THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC (WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW)

Without question, the world you live in has an influence on your eating habits. You and I are inter-connected through social, cultural, and family influences — guiding our thoughts and actions in all behaviors — including our approach to eating. You need to know what these influences are, why they exist, how they work against you, and finally, what you can do gain more control.

The History of Human Eating Behavior. Within the past fifty thousand years, the human race has evolved through three stages of food behavior. Early humans lived as nomadic wanderers, living off what they could find or kill, spending the majority of their daylight hours in a vigilant quest for food. As recently as five thousand years ago, however, our transformation into the 'farmer role' took center stage. Humans began to settle in one place. We grew our own crops and tended livestock, eliminating the need to wander and search for food, and dramatically decreased the threat of starvation. Within the past hundred years, however, we find ourselves in a third stage of evolution — one of industrialization, mass production, and convenience. Food is now inexpensive, accessible, and plentiful. The problem is, you and I possess the same instinctive approach to eating as our nomadic ancestors. Five thousand years is simply not enough time, on an evolutionary scale, to change the way we process survival instincts relative to food and eating behavior. Look at modern cultures over a tiny fraction of evolutionary time — the past fifty years – and you can see the destructive relationship of eating instincts in an environment where food is plentiful, cheap, and convenient. The result, of course, is the highest rate of obesity in our history! In only the past fifty years! And rates are climbing every year. To make matters worse, we live in an age of advanced technology, embracing the concept of less physical work, and this condition may be adding to the challenges you face in your own life. Seventy percent of all adult Americans are now classified as overweight, resulting in what is now a full-blown health epidemic with no apparent end in sight. But, if this statistic is correct, then, what about the remaining thirty percent who are not overweight? It doesn't make sense, given we all share the same environment and the same DNA. Do they know something you don't? Not really. Here's the question you should be asking yourself: Is there a way to reverse my pattern of weight gain that won't overwhelm me and push me to return to old habits? The answers is ... yes! First, the bad news. There is no single magic bullet 'method' to weight loss. The good news, however, is that you have a finite number of obstacles to overcome, and these personal barriers can be identified and managed successfully.

Like a fingerprint, you own a unique blend of triggers that identify you alone. As you read, you will recognize many of your challenges, but more importantly, you will discover a few hidden challenges that have held you back in the past. Again, for real success, you need to break down every roadblock to success if your intent is to reach an ideal weight and remain there. The truth is — with the information available in the marketplace, and the tools you have to work with today, you are not prepared for real success!

YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS 'BACK DOOR' CONNECTION

In the southern most part of your brain, you own a set of survival instincts. Think of them as the driver of all behavior — your primal desire for sex (finding a mate), the seeking of shelter, the impulse to fight or flee, the need to socialize, and, your instinctive desire to eat. Primitive eating instincts are the common denominator, influencing every decision you make regarding food choices and the development of your current eating style.

