EATING BEHAVIORS AND THE BRAIN PART 7

Your non-conscious brain influences your eating behaviors over sustained periods of time. What really makes a difference to your weight and your overall health is what you do on a consistent basis—what, and how much, you typically eat day after day. Brief variations in this pattern do not make much of a difference. Your body can quickly adjust to a short period of not receiving enough calories or a short period of receiving too many calories. Generally speaking, it’ll maintain stable health and weight for variations such as these. It’s the consistency over time that matters.

That’s why I often have people apply the 80/20 rule, meaning that if they can adopt the behaviors I’m suggesting 80% of the time, they’ll get most of the results they need. However, for some individuals, their current health situation dictates that they need to apply them more like 90% or even 100% of the time. When you become desperate, sometimes you have to take appropriate measures, so we’d prefer not to get to the point of desperation. Generally, the 80/20 rule will work.

What Happens When You Transform Your Eating?

When people correct their eating behaviors and begin to eat the foods that give them health, energy, and appetite control, they eventually will only eat these foods. The reason for this is obvious. As they transform their eating, they begin to feel so good that they don’t want to go back. When they finally have a “cheat day,” and eat all the foods that they used to love, it actually can cause:

• Bloating

• Acid reflux

• Achiness

• Fatigue

• Depression

They begin to recognize that their cheat days just made them sick, so ultimately they end up choosing nutritious foods all the time.

That will happen to you, too, if you stick with this series. You will get to a place of complete freedom in your eating behavior where you always choose foods that nourish you and help you to feel good. The great news is these foods also taste good. You’ll still enjoy really good food, and you won’t have to count calories. Don’t underestimate how empowering this freedom is, to be completely free to eat in a way that supports your best health and your best life.

Doctor’s Conclusion

So as you begin to understand how the brain regulates this, and you start to take control of your brain, the process will become self-reinforcing. You will no longer have to fight yourself. This will just become who you are. That’s good news because who you are will become a very healthy and energized human being.

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