How to change your weight’s “set” point
May 28, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments
“Try this 30 day weight loss.”
“Drop five pounds in a week with this teatox.”
“Drink this and look like Taylor Swift (plus all her talent) swiftly. Like, by tomorrow morning”
(Fun fact: diet soda makes you fat ’cause the fake sugar trolls your brain into thinking sugar’s coming.
When it doesn’t, you bod pumps out insulin, you store more fat, your metabolism hits the brakes, you burn fewer cals, and you end up binging on f’real carbs and sugar later anyway.)
Ads can be confusing, can’t they?
I mean, we all want weight loss and we want it fast. The only problem with that? It’s not effing possible, my friend. Actually, lemme rephrase that. It’s totally possible – if you want that weight loss to dissipate as quickly as it came like Slim-derella’s fairy godmother put some sorta time sensitive spell on you. But that’s never meant to be an implication in our weight loss wishes, is it? Quite the opposite, right? What me mean to say is, “I want weight loss. I want it fast. And I want it to stay.” And that, my dears, is what we can’t have. It won’t stay ’cause it’s not sustainable – these things we do to get there. Even if you adhered to diligently downing teacups filled with bile flavored elixirs or staying on starvation diets for the next three months, one of two things would happen: A.) You’d get fed up, feed on everything within a two inch radius (including people, places, and things who made the mistake of being in your way that day) – or B.) You’d get fatigued to the point where all other your other life facets would falter. Under the influence of a nutrient deprived brain, you’re not only a cranky azz shrew to everyone you love all the time, but you’ve got the bonus of brain fog. Before you know it, you’re walking into work with two different color shoes, forgetting you had a presentation to give this morning. And that’s after your forty five minute treasure hunt spent searching for your keys which you (of course) had left in the fridge.
Alright, so we know quick doesn’t work.
Why?
Well, because, on the diet and exercise regimen you’re currently following, your body has what’s called a “set point”. That’s the weight dietary writers will tell you your body “likes” to hang around. I, on the contrary, use that term “likes” with sarcasti-quotes. Why? ’cause I loathe anthropomorphizing something that’s totally changeable. Nay, not just changeable. Changeable by you. To say your body leans toward the opposite of being lean insinuates that it’s A.) outta your control, and B.) unnatural somehow to try and counter that. Not so. Case in point. My “set point” used to be somewhere around 130 or 135. Within a year, it was somewhere around 120. What’d I do? I listened to people who were smarter than me. I started on a plant based diet – but then I also gave it time, and was realistic about the fact that there’d be body oscillations on my journey to thinner living.
(Note the ride to slim town’s not a straight line.)
But I had to remind myself, my body didn’t “want” to remain somewhere indefinitely.
You do that, and the excuses will sabotage you faster than a sign outside’ve Starbucks saying they’re serving free choco-cuccinos. No. I had to remind myself that I wanted. I wanted ice cream. I wanted venti mochas that turned to fat on impact once it hit my gullet. I wanted starchy breads and hyperpalatable addictive snack foods that kept me coming back for more. But I only wanted them ’cause I was still addicted to them. Until I changed that – altered the quality of my intake, and began exercising and strength training the right way – no change would come for me. How could it? How could I expect a lasting solution, if I wasn’t modifying the crappy formula? It took some time to get that through my titanium brain chainmail. But after it finally did, and after I was finally willing to actively apply that rationale, my set point was magically recalibrated within a year. And that’s the biggest key here. We have to be willing to alter our lifestyle choices, and we have to be willing to wait for the weight to melt away if we want results that’ll stay. They can stay. And they totally will, but only if we do the only two things most people aren’t open to doing instead of looking for the wrong answers in any place they can.
So instead of paying for hunger pangs, remember, this is “wait” loss.
You won’t get it in a day, but it’ll stay if you pay with patience and some change.