Book tip
This is how losing weight works for hopeless cases
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Have you tried every diet and still failed again and again? Then the book “Losing weight for hopeless cases” could help you. Two addiction doctors reveal how you can overcome the craving that is often responsible for this.
For some people, trying to lose weight in the long term always ends in fiasco. For example, you stayed on the diet for three weeks and then reverted to your old eating pattern after four. The little bit that you have lost up to then can be put back on your hips in no time – or even more.
Craving as an enemy
The addiction medicine specialists blame Dr. Iris Zachenhofer and Dr. Shird Schindler in her new book “Losing weight for hopeless cases” especially the so-called craving, which in German can easily be translated as craving or desire. We need the chocolate bar or the bag of crisps right now – because the food industry has manipulated us to do so. Because craving is primarily triggered by chemically produced substances, that are found in industrially produced foods – for example in finished products and sweets.
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So far, so well known – after all, cravings, as one might call the phenomenon, is nothing new in and of itself. The two experts compare the craving for food with the craving of a drug addict for new substances – and explain how those affected can get this desire under control with the means of addiction treatment.
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It depends on the skills!
So what do you do when the craving is on your neck? The experts recommend methods of so-called emotion regulation: Depending on the stress level, various “soft skills” and “hard skills” can help to overcome the craving. In the low stress area, small distractions in the form of soft skills are usually sufficient. These include, for example:
- To write
- Sudoku
- dream trip
- mystery
- music
- Call friend
- Take care of organizational matters
- Self massage
- cleaning shoes
The best thing to do is to just pick out a few of these skills that you find relaxing, distracting, and most importantly, don’t cause any reluctance. If you find at least five pleasant soft skills, these can also be linked to a so-called skill chain. It is important to pause every now and then and check your own tension.
If you are in a high voltage range, hard skills can help – however, these are also a bit more radical than their gentler colleagues. Hard skills could be, for example:
- Chew the chilli pepper
- Place ice cubes on the neck
- To take a cold shower
- Listening to music that you actually hate loudly
- Put clothespins in your arm
- Scream out loud
This actively influences the inner tension – and after a while the brain begins to associate the craving with something unpleasant. It is important that you can perform all skills at any time – So it should not only be selected that you can only do at home.
The three A.
With the help of these skills you can learn to recognize the onset of addictive pressure and to combat it. The three A’s help:
- Assume: Acknowledge current drug addiction.
- Cheering: Fight against it by z. B. uses his skills and / or thinks of situations in which the craving was successfully overcome.
- Riding off: Think of the craving as a wave for surfing. Instead of letting it roll over you, you keep yourself on the surfboard with the help of the skills. The wave will roll out towards the bank, which means that the craving and inner tension will subside. The longer you can withstand the wave, the more stable you are against the craving.
And how should I feed myself now?
The addiction experts do not provide a specific meal plan – instead, as with addiction patients, they recommend what is known as substitution therapy. Instead of focusing on what it is better not to eat (namely the industrial foods mentioned above such as fast food or sweets), the focus should be on what you are allowed to eat. And that should be anything that fills you up well and creates a positive mood. For example, the Volumetrics diet is suitable: The vegetables that are in focus there have a lot of volume and therefore fill you up quickly and for a long time.
Good approaches, little new
The other tips from the experts are no longer unknown: In addition to lots of vegetables, high-fiber foods (e.g. from whole grain products) help with a healthy and filling diet. How someone who loves chocolate and snacks above all else should develop the same enthusiasm for vegetables and co. – Unfortunately, the doctors fail to provide this information. Everyone has to work out the right mindset for sticking to the chosen concept. The other tips, which include the classics like lots of sleep and exercise, don’t offer anything new either.
Even more detailed instructions and more tips on How to get the craving under control with the help of addiction treatment, there is in the book.