weight loss and immediate gratification

A very quick one-liner from "Anonymous"...."Cause we like the cookies"

This was a response to my blasting the Girl Scouts of America organization for the irresponsibility of selling cookies outside of every supermarket to raise funds. With childhood obesity the most dangerous health concern facing America, how responsible is this to sell high-caloric cookies?

Well, one persons response: "Cause we like them"....I think this reflects most peoples immediate response. Eating a high caloric food cource provides an immediate gratification. Makes us feel good for a few seconds. The taste, the reward, the satiation...all of these are an immediate gratification.

Losing weight lessens risks for serioud medical diseases, makes us look lots younger and more physically attractice , allows us to wear much more fashionable clothes and heightens our energy levels....NONE of which occur immediately. All of these take weeks if not months to realize. The food source is an immediate gratification, the positive effects of weight loss are a delayed gratification.

Unfortunately, our instinctual behavior mechanisms make us , to a great extent, an immediate gratification specie. Least you doubt that, look at the average credit card debt in America and the average savings rate. The widescreen TV sure seems much more important than saving for our retirement.

Yep, we like those cookies but we sure dont like being on a hospital gurney being wheeled into a cardiac cath suite, we don't like being in front of an oncologist talking about the options of chemo vs. radiation for breast cancer, and we don't enjoy running away from people taking pictures because we are embarrassed about how we look. Being healthy, confident with a higher self esteem and wearing those clothes we would love to wear...these are all things we like too. Do you like those more than a girl scout cookie?

Make the donation and leave the cookies on their table. And Girl Scouts of America: Think of something besides cookies to sell America.

weight loss and immediate gratification

Eating a good food source provides an immediate gratification. Losing weight, feeling more energy, looking younger, fitting into your clothes, coming off medications: all of these are delayed gratification. What makes weight loss so difficult is that we to a large extent are an immediate gratification specie. It is difficult for us to delay the things we like to do/feel. We are battling lots of internal instinctual behaviors when we say "no" to a highcaloric food source.

I had a patient tell me yesterday : No food tastes as good as losing weight feels.

That is a great mantra and one to all incorporate to help us say "no" to food sources that will sabotage our efforts to lose weight and keep that weight off.