ANCIENT EATING BEHAVIORS AND MODERN CULTURE

For our nomadic ancestors, we know that food was scarce, competition for food was a life and death struggle, and starvation was a daily threat to survival. The effort to hunt, skin, and prepare a single meal was a collective social task, and these events dominated human behavior because they dominated most of our waking hours. Ancient humans were forced to develop food behaviors that had one common intention — avoid starvation! In simple terms, the 'instinctive baggage' you and I carry are survival behaviors, relative to eating, that are useless in modern times. These instincts served us well over the past fifty thousand years, but today, they are a liability, and they make weight loss virtually impossible (unless you know how to manage them!). Obesity is a natural course in modern times, and, rates are rising for this one, simple reason: In America and other industrialized countries, our food environment has changed over the past one hundred years while instinctive and social eating behaviors remain unchanged. Now that food is cheap, convenient, and plentiful, starvation is no longer a threat to survival for most of us. We have become less physical as well — both in work and play – and this influence makes modern life even more challenging. You need to know what drives you to eat more than you need and why the thought of exercising creates such a negative mindset. Otherwise, efforts to cut calories or begin an exercise program become personal battles between your 'power of will' and your instincts. Your subconscious never sleeps, so the destructive signals you experience flow endlessly into your conscious brain, while the strength of your conscious 'will power' fluctuates between moments of strength and moments of weakness. Moments of weakness are a given, so the subconscious, through tenacity alone, wins the battle of control. The use of will power, without other distractions — or substitutions — is not sustainable. The real 'solution' for a lifetime of success in managing your weight lies in your answer to this question: 'How do I change years of eating habits influenced by thousands of years of evolved eating instincts'? Again, if you look toward the media or subscribe to one of thousands of weight loss plans, you see a common diet message of: 'eat this, not that' and with exercise – 'do this, not that'. Are these approaches a path to salvation? Absolutely not! The problem is, you and I are conditioned to buy into this process and skip the most important step in successful weight management. Think about your answer to this question: If I remain uneducated and food addicted, how effective will a weight loss program be? How effective will stimulants or appetite suppressants be? The point is this: For weight loss success to take hold over the span of a lifetime, your first order of business is to identify and manage your own set of triggers. It's only when you get a handle on the cause of over-eating, that you put yourself in a position to follow through, with success, on the diet or exercise plan of choice. The effort to manage personal triggers is the single most important step in an attempt to lose weight. You can't choose a diet plan and 'will power' your way to lasting success without going through this process! Again, most Americans fail (Polls show less than 2% make it past the third year) because eating triggers are completely unique for each of us, and these personal barriers to success are not being identified. This process defines the 'Back Door' approach, which is, to place your focus on managing eating triggers and the instincts behind them, instead of the methods used by the majority — that is — choosing a diet plan, using the 'white-knuckle will power' approach, and hoping for the best. In addition, you need to understand the concept of will power as it applies to appetite control. By definition, when you talk about confronting your drive to eat, will power is a conscious effort to resist the demands of your biological drive (physical hunger) and your subconscious drive (avoid starvation). It is not a trait, but rather a developed ability to manage the impulses of your lower brain — all your primitive instincts and emotions. We have laws that force us to control most of our impulses, but morality, ethics, religious doctrine, and acceptable social standards of conduct come into play as well. Most of us develop self control as children and continue the process into adulthood, but with food and eating behavior, there is no public scorn for weight gain or for bringing a batch of decadent brownies to the church social. Poor eating habits are socially acceptable by the majority, and this condition leaves many of us with little or no incentive to change. Not permanently, anyway. Those who struggle with weight gain experience feelings of confrontation and anxiety on a daily basis as they attempt to gain more control over eating impulses, and because no current authority or government entity can force anyone into a weight loss program (not yet, anyway), this 'coping' skill is underdeveloped. The common belief that will power is a trait we 'possess' is misleading, and holding on to this belief decreases your chance for long term success.

Adding to the challenge, if you tend to identify with the majority, your past failures often resulted in a shift of blame to the diet process itself, creating a mindset of: "That diet didn't work for me" or "Diets don't work". But the reality is, weight loss is sustainable over the long haul if you take your primary focus off food choices and begin to tame the 800 pound gorilla in your head.

The Social Connection. In our industrialized countries, where food is plentiful and accessible, cultures are 'food oriented' because food has been a valued commodity throughout our history, and this belief is still a powerful influence on attitudes today. As early as a few hundred years ago, food was used in trade, commonly as a form of barter. As a result, owning and controlling food commerce translated to high levels of social status and power. We still carry the burden of all these behaviors and beliefs today, though most of us have cheap and easy access to food sources. You and I are pre-wired to place an inflated value on food. To make matters worse, we are conditioned, from infancy, to over-eat and to make food choices based primarily on taste. As a result, the majority of food commerce today is a competition for foods with taste appeal, and this translates to inexpensive, high-fat, high sugar, and highly processed food alternatives. Oddly enough, in the United States, the segment of our population who live in poverty have the highest rate of obesity!(3) However, if food abundance was a true sign of social status, shouldn't the wealthiest segment of our population have the highest rate of obesity? Obviously, food no longer has the value it once held. Bottom line – you and I continue to feel this influence, and this 'false feeling' has to be recognized and kept in check.

