When I say, this many people go ‘huh?’ What I mean by permanent weight loss begins in the brain is that it begins by what we think, or our thoughts. I have a thinking model that I use with my clients to show how this is true. I call it the S.T.E.R.R. Model. It is an acronym that stands for:
S – Situation
T – Thought
E – Emotion
R – Reaction
R - Result
No matter what the situation is, you have a thought about it. Your thought creates an emotion within you. That emotion then triggers a reaction from you. That reaction creates your current results.
So let’s take a closer look at it when we are using a weight loss situation.
Let’s say you had a bad day at work and your boss yelled at you and you are stressed out.
That is your situation: You are having a bad day because your boss yelled at you.
So let’s look at the thought you may be having: It may be something like, “My boss is such a jerk!” (I like to keep my language clean – but I’m sure you get the idea).
So you are having the thought, my boss is a jerk. So how does that make you feel (emotion)? You probably feel some sort of stress or anxiety.
Now you are feeling that stress or anxiety and when you are done work for the day, what are you likely to do? Some may dip into the Ice Cream for comfort, some may stop in at the bar after work and have a few drinks to relieve the stress/anxiety.
So you have now consumed a pint of ice cream or had several drinks. How is your weight loss plan going at this point? You’ll probably put on a couple of pounds if this happens regularly.
So let’s puts the above in to the Model, to help make it more clear for you, as this can be a difficult concept to wrap your head around. So here it is put into the Model:
S (Situation) – Your boss yells at you.
T (Thought) – My boss is a jerk.
E (Emotion) – Stress and anxiety.
R (Reaction) – Eat ice cream or go for drinks.
R (Result) – Gain weight
Can you see how losing weight can be very difficult with these sort of situations?
BUT – what if we decided to change what we think. Let’s look at the model again, but we are deciding to change what we think about the situation. Let’s put it into the Model:
S (Situation) – Your boss yells at you. (You have no control over situations, so this remains the same)
T (Thought) – You DECIDE to think, “Boy, he is having a bad day, to be so grumpy, hopefully he is not having problems at home.” (We can choose our thoughts. Our thoughts come from conditioned or trained thinking.)
E (Emotion) – You may feel sympathy for your boss instead.
R (Reaction) – You go straight home and spend some time with your kids or spouse, grateful that things are good at your home.
R (Result) – You stick to your weight loss plan.
Now this is a simplified version of how the S.T.E.R.R. Model works, but hopefully it gives you an idea. It becomes very powerful when I work with it individually with clients on their own unique situations.
By Adriana Ellis. Adriana is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Weight Loss Coach. Certified Holistic Nutrition Coach, Certified Food Addictions Coach, Law of Attraction Coach and has her Diploma (with distinction) in Counselling. Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them feel better and get the results that they want.
www.attunedwholistic.com
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