Latest / Cameron's Conversations: The last weight loss podcast you'll ever need. / Episode 99: The dieting mindset
Transcript
- Cameron: Welcome to the Cameron's Conversations podcast. And in today's episode, I want to talk a little bit about the weight loss mindset. And one of the things that comes up quite a lot with this is I think people walk into a weight loss phase either expecting it to be dead easy or expecting it to be ridiculously difficult. And in both scenarios, it's kind of unhelpful. The reality is that weight loss often is not it's it's probably in at times more repetitive or slightly on the more boring side. Then it is necessarily hard. And a lot that is a type of hard, I guess, in a sense, right? And and i I guess that's just another way of thinking about it, right? Is it like a bit of repetitiveness can be a little bit ⁓ challenging for people? But it that's a lot of what dieting actually is. You will have to at times sit in a little bit of hunger. I'm gonna give it a little example. Last night I had my dinner. Now, I've not done like a proper, proper food shop because I was only where I am for three, four days. So I did a food shop and it's just a little bit short of what I probably would normally have in terms of edge. So whilst I had my pasta, I didn't have as many I didn't have any tomatoes or peppers which I'd normally add. I did have a small amount of broccoli and I had some mushrooms. So had some things in it, but it wasn't as much as normal. And I felt a bit more fullness last night. And I sat in that that hunger a little sorry, I experienced a little less fullness last night and experienced a bit more hunger because of that. And last night I had to sit in that hunger a little bit. Like I felt hungry at times in the evening and the world didn't end. Like it does pass. And actually, I kind of had a half-hour wave of it probably and then it just kind of like disappeared. And then probably like 20, 30 minutes before bed, I felt a little bit hungry again. I just sat in it and then it was gone. And one of the things that can be really useful is the the people that maybe expect it to be difficult and and to ⁓ be hungry are maybe a little bit more tolerant of that side of it because they kind of expect to be a little bit. But also sometimes like people make themselves hungrier than they need to be. In fact, not sometimes, but almost all the time, people make themselves hungrier than they need to be. Perfect example of this is if I was to have that meal and I was to add the peppers and tomatoes, 50, 60 calories of those, I would be very surprised if I it felt that hungry. I think it would have been delayed by an extra hour potentially. I think it would have made that much difference in terms of my fullness. I would have probably come away from the meal rather than feeling like almost full, feeling really quite full, despite there only being a relatively small calorie difference. So I think it's it's not a bad thing to anticipate some challenge, but also sometimes people on the s the side of the fence where they kind of think, ⁓ it's gonna be incredibly difficult, then can also talk themselves out of even starting when it doesn't need to be. Like of this week I have felt properly hungry and and I mean like, you know, not like fifteen minutes before a meal, which just for context is normal. I think You know, I sometimes say this to people as people like, ⁓ I'm starving before lunch. And it's like, okay, like that's probably normal. Like we we are so deconditioned to it, especially when and I know this myself, when I need to I went through a really big weight loss phase at the start of that, I was really deconditioned to being hungry at all because I just ate whenever I wanted. Even if I was a tiny bit peckish, I would eat. And of course there is a bit of a change from that. Like someone saying, like, I'm really quite hungry for my lunch twenty more minutes before lunch. Probably a good thing. Like, is it a bad thing to feel a little bit hungry? Like, it probably tastes better for it. I don't know about you, but when you're hungry and you eat food, it tastes real good. Like, that can be quite a nice way of framing it. But I've probably only sat with more significant hunger once this week so far. And it's like a Thursday, no, it's Thursday morning as I record this. So I think it can be really important to remember that when it comes to this like weight loss mindset, if we expect it to be dead easy and we never expect to be hungry, that's probably not realistic. But on the other side of the coin, We can almost talk ourselves into being like, ⁓ it should be impossible, it should be so hard, and it shouldn't be for most people, especially if you're not like unless you are getting super, super lean. Like when I've got to and even for me this wasn't really a big factor, but you know, it can be when I was getting kind of like photo shoot lean and really starting to get lean, yeah, at that point I was starting to feel a bit more hunger and things like that, sure. But otherwise, like I wasn't really feeling that much hunger. Like it really wasn't that bad. I was more tired sometimes by the end of the day than I was anything. So one of the things that I think can be useful is when you're approaching that weight loss phase, getting into that mindset of like it is normal, like normalizing to yourself. And almost like I I kinda joke, it's like a bit like self-soothing, I think it's the term, but it's like almost being like, Yeah, it's it's okay to feel like that. Like it's it's okay to feel a little bit of hunger. You can reassure yourself like that is normal when you're in a little weight loss phase and it passes. And having that in your mind and being like, this is a wave, I'm at the crest of this hunger wave. The next wave might be a bit bigger, but it might be delayed by two hours, which is fine, right? So You know, if I've if I've not had lunch yet and I'm a way to have lunch in an hour, well I might be the crest of the wave in terms of hunger. It might drop and then it's lunchtime, so I eat and then I'm not hungry for a good few hours anyway. So it doesn't really matter anymore. But having that kind of mindset of hunger tends to come in waves and it comes and goes, that's useful. And the waves will typically, but not always, get bigger over the course of a day. Eventually they will always get bigger, but certainly initially sometimes you can have some smaller ones where I'm a bit peckish. ⁓ past, I got distracted, I was busy at work, I was doing something. ⁓ it's come back a bit, ⁓ gone again. Okay, now it's probably time to eat a meal anyway, so it's not that relevant. But also just reminding yourself that it passes is super super helpful. I think that really does help and it stops you getting too caught up in what you're feeling in the moment. Because I do think that that's really important. Is when it comes to that weight loss mindset, is being accepting of okay, I'm gonna feel a little bit hungry sometimes, but that's not the end of the world. So I think that's a good sort of sentiment to take into a week of weight loss is. Minimize your hunger as much as you can, have tons of veggies, make your meals really filling, try and equal eat at regular times, but also accept that you will probably experience waves of hunger and the world doesn't end if you do. So just a short and quick one as it was on my mind after feeling a little hungrier last night. I thought I'd do a quick one of that just off the cuff. But otherwise, I hope you're having a great week and hopefully it's sunny enough for you to be out sunbathing as well. Hopefully you're getting this great weather. Although I do know a lot of clients down south right now are complaining about being like 36, 37, 38 degrees, a totally different ball game. I'll take the 23 degrees here and comfortable weather that we're having at the moment.