The term “Time Out” means different things to different people. Tell a 6 year old “time out” and the poor kid thinks he is about to be removed from a fun or social situation into an isolated “holding cell” until his/her behavior changes allowing the parent or teacher to invite the child out of “time out”.
In the sports world, “time out” is a right given to a coach/manager/player to have the game stopped for a short period of time. The “time out” may be due to a player’s injury, the desire of one team to stop the momentum of the other team or take a period of time to devise the right play for the next critical moment of the game. A “time out” in football at the end of the game when a kicker is about ready to hit the field goal for the win or miss it for the loss is used to “ice” (scare) the kicker so he will miss.
Well, as an adult, you do not need to fear about being placed in “time out” for eating/drinking a derailing food source, so what am I trying to invoke in the weight control arena with the concept of “time out”? Here goes:
We, as human beings, often fall into patterns of behavior