As a social animal, you face added challenges with your need to identify and gain acceptance in society – which means developing many of the same habits and behaviors. For most of us, these formed habits and behaviors work against our effort to manage and maintain a healthy weight.

DEFINING YOUR EATING INSTINCTS

At its core, your lower brain wants you to not only live, but thrive. It motivates your eating behavior with one recurring thought, and that is — avoid starvation! Biology plays a conscious role by sending signals to your brain when you are hungry, but the underlying fear of starvation is the dominant, relentless drive, originating in your subconscious mind and influencing your conscious eating behavior — all day, every day. This ancient drive controls your thinking through four instinctive demands.

First, your subconscious reminds you to eat when food is in your immediate environment. The instinctive message coded in your brain is: 'When food is available — eat!' In the interest of survival, you have the urge to 'over-eat' today because tomorrow may bring famine. Your lower brain simply ignores the fact that you have cash on hand and the local deli is minutes away. It (the subconscious) demands overindulgence. The human race would be extinct if not for this coded behavior. It explains why the buff et table can be so hard to resist — even if you are not hungry! Whether it's by accident or through conscious effort, your skinny friends and family members are successfully managing this impulse. Obviously, being constantly bombarded with the drive to over-eat is destructive in today's environment.

Second, your subconscious commands you to 'over value' and reward with food. This instinct is another major liability in modern times. If you were to give or receive a box of candy, a basket of fruit, or a baked ham, is the intent to prevent starvation? Of course not! Not consciously, anyway. The problem is, we are all instinctively driven to place a high value on food and to use a reward system based on a social sense of community, where individuals cooperate with a group in an effort to avoid any potential threat of starvation. Today, our culture makes it easy for most of us to survive, yet the sense of 'community' effort in survival remains part of our instinctive makeup. Add the false belief that offering tasty treats make you a good provider, or that being generous with food proves how much you care for others, and you get a clear picture of just how destructive this thinking is. Consciously, you know starvation is no longer a threat. But your lower brain disagrees. To gain perspective on how strong this feeling is, imagine offering your neighbor a slice of bread as a gift. You would feel awkward and foolish – at best. However, when you dig into your subconscious, you see that your ancient brain, tapped into the mindset of a nomadic wanderer, is fine with the prospect of helping a neighbor avoid starvation.

Third, all humans are committed to habit, rejecting any form of change. Because eating offers instant pleasure without immediate pain, the concept of reducing or eliminating your favorite foods is rejected by the pleasure/pain dynamic in your subconscious. You are habitual by nature, so changing the eating habits you have now is much more confrontational than you might expect. Think of eating habits as a locomotive, starting off slow when you were young and gaining momentum as you age. Once ten years of eating patterns are established, changing direction becomes difficult. After twenty years, an attempt to change can be overwhelming. Most of us don't understand this subconscious dynamic and what needs to happen for real change to take place. You can't stop the train, but as you read on, you will learn how to alter your direction just enough to reverse the destructive course you may be on now.

Finally, as a social animal, your instincts command you to identify with a group, directing you to conform to a culture that is your worst enemy when it comes to eating behavior. We all want to fit in and become accepted by the people around us. You and I are, by nature, social animals. But you need to be aware of the destructive relationship of this condition with your eating habits. Remember, most of your family and friends have issues with weight management themselves (remember, seventy percent of our population is overweight). In your effort to conform, you have created a major roadblock to your own ability to manage your weight. This barrier — the strong desire you have to follow the same approach to eating as the majority — must be identified, understood, and managed. Otherwise, returning to old habits becomes a completely natural and expected event.

With these four primal instincts working against you, it's easy to understand why weight gain is a natural course for anyone living in modern times. Without a plan to manage their effect on you, daily attempts to cut calories fall short because your strength of will remains fragile – like a feather in the wind — at the mercy of your lower brain's agenda. Again, should you reject this approach, the changes you force upon yourself — purging your kitchen of junk food, joining the local gym, or enrolling in a weight loss program — end up as temporary fixes, offering a dismal success rate of only five percent in the first year.