The Illusion of Fixed Condition

Excerpt from: The Four Day Win by Martha Beck. Chapter 16

Nothing is permanent. This is one of Buddhism's "noble truths," and we're all aware of it. Yet we---especially those of us with weight issues---speak as if things are fixed in time. Dieters think in terms of "being" fat, "being" on a diet, and then "being" thin.  It's more accurate to think of the body as ever-changing; we get bigger or smaller every moment of every day, and losing weight is about moving the whole statistical process toward eating less and moving more.

The most fascinating study on this topic is one in which subjects lost an average of 11 pounds after making just one behavioral change: they stopped using any form of the verb "to be." Try this yourself: describe your weight history (your recollections of your struggle to get or stay thin) without using words like "is" "are" "am" "was" "has been" "will be" "hasn't been" "won't be" "were" "weren't" "isn't" "aren't" ...etc.

Not easy is it? To do this you have to start using phrases like, "My body carries alot of fat," or "I hope one day I can look in the mirror and see one lean Marine. Also myself."  This wording removes our identification with a fixed condition and allows us to perceive the freedom to change. The statement "I am fat," equates "fat" with being, with existence. If "I am fat," then not having fat means not existing (bad thing). If my body simply "carries" a lot of extra tissue, losing it means putting down a burden (good thing).

This study dovetails with research on "explanatory style," in which scientists noted that the way people explain the events of their lives has a powerful effect on various physical indicators of health. People whose thought patterns explain negative events as permanent, personal, and pervasive ("I'll always be fat because it's just my rotten luck") have relatively bad health and trouble achieving goals. Since explaining events this way not only increases weight-related pathologies, but also predicts failure in everything from earning money to running for office, the technical term for people who talk this way should probably be "big fat losers". On the other hand, people who see negative events as being transitory ("I'm getting a little hefty since I started this job. Time to take off some weight.") were more able to reach their goals, had much better physical health, and lived longer.