfying each of the basic needs, including the way how we feed our hunger and what do we do to "fill our batteries". And even though the most fundamentals aspects of our well being, such as health, property, relations with other people and social status mostly depend on our habits, we rarely look at it this way. We are much more inclined towards "simple" and "instant" solutions, which may sound interesting, but in reality can't deliver desired changes.

Let's face it: we don't develop metabolic syndrome (being overweight, have increased fasting blood sugar, triglycerides and blood pressure as well as lower HDL) in an instant. It is not an acute problem, but comes as a result of many months of even years of consistenty repeating wrong things. In other words, being overweight and having other indicators of metabolic syndrom is a result of wrong habits.

Getting out of metabolic syndrome also doesn't happen in an instant. Just as getting into it, getting out of it is a long process that spans over months or even years. And by the same logic, it can only be a result of repeating a particular behavior (but different as before) over and over again. Clearly, if you want to loose excess weight and become healthier, you must change your normal day-by-day behavior. In other words, you must change our habits.

Yo-yo effect occurs when we take a wrong approach
to weight loss. Forcing ourselves into diet and
exercise can't last long, and it is always followed
by return of the old unhealthy habits.

Sounds easy, but easier said than done. Changing habits is tricky. Many people try it by forcing themselves into different behaviors, and these changes usually come overnight. They start setting their alarm clocks earlier and louder. They drag themselves to the gym three times a week. They force themselves to shop and cook different food. They set up an eating schedule and all sorts of other things. However, sooner or later (but rather sooner than later), they quit and go back to their original habits. Why? Because they just find it too damn difficult. They start feeling that they are becoming someone else, and that they are loosing the benefits of their old self. Because they don't want to give up these benefits, they go back to their original habits. And the metabolic syndrom comes back, often in a worse form.

Trying to change behaviors overnight is a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, there is a better way to achieve long-lasting behavioral changes, without having to force yourself into things that you don't like. The trick is, that before you do anything with your behavior, you first do something in your mind! The thing you should do first is to reconsider your beliefs, especially your beliefs about what makes you feel good and what makes you feel worse. This will affect your subconcious like and dislike patterns. After you will manage to do this, correct behavior will follow automatically, without having to force yourself. In fact, it will suddenly become very difficult for you to go back to the old habits, as they will start seeming illogical and wrong.

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, 
Your thoughts become your words, 
Your words become your actions, 
Your actions become your habits, 
Your habits become your values, 
Your values become your destiny.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

The Dilts pyramid explains how the things that we do,
including our habits, come out of our personality. It is
not possible to make long-lasting changes of habits
without make changes on the higher levels of the pyramid.

Mahatma Gandhi was well aware of the strong connection between our identity, values, habits, actions, words and thoughts. Respected psychologist Robert Dilts presented this relationship on the so calles "Dilts pyramid" (you can see it on the picture on the right). This pyramid shows the structure of our personality and states that if you want to make changes on any of the layers (such as behaviour), you need to make changes on the higher levels as well.

If you know the Dilts pyramid (and now you do), it is easy to see why so many people try so hard and fail so bad in loosing weight. They desperately try to change their habits, but at the same time they don't want to change their beliefs and values. They want to become a new person and at the same time they are holding on to their old self.

The bitter sad truth is that if you are overweight and sick, you have a personality of an overweight and sick person. If you feel offended, please, do not be. I have absolutely no intentions to insult you and I am sorry if I did. I am sure that you very likely didn't get yourself overweight and sick on purpose. It is also very likely that your intentions were completely different. But, if you happen to be overweight at that moment, the bare naked truth is that this is the result of repeating the wrong behavior over and over again. Your body is a sign that something doesn't work, and it can be traced back to your habits, beliefs, values and identity. But please, don't feel bad about it. If you have read this article with clear and open mind, now you know where to begin!

Taking responsibility for your beliefs is the first step towards successful, long-lasting weight loss journey. There are eleven more steps which I will write about in the future weeks. Until then, I advise you to closely observe your dietary habits. Compare them with dietary advice you can find on this blog or anywhere else where your attention is attracted. Think if you could follow these advice. Write down, what you could and what you could not follow. Eventually, you will create a comprehensive mirror image of your personality and will have a place to start making real changes.