Do you think you'll just NEVER stop eating your favorite food?
Do you believe that you love your favorite food so much, that you could never stop eating it even if you were about to explode with fullness?
Well, my friend, this post is for you. I'm going to whisk you away to an alternate universe where you could IMAGINE actually wanting to stop eating your favorite food.
Just for the sake of argument, let's say your favorite food is french fries (it's mine). But you can mad libs french fries for whatever your favorite food is.
Get on the imagination train with me.
Imagine you're finally going on that super radular road trip with your best friend. You know: the one you've been planning since you were both 5 years old and you could only imagine how awesome it would be to go to Disney World with no grown ups. So, this is a serious road trip, like you're in the car and on the open road for days.
I want you to imagine that this road trip time is magical for your body.
On this magical road trip,you can eat as many french fries as you like but you don't gain weight.This food still fills you up. It's still digested the same way. It still makes you feel how that food makes you feel, whether it's full, poopy, gassy etc etc. Everything stays the same but you don't gain weight.
But, here's the catch: french fries are the only food you can eat this entire trip.
You eat french fries even when you're craving something fresh. You eat french fries when you're driving through the swamps of Louisiana and you're hot and all you really want is something cool and refreshing. You eat french fries when there's a really nice beef brisket sandwich while the french fries are some sad slop. You still eat french fries even though you haven't pooped for days. You eat french fries when you're dying of thirst and there's a cool crisp salad filled with juicy, refreshing sweet fruits and vegetables.
How do French Fries sound now?
If you want to add a caveat to this all-indulgence plan, like, "Well I'd like to eat a lot of french fries but maybe not every meal," then you understand habituation.Which means, my friend, you are a candidate for intuitive eating.
What if I told you that this magical world is actually real?
Your body really does stop eating french fries. If it didn't stop you, french fries would literally kill you because your stomach would burst with fullness.
When you really really really really allow yourself to eat what you want, you will crave something else besides french fries.
Let's break this concept down with a little science so you believe me. According to wikipedia, "habituation is a form of learning in which an organism decreases or ceases to respond to a stimulus after repeated presentation. Essentially, the organism learns to stop responding to a stimulus which is no longer biologically relevant."
In other words, when we experience something over and over again, we no longer feel as excited about it as we did the first time. If you listened to Justin Bieber's song one too many times to try to learn the dance to Sorry, you might know what overexposure to a stimulus does to your experience of it.
When it comes to weight gain, it's the restriction that causes weight to continue to go up and and up and up.
Set point theory shows that genetics mostly determine your size. Actually, dieting is primarily linked to weight gain according to large-scale scientific studies. Not eating french fries is what causes weight gain.
So, go on with your bad self, and eat those french fries...until you get sick of them.
Do you believe me? Share in the comments your thoughts. Let's get our discussion on.
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