Magical Thinking and Weightloss.

Magical Thinking: The feeling that thoughts or actions have the ability to cause actions or effects which would defy the normal laws of cause and effect.

Well, I'm back to losing weight again. It's uncanny. When I actually burn more calories than I eat, I lose weight just like that. Just like THAT. A little exercise. Sane portions of food and the weight just comes off.

For the first ten days of the month, though, my schedule was interrupted and I ate out a lot and ate too much when I did eat and my weight stayed static the whole time.

I think I actually lapsed into some Magical Thinking during that time. I'd think "Well...yeah...I MAY have eaten a lot, BUT...." and then I'd throw in some mythical reason why I should still be losing weight. Like I walked up the stairs once (you know, exercise) or I had to run a short distance to stop my son from heading into the parking lot...or worse, I'd reason that the magical powers of capcaisin might actually make up the difference in Putting Too Many Things in my Mouth.

Magical thinking.

I think there tends to be a lot more of that going on in my head than I care to admit. My mind, it tries to trick me. It's all like "Mmm...hey...hey, you. Check out the fried chicken. You know, that fried chicken is mostly fat and meat. It's PRACTICALLY low carb except for that tiny bit of breading. TINY. It's like having a slice of toast with ham and eggs. Come on now. Just do it...DO it..JUST DO IT you FOOL! Eat the CHICKEN!!!!"

There's tons of rationalization going on up there. Tons of magical thinking.
The thought that somehow, some way I can do an end run around the Laws of Physics so that I can have the result I want, but still engage in the same behaviors that have worked against the result I want.

I don't think the mind is terribly happy about losing weight. I think it works against millions of years of evolution. So the brain is going to create as many alternate realities as possible to make it seem like a really good idea to stay fat. Not just a good idea, but a GREAT idea.

Even as I write this my brain is saying "Oh....remember those little buttery cardamonm cookies your friend Karen makes? Those are so good. They're SO GOOD aren't they? And SO SMALL! SO SO small."

Stupid brain.