Acceptance-Based Behavioral Treatment (ABT) – The Mindfulness Diet – Lose More Weight And Keep It Off Longer

There are hundreds of purported ways to lose weight, and the list will only get bigger the longer we live. However, a new modality of treatment- known as Acceptance Based behavioral Therapy (ABT) seeks to address weight loss by incorporating mindfulness to the attempt.

Yes, this new modality of treatment has a lot to do with your mindset when attempting to lose weight, and has proven itself quite effective in studies.

Can your mind really offer the ultimate weapon in controlling your weight? Read on and decide for yourself.

Also Known As The Mindfulness Diet

Mindfulness can be a powerful tool when incorporated into any facet of this. Weight loss isn’t any different. A study conducted in 2016 focused on making goal based choices and incorporating mindfulness when choosing foods to eat.

The key goal of the researchers was to prove that this model of treatment is superior to regular behavioral therapy for weight loss and they were right.

On average, persons who followed the new Acceptance Based Therapy lost 13 pounds during their first year, compared to others who followed regular behavioral therapy that lost between 5and 8 pounds over the same period.

The biggest difference with acceptance based behavioral treatment? Accepting. Accepting the fact that temptations and pitfalls will occur, but finding suitable ways to deal with it and recover.

What Specifically Does ABT Focus On?

Acceptance based therapy’s key goal was helping identify and remedy situations that pave the way for poor eating and bad habits. At the core of the plan is:

• Attaching A Major Goal To The Weight Loss- many plans already do this, but sometimes the magnitude of your motivation is what makes it effective or not. For example, ABT could focus on getting healthier so that you can see you grandkid’s wedding, as opposed to just fitting in a dress you’ve wanted to for a long time. As you can guess, the wedding is a much stronger motivator than a silly dress.

• Make Notes Of Situations That Cause Junk Food Eating- if you notice that anytime you stay up after midnight you end up eating too many snacks, or when an exam rolls around, you can take necessary steps to remedy the situations. For example, rarely stay up after midnight, and spread you exam studying for longer periods so you do not cramp all that work into a few short days.

• Treat Deprivation With A Reward- for example, instead of curling up into a ball and going to sleep when the sugar rush hits you, reward yourself with an apple. At its core, it is trying to retrain bad habits and reprogram reward mechanisms.

• Stop Eating When You First Feel Satisfied- normally, before you reach the point of utter stomach suffocation, you get a little nudge that you’ve had enough to eat. In obese persons, however, this instinct is usually over-ridden until the point of utter satisfaction and discomfort is achieved. This needs to be retrained as well, you do not need to fill your stomach to capacity.

• Make Eating A Meal An Experience- we get it- you are busy and have things to do. However, you need to make time for eating. Eating is not merely stuffing calories into your body in the least amount of time, but rather satisfying your brain. By taking the time to have all (or most) of your senses experience the food; let it roll over all areas of your tongue to experience new tastes, you develop a greater appreciation for your food. This is the basic tenet of mindfulness and could pave the way for great things to come.

Conclusion

ABT holds great promise, and is bound to spread and become accepted by many quarters of the medical field. The mind truly is a powerful tool, one which you can train to do bidding in your real best interest.