25 Things One Woman Did to Lose Weight--And Keep It Off!
The first time you have an experience or learn something new, chances are a new pathway is created. Then the next time you have that experience, your brain will search to see if your have experienced it before. If you have, it'll follow the same pathway. The more often you have that experience or think that thought, the stronger that neural pathway holding that thought or behavior will become. This is how a thought or action becomes a habit. By repeating a pattern we strengthen the neural pathways being used for this behavior and essentially reinforce our propensity to be "stuck in a rut"--literally. Here's an example: Let's say that you have been binge eating late at night in your home off a certain set of plates and now you have decided you want to stop that behavior. But, every time you eat off those plates you have been hard-wired to overeat, making it exponentially more difficult to break that destructive habit. You cannot rationally "think" these physical networks away. But you can change them in two ways:
1. You gradually force the pathway to weaken and atrophy
over a period of time by not using it.
Every time you resist the urge to eat an extra cookie when
you're upset, or use the ranch dressing at the salad bar,
you're allowing those old patterns and pathways to die away so
that you can slim down and get healthier. You can do this
by pausing and thinking through your choice. Ask yourself what the
consequences of that choice will be. That allows you to move from
the impulsive part of your personality to the part of your brain
that can reason before automatically reacting.
2. Override the old pathway by wiring in a new
behavior.
Let's say you've been going to the same supermarket for
years--and buying garbage foods that don't support your efforts
to lose weight. Try a new supermarket! It seems strange, but simply
being in a new location will help you not fall into old patterns of
grabbing your same-old old junk food from the same old shelves.
Then repeat. Something that will help create a strong neural
pathway is repetition. It's not as complicated as "neural
pathways" makes it sound: Just know that you actually can
create physical changes in your brain, hard wiring yourself for
success. OK, now what old habits are you going to break? And what
will you replace them with?
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