weigh-2-go.org

The idea of having two minds (see my last post) is certainly not new. However, in all the literature I have seen on weight loss, I have not seen much that acknowledges the dichotomy of the brain. Most of the literature assumes that if you want something, by gosh, you’ll go for it! That if you dream it, you can do it! These people assume that humans stay on the conscious, adult, “Marge” side of the brain. They don’t assume that there’s a “Homer” to interfere.

And come to think of it, people who write books are probably typically pretty conscious, adult, people who are self-disciplined and know how to do what they dream. How else could they get a whole book written? So people who write books probably don’t even understand Homer. They don’t listen to Homer. Good for them–but not very helpful to the rest of us.

The idea of two minds is very well explained in a book titled The Happiness Hypothesis (see my Amazon widget on this blog, or http://tinyurl.com/HappinessBook). The author, Jonathan Haidt, uses the analogy of someone riding an elephant (instead of Homer and Marge) to describe the relationship between the two parts of the brain. The rider is the conscious, adult brain, trying to steer. The elephant might or might not pay attention. The elephant simply wants what it wants, and it lumbers along. The elephant is aware of the rider, and knows that it can avoid a kick in the ribs if it follows the rider’s vague commands. But the (human) rider and the elephant do not think alike, and they often want different things.

For example: the rider wants to lose weight. The elephant wants a chocolate chip cookie.

I read The Happiness Hypothesis a few months ago, and the implications of the rider-elephant dichotomy are still sinking in. And I haven’t seen any of this philosophy applied directly to weight loss or maintenance. In fact, quick Googles and a search on Amazon.com bring up a bunch of old stuff.

Food for thought, as it were.

OMG, I figured it out. The answer to life, the universe, and everything. Seriously. It’s blowing my mind. (And it’s a whole lot better than “42″.)

At least, this is the answer to my life and my universe.

“What the Sam Hill is she ranting about?” you ask. “Has she found religion, or some controlled substance?” No, afraid not.

It’s some mixture of psychology and philosophy. And you have probably heard it all before. For that reason, you won’t have the same “OMG” response that I have had. But it does answer the questions: “Why me, why now? Why was I suddenly able to lose 80 pounds when other attempts fail every day?”

Here it is: I have two brains.

We all have two brains. Call them the id and the ego, the child and the adult, the limbic system and the neocortex, whatever you like. You already know this. So did I.

I’m going to call my two brains Homer (id/child/limbic) and Marge (ego/adult/neocortex).

Marge has a million great ideas every day. Marge is logical and responds to real-world stimuli. Marge wants to act. Marge says, “let’s go!”

Marge’s big problem is that she has to bring Homer everywhere she goes. And no plan goes forward unless Homer is on board with it.

If Homer and Marge disagree on what to do, Homer will whine and whine and lag and get headaches and complain, and even fall asleep, twist his ankle, or get into a car accident to avoid doing what he really doesn’t want to do. And Marge can’t stop him. Marge can only try to talk him out of it. The only tool Marge has is reason, and reason doesn’t always do much good. Especially if Homer is covering his ears and singing “La! La! La!” which he does a lot. (Remember, Homer and Marge are specifically my brains. So I can speak with authority about Homer’s bad behavior.)

So, “why me? why now?”

Homer was ready.

OK, so I’ve become fat again, after losing my eighty pounds, 2006-2007.

“What?!” I hear my friends shrieking. “But I thought you were doing so well! Your Facebook pictures don’t look so bad!”

“You’re full of crap!” others respond. “You look fine!”

It’s true, I’m fat. I am outside my personal healthy range. If I don’t turn this bus around fast, I have to buy larger clothes. That is what fat means to me.

And this is why my blogging frequency has slowed down: shame. (I started a blog to share my success and happiness!–not for this.)

A side note: where I work, we say “What you recognize grows.” A corollary is: “Good news to groups, bad news one-on-one.” and the corollary for social media is: “Good news on blogs and in Facebook: bad news in email.” (That last corollary came up when a customer wrote a very specific complaint on the company’s Facebook Wall…quite annoying.)  So, why blog bad news just to shame myself?

So, what is happening today: I am ramping up my exercise regimen (3 visits in the last 5 days), but I am still eating anything and everything. I will keep you posted.

Incentive: I have signed up for the Peachtree Road Race (the big 10K in Atlanta, July 4) and I want to at least get a time in the ballpark of my 2007 time of 1:11.