If you thought Baby Steps were just for Babies, Think Again!

If you have ever tried to lose weight with drastic dieting, crash diets or similar cutting food groups out then you’ll know how hard it can be to achieve and sustain the weight loss, (assuming you lose weight in the first place).

We are hard wired, in our brains to resist sudden changes and instead to follow habits and norms within our social group and family. Our distant ancestors would have needed to follow their tribe and family to be safe from predators, and we in turn act that out by trying to fit in – a reason why abstaining whilst friends are indulging is something going against thousands and thousands of years of evolution.

Today of course there are no wild predators, but we are still conditioned to belong and fit in by being similar and not standing out from the crowd. So how do Baby Steps come into this I hear you ask?

Well by taking and making small steps and changes you can slip safely under the radar of the amygdala – the part of your brain watching out for any big changes and threats to your safety. Baby Steps mean you make small changes in your routine and diet so that you hardly notice them but week by week, one Baby Step at a time you build up the changes, still undetected by the amygdala, and you see the accumulation show up in improved health and wellbeing and a trimmer body. Weight loss follows as does feeling better about yourself and all without making huge shifts and ‘raising the alarm’

Let me give you some examples of Baby Steps you might choose to make towards long term sustainable weight loss. You decide to use a smaller bowl for your breakfast cereals and put one spoonful back before eating it. You break a piece off your biscuit/ cake/ chocolate bar and leave the piece until later that day or you share it with someone else. You drink a small glass of water as you prepare your meal, or at the start of your meal, to avoid mistaking thirst for hunger and to rehydrate you. For your main meal each day you put your cutlery down between mouthfuls so that you eat more mindfully. You turn off any devices/tv/etc whilst eating just for the first minute of each meal, adding one minute more each week.

These are just a few examples of ways to start to make changes without creating resistance and reverting to old habits. Write down some of your own. Then decide on your top 4 Baby Steps that you want to take over the coming month, add just one Baby Step a week and see how easy it can be.

Further reading ‘The Kaizen Way’ by Robert Maurer 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Step-Change-Your-Life/dp/0761129235

I’d love to hear how you get on – Let me know what you did and how you got on!

Or just contact me to learn how you can work with me to use Baby Steps to achieve your goals.