Dr. Amen’s 5 Essential Tips for Lasting Change

We all want to make positive changes in our life, and Dr. Daniel Amen provides an encouraging roadmap of how to reach our goals and make them stick.

“If you have come to the decision that you want to make changes in your life, you probably want them to happen NOW! But after nearly 30 years of helping patients navigate the change process, I have learned that taking a gradual approach is the surest way to success.

So many people try to change all at once, but this almost inevitably invites disappointment and failure. You don't have to change dozens of behaviors at once. Start with a few vital behaviors—the ones that will have the biggest immediate impact—and go from there.

Here are 5 essential tips to retrain your brain to make the long-term changes you want most.

1. Focus on your successes. 
Rather than dwelling on the habits you haven't managed to change yet, focus on the positive steps you have made. Are you drinking more water? Terrific! Are you eating more veggies? Excellent! Are you walking with your small group? Fantastic! Celebrating even the smallest successes can help keep you motivated.

2. Setbacks don't mean failure. 
The road to change is not a one-way street. The steps to change are not static. I frequently tell my patients that their journey will be like going up and down a staircase. They will go up several steps, feel like they've made progress, then go back down a few steps when difficult situations arise. They will make several more steps of progress, then slip back a few, but usually not as many as before. Usually, the slope of progress is in an upward, positive direction.

If you aren't expecting to encounter setbacks, it can derail your efforts. Let's say you've been doing a great job with your eating routine and have lost 5 pounds after a few weeks. But then you go to your parents' house for a celebration where you overindulge and end up gaining 2 pounds in a week. Then you feel like you've blown it, so you continue overeating after you return home and then you give up entirely on changing.

Understanding that setbacks are part of the process and planning how to deal with them makes them easier to handle. So, you ate more than you should during the holidays and gained a couple pounds—just get back onto your program the next day. Remember, losing weight is not a race, and faster is not necessarily better. Slow and steady is the healthiest way to lose weight and keep it off.

3. If you hit a plateau, change things up a bit. 
Hitting a plateau can be one of the most frustrating challenges in your weight-loss journey. A plateau is when your scale seems to get stuck on a certain number and just won't budge even though you haven't veered away from your new brain healthy habits. Rest assured that this is a common scenario.

First, ask yourself, is it really a plateau? Even if the number on the scale is stuck, your body composition might still be improving. So don't automatically get discouraged if the number on the scale isn't changing fast enough for you. We often get so hung up on a specific number that we lose sight of our real goal to improve our energy, our overall well-being and health.

If you really have hit a plateau, then it is probably time to vary your routine and know this is all part of the process of change.

4. Don't swap one bad habit for another. 
If you've got a sweet tooth, you may think that kicking your sugar habit is the ultimate goal. So instead of chomping on chocolate in the afternoon, you start sipping a diet soda or a café latte. Yes, it isn't chocolate, but it still isn't good for your brain or your weight-loss efforts. I see this so many times with my patients who quit one bad habit only to acquire another one in its place. To be your best self, focus on kicking your bad habits and replacing them with ones that serve you.

5. Remember that change never stops. 
Our bodies and lives are in a constant state of change. Marriages, job transfers, pregnancies, injuries, illnesses, and hormonal transitions are just some of the many things that keep us in flux.

Because of this, as you reach your initial goals, you may decide that you want even greater results. Or unexpected things might happen in your life that make you reevaluate your original benchmarks and downshift your expectations. Just know that with every change that comes into your life, you have the power to be in control of the way you handle that change.”

We love the reminder from Dr. Amen that change is possible and there are proven paths to change our old neural pathways with new ones to literally retrain our brain. 

We hope you stop today and celebrate your many successes, reframe your mindset around any setbacks you’ve encountered and feel encouraged that you can reach the goals you desire - one step at a time. 

And know that we are behind you - cheering you on!

Blessings,
Dee and Sean