Eating an Elephant: a Paradoxical Metaphor for Weight-Loss

Small changes can alter our lives.

I know, I know. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." We all know that small things have large effects. Look at David and Goliath, the Lilliputians versus Gulliver, the damage a little deposit of hard water can do to our showerheads. But how often do we apply this notion practically?

Weight-loss is one of those challenges that is a perfect place to begin looking at this idea. It's so multi-faceted that we can't just tackle the whole thing at once. It will defeat us. Sure, we try. And it's simple enough to break down weight-loss into two easy columns: "nutrition" and "exercise."

So the obvious answer is "eat less, exercise more," right?

Well, no. Not exactly. It's not wrong, but the whole concept is more complicated than that.

We have hundreds of little habits every day that contribute to our overall lifestyles. That Kit Kat bar you have at midnight every night. Never trying new foods. Munching while you cook. Driving everywhere (which, admittedly, is somewhat of a necessity when civilization is massively spread out.) And my personal favorite? Soda.

So I took a minute to sketch out some of my habits, and it overwhelmed me in the course of about ten seconds. There was a lot more than I thought. How was I ever going to change all that?

By using the same method you would to eat an elephant, of course.

That's how the "Little Changes" list was born. I outlined at least twenty small changes I could make, or even experiments I could try, to change my lifestyle. Here are a few examples:

1) Drink 8 (8 oz) glasses of water per day. Do not have soda or juice until this requirement is met.

2) Put together a scrapbook of light recipes so that it's all in one place.

3) Plan your meals for the week and shop accordingly.

4) Experiment: go meatless once per week.

5) Take one processed food out of your cart every time you shop and replace it with a fruit or vegetable.

6) Drink water while you cook instead of grazing.

Things like that. And I decided, since I am organizationally challenged anyway, that I don't have to do it all at once, or even go in order. I pick one or two, work on changing those things, and when they've become habits, I check them off the list. Likewise, with experiments, I try them, see how they work. Then they either become a change, or something I don't feel strongly about maintaining. Check it off the list. Move on to something else.

This method, my friends, is the only reason that, during my plateau, I didn't gain all my lost weight back. It's because of the small changes I made to my diet and lifestyle that stuck even after I fell into my rut. True story.

I didn't know elephant was such a health food.