you, or a
black cloak with the hood pulled up, hiding you from others, or a
massive python wrapped around your body, squeezing the life out of
you. Then ask yourself: Why have you allowed this to happen? Why
have you imprisoned yourself? Why are you hiding? Why have you
given yourself a death sentence?
Your weight problem has likely been a gradual process, probably
without conscious intent, but in most cases, arriving at this weight
was your decision STREET
, even if it was a subconscious one, because there was
some kind of payoff. You wouldn’t have continued the behaviors that
caused you to gain weight if there wasn’t any payoff.
For example, victims of molestation sometimes make a subcon-
scious choice to gain weight so they can feel sexual y irrelevant and thus thwart all interest from the opposite sex, even healthy interest. Other
peopl BIRD
e turn to food for pleasure, companionship, a sense of calm, a
deep-seated need for immediate gratification, or an irrational form of
reward. Your payoffs could be any or a combination of these factors, but the point is that you need to first recognize them and then learn how to generate the very same payoffs, except with healthy behaviors this time.
I’ll help you do just that as we continue working in the chapters ahead.
44 | The 20/20 Diet
Now, go back to the symbol you’ve associated with your extra
weight. Imagine yourself losing weight and as you do, see yourself over-
powering, for example, that constricting snake so it’s forced to loosen its grip on you, or watch as you bend those prison bars with superhuman
strength, or as you peel off that heavy, black cloak. You’re in control now. As you begin to lose weight in real life, return to this symbol over and over, until final y, the visual no longer applies at al .
Why Wil power Doesn’t Work
INC.
A huge part of getting your thinking right is to understand the funda-
mental difference between “control” and “willpower.” In our survey,
we asked why people typically quit or gave up on weight loss pro-
grams. We gave a list of common reasons, including hunger, cravings,
unsupportive friends and family, plateaus, and lack of willpower and
asked respondents to rate the extent t BOOKS,
o which each issue affected their
decision to throw in the towel.
Before I reveal the intriguing results, I want you to answer this ques-
tion truthful y: If you’ve ever quit a diet or fal en off the weight loss wagon in the past, how much did your “lack of wil power” factor into
your decision to quit? Use a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means it did not
play a role at all and 10 means it played an extreme role. If you answered
“10,” you are in good company. In our survey, 37.6 percent of people
said “lack of wil power” was the top cause of their past weight loss failures. They gave i STREET
t a score of 10 out of 10.
I’ve been saying it for years: wil power doesn’t work long term. It’s
a temporary fix. You think, “This is it! I’m going to do it this time! I’m going to bul doze my way through this and final y get skinny.” Come
on. You know how that story ends. You might manage to starve yourself
for a few days, and maybe you even drop a couple pounds. But then
wha BIRD
t happens? All you think about are the foods you aren’t al owed to
eat until final y those thoughts give way to actions, that dam breaks,
and you find yourself devouring a large pepperoni pizza without coming
up for air. And then you blame yourself and decide you’ll just have to
muster up more wil power and it’ll work the next time. And so the ugly, self-defeating cycle starts all over again.
Getting Out of Your Own Way | 45
I want you to wipe the concept of wil power from your vernacular and
replace it with words and concepts like “control” and “programming.”
Wil power has no staying power. Control and programming can
last a lifetime because when you set up your world and your
black cloak with the hood pulled up, hiding you from others, or a
massive python wrapped around your body, squeezing the life out of
you. Then ask yourself: Why have you allowed this to happen? Why
have you imprisoned yourself? Why are you hiding? Why have you
given yourself a death sentence?
Your weight problem has likely been a gradual process, probably
without conscious intent, but in most cases, arriving at this weight
was your decision STREET
, even if it was a subconscious one, because there was
some kind of payoff. You wouldn’t have continued the behaviors that
caused you to gain weight if there wasn’t any payoff.
For example, victims of molestation sometimes make a subcon-
scious choice to gain weight so they can feel sexual y irrelevant and thus thwart all interest from the opposite sex, even healthy interest. Other
peopl BIRD
e turn to food for pleasure, companionship, a sense of calm, a
deep-seated need for immediate gratification, or an irrational form of
reward. Your payoffs could be any or a combination of these factors, but the point is that you need to first recognize them and then learn how to generate the very same payoffs, except with healthy behaviors this time.
I’ll help you do just that as we continue working in the chapters ahead.
44 | The 20/20 Diet
Now, go back to the symbol you’ve associated with your extra
weight. Imagine yourself losing weight and as you do, see yourself over-
powering, for example, that constricting snake so it’s forced to loosen its grip on you, or watch as you bend those prison bars with superhuman
strength, or as you peel off that heavy, black cloak. You’re in control now. As you begin to lose weight in real life, return to this symbol over and over, until final y, the visual no longer applies at al .
Why Wil power Doesn’t Work
INC.
A huge part of getting your thinking right is to understand the funda-
mental difference between “control” and “willpower.” In our survey,
we asked why people typically quit or gave up on weight loss pro-
grams. We gave a list of common reasons, including hunger, cravings,
unsupportive friends and family, plateaus, and lack of willpower and
asked respondents to rate the extent t BOOKS,
o which each issue affected their
decision to throw in the towel.
Before I reveal the intriguing results, I want you to answer this ques-
tion truthful y: If you’ve ever quit a diet or fal en off the weight loss wagon in the past, how much did your “lack of wil power” factor into
your decision to quit? Use a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means it did not
play a role at all and 10 means it played an extreme role. If you answered
“10,” you are in good company. In our survey, 37.6 percent of people
said “lack of wil power” was the top cause of their past weight loss failures. They gave i STREET
t a score of 10 out of 10.
I’ve been saying it for years: wil power doesn’t work long term. It’s
a temporary fix. You think, “This is it! I’m going to do it this time! I’m going to bul doze my way through this and final y get skinny.” Come
on. You know how that story ends. You might manage to starve yourself
for a few days, and maybe you even drop a couple pounds. But then
wha BIRD
t happens? All you think about are the foods you aren’t al owed to
eat until final y those thoughts give way to actions, that dam breaks,
and you find yourself devouring a large pepperoni pizza without coming
up for air. And then you blame yourself and decide you’ll just have to
muster up more wil power and it’ll work the next time. And so the ugly, self-defeating cycle starts all over again.
Getting Out of Your Own Way | 45
I want you to wipe the concept of wil power from your vernacular and
replace it with words and concepts like “control” and “programming.”
Wil power has no staying power. Control and programming can
last a lifetime because when you set up your world and your
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