Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:00]:
Picturing yourself doing a behavior is almost as good as doing it in real life. Your brain counts it as a rep. The mental rehearsal also builds confidence, primes the action, and in a real weight loss trial, produced roughly five times the result. And that was without any diet advice. Let's get into this weight loss booster now. Hello, fabulous. Dr. Stephanie Fein here with Weight Loss for Fertility.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:29]:
I'm very excited about this topic. And of course, it came to me because of a client, which is so helpful. It's how we make new habits much, much, much easier to follow through on. And it is this idea of mental rehearsal. So my client wanted to go to bed earlier. You may relate to this. Sleep in general is amazing for so many things, but weight loss also, like specifically weight loss. So getting enough sleep helps regulate our hormones in general, and that includes hunger hormones, also your melatonin, your circadian rhythm.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:13]:
There's so many good things about going to bed early. Not. Not early, getting enough sleep. I personally like going to bed early, but you don't have to get enough sleep. And we're looking for you to feel refreshed. That may be a lofty goal. But not tired. We want you to have a restful sleep.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:31]:
And often people will find that they're not getting to sleep at the time they want to. And that's something that this can help with this mental rehearsal that we're going to be talking about. And it did for my clients. So one of the things she was doing was scrolling longer than she wanted to at the end of the evening. It felt her time, and she wanted to spend a little time on social media, which, of course, in and of itself is not a problem. The problem was that it was going on for at least an hour more than she wanted. So she was swapping scrolling time for sleep time, and that didn't feel good to her. Now, of course, I did point out that scrolling is literally designed to hijack your brain.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:17]:
So it is tricky. But this is why we are also using a brain technique to help her get to bed at a time she wants. Now, the wonderful thing is we did this, and then she contacted me the next day to say how beautifully it worked, which is so wonderful to hear. So what we did is had her think about her evenings in great detail. Now, I'm going to go into that more, but I first want to tell you the story of Christopher Reeve, which is this very powerful story that has stuck with me for years and years. Christopher Reeves was an actor. You may or may not have heard of him. He was My Superman.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:05]:
I know there are different Supermans out now, but. And then he had an accident on a horse and broke his neck and became paraplegic. And he's a very moving person. His story is moving, but this one in particular, his son was learning to ride a bike, and he had already had his accident, Christopher Reeves. So he wasn't able to actually be on a bike or run behind a bike, but he knew he could help his son. And what he did was he talked to his son about picturing riding the bike. So he'd actually. The kid had ridden the bike.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:46]:
He just wasn't great at it yet. And so Christopher Reeve talked to him about imagining what it would feel like, what his body would do, what his feet would do, what his legs would do, where his eyes would be looking, where his arms would be, and. And he did that with his kid, and then his kid rode the bike. And I'm very proud of myself that I got through this without crying, because when I was thinking about telling you, I did tear up. It's so moving to me that he was able to help his son in such a concrete way, a way that his son could really understand. Because, of course, when you're learning to ride a bike, you're young, and it must have been challenging to have a father in a wheelchair. And this interaction, this connection, could show them both. Although I'm imagining Christopher Reeve understood this, how valuable brain work is and their connection and how much he could still parent and all that feel good stuff.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:53]:
That story has always stuck with me because it's so moving, but also because of how effective he literally helped his child without doing anything physical with him. And we are going to use the power of that. And that is what I talked to my client about. I did not tell her the Christopher Reeve story, but I did talk to her about the value of picturing this behavior that you want. When we do that, we're priming the pump, we're greasing the wheels. We are making sure that our brain knows what to expect. That's how I think of it. It's a rehearsal, but it's our brain knowing what to expect, and it loves that.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:40]:
But if we want to get a little more technical about it, what happens is with mental rehearsing, when we're doing that, the brain fires the same motor and neural circuits that it would if you physically did the activity. So if you literally put down the phone and stop scrolling, if you physically do that, you'll have brain circuits, neural circuits firing. But if you visualize Yourself doing it, those circuits will fire too. Isn't that amazing? And this is such a great little like hack is what I want, but trick of the brain that we can use to our advantage, and we certainly will. And this is an amazing thing. I found a study that did this with weight loss in particular, and I referenced it in the beginning, but it's incredible. They had 141 people, which is not huge, but they did randomize them and they did motivational interviewing, which is talking to people and finding out what's important to them and then highlighting that in terms of weight loss. They did that with one group and with the other group they did the imaging.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:01]:
They called it functional imagery training, which is mental rehearsal, another way of saying mental rehearsal. And they did what I'm going to talk to you about. And the people who got the functional imaging training not only at the end of six months had lost weight, which by the way, they did not even tell them anything about food. They didn't say eat this or don't eat that or they nothing. It was just how they wanted to feel, what they thought might work. They actually just did the training and then let them use it on weight loss. The people lost an average of, what was it, £18 at the end of a year, maybe a little more, 10, it's in kilograms, but it was 10 pounds at six months. And then the study ended and then they continued to lose weight and the people who just had the motivational interviewing actually gained back a little weight.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:57]:
They lost about a pound and a half instead of 10, and then they gained back a little. And the people who did the training, the functional imagery training, continued to lose weight again without diet advice, without what to eat. It's so powerful. Okay, so I love, love, love that study. It just shows that there's persistence in when we have a skill, when we have a brain skill, it persists and we can get then sustainable results. And of course, you know, that's always what I'm going for, sustainable results. Okay, so here's one of the things they did is they, when they were doing the training, they talked about a lemon. Now a lemon is very powerful because most of us have had experience with lemon and there's that sour taste.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:45]:
And if we're really imagining it, some of us will actually get our will salivate or we'll release some saliva based on that or feel that like whatever happens in your mouth or puckering when you have sour. So if you're really imagining the lemon in detail, so it's juiciness and the way it feels when you hold it and when you squeeze it, when you cut into it, the pulp and the juices and you can see it flowing. And then you can, if you taste it, you can really remember and feel how it tastes and what your mouth does in reaction to that. They even to bring the image really home is they had the people imagine that it squirted in their eye. You can imagine what would happen if that happened. And in this way they got them to. And of course, you can do the same thing to really think of a lemon and the experience with that lemon. And then your brain thinks you actually had that experience with the lemon.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:58]:
There is no difference between what you imagined your experience with the lemon is and having an actual experience with the lemon. We can get into a whole bunch of things about that. Isn't that fascinating? It's like this is where virtual reality comes in. This is where our perspective, the way we see the world, is only in our brains anyway. That's fascinating. Not getting to that right now. The point is the way they were did the training was with this lemon example. And it's such a good one, which is why I wanted to tell you about it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:29]:
Because it's so vivid. It can be so vivid. And that kind of detail is what works really well when we're imagining a behavior we want to do. So the point being is that it has to be specific. So daydreaming about a result you want or a change you want isn't going to do it. Wouldn't it be nice if I did? And they're like, there's butterflies and rainbows in the background. What we need for an actual behavior change is, is the detail of what it would actually be like for you to do it. So my client, we did this together, is this idea of imagining exactly where you.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:14]:
So you're. Let's say you finished dinner and you could. You're. You imagine yourself sitting where you normally sit for dinner, maybe taking the plate, bringing it to the sink, whatever you normally do. Maybe you wash the dishes. And then let's say she normally picks up her phone, but she didn't want to pick up her phone. So she would imagine getting up from the table, doing the dishes. And then instead of imagining that she picks up the phone, she does something else.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:43]:
And I forgot what it was that we decided that she was going to do. But she came up with whatever she wanted to do. So she was going to. I don't know, I'm just going to now go to the bathroom and Wash her face. So she would have to imagine. And actually, I bet you can do this with me. You imagine you're at the table, you finish dinner, you take your plate to the sink. I'm imagining my sink.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:08]:
And you, let's say, put the dish down, or you wash them off. And then instead of, there'll be a pull to go to the phone, but you won't do that. Instead, you see yourself walking to the bathroom. And whatever your soap is, or your washcloth or whatever you do, you imagine doing that. And when your brain imagines that, first of all, as we've discussed, it thinks it did, but also you will be primed to do that. So when it comes time for dinner and you've finished and you bring the plate to the sink, you've already practiced that you're going to go to the bathroom to wash your face. You will be so much more likely to do that. Now, the timing of it can help too.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:52]:
So we talked about this in. In an afternoon. And so she was primed for that night, and that's what happened. It helped if she practiced it again or reminded herself, it would reinforce it even more. It's the imagining. It's the very tactile feeling of your butt on the seat and the warm water on your hands with the washing the dishes, and then the. The scent going into your bathroom of the soap and the washcloth, that sort of thing. All the senses.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:29]:
The other thing that helps with this imagining and this rehearsal is that you can think about what obstacles may be. So if she's imagining going to the bathroom and washing her face, she can imagine that her husband wants her to watch a show. And she can of course, decide instead she's going to watch a show instead of wash her face. But let's say we have wash the face in there. She can practice saying, oh, honey, I'll be back in just one minute. I just want to wash my face. So she anticipated an obstacle, and she came up with an idea ahead of time. And then she practiced in her mind, saying to her husband, I'll be right back.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:14]:
And then she went to wash her face. This is all in her brain. It's amazing. And then any other obstacle that she thinks may come, she can practice. And if she actually does this, if it actually happens at night, which in fact it did, that's she was able to do the new behavior she wanted. If she found new obstacles, she would just plan for it the next time she would just mentally rehearse. Oh, if my husband says that. Oh, if the Dog needs a something.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:43]:
If the. Then you just practice it. So then when it comes, your brain's. Oh, yeah, we already know what to do. No problem. This is. Of course, we've already. If you've been around here any length of time, this is what we do with planning.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:55]:
This is why planning works. Because if we do our food date and we're looking at the week ahead, if we imagine already when we go out to dinner that night, oh, yeah, we're going to order this. Oh, and when I'm going to make this. And this is. We are. We do this on a weekly basis here and ideally on a daily basis. Because if you're planning in the morning, like, oh, this is my breakfast, this is my lunch, and this is what I'm planning on having for dinner, you're rehearsing. And the brain is so powerful that it's, oh, I got you.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:30]:
Oh, we've already done this. Oh, this is no problem. This is a very powerful technique, and I'm highlighting it here because I was reminded of how powerful it was just with my client the other day. You can imagine. So not only do we want to use it in Food Date when we're planning our week, and also, of course, we use it when we are going over what happened during the week ahead and when. Remember, it's what worked, what didn't. What am I going to do differently? When you're knowing what worked, you're visualizing that amazing. When you see what didn't, you can rewrite it into, what am I going to do differently? That's basically what you're doing.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:12]:
When we're consciously putting images to it, when we're putting ourselves in the actual places, we'll be like, if you've been in a restaurant before, you can imagine yourself in that restaurant. When you do that, the brain really connects that it fires together, and it makes it more likely that it will happen the way you want. All the places that we can use it, of course, include everything in your food date. But restaurants like ordering ahead of time. That's the same thing, is that you're picturing yourself eating. You're picturing yourself ordering. You're picturing yourself. Look at the menu, you're picturing yourself eating it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:51]:
This, by the way, may take seconds, but it's. That's how fast the brain works and that's how quickly we can do this. When you're practicing this, you will get in the habit of doing this and it will become almost unconscious, but it will matter. It still matters to practice ahead of time. This is again why planning is so valuable. You can do this for vacations, I love it for family dinners or holidays. You imagine what it will be like when you're at the table. And you can usually picture the table perfectly because you've been there a million times.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:28]:
And you can picture your mom saying this comment or your uncle saying that comment. And you rehearse what you will say, how you will feel, what you will do. It's perfect for this kind of thing. Things that historically have been challenging. Practicing ahead of time is so helpful. Visualizing it. Bedtime routines work really well. Food prep is another place to use this.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:56]:
And the piece that I think is really important particularly comes up to me with. Food prep is what's realistic. So if you can imagine yourself chopping vegetables, great. But if you're like, I hate chopping vegetables, I don't have time to chop vegetables, then that is not something that we want to spend time doing. Unless for some reason you really want to do it. This will help. But if you start imagining it and you're like, that's not going to work fine, then it doesn't work. Then that's when we start to think of something else to do.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:18:27]:
What can we imagine actually working? Something we actually want to do and that we can do. And when we can see it in our brain, it makes it so much more likely to happen. That's mental rehearsal. It's practicing a desired behavior in your mind with lots of detail. And it makes it so much more likely to happen. This alone helps weight loss long term alone. Even if you didn't have any food, advice, nothing. If you did this and you planned things that you wanted to do that felt fine, you would lose weight.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:07]:
We have other tools around here, but this one alone, there's a study that shows that it works on its own. So you can imagine adding it to all the things we do here. It just supercharged it. And it feels good too, which is always important to me. You can use this for big or little actions and you'll make it a habit the more you do it. I'm always here to help you whenever you want. You can find me on Instagram @StephanieFeinMD or on my website, stephaniefeinmd.com I'm sending you so much love. Here's to some mental imagery.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:47]:
Let me know how it goes until next week. I'm sending you so much love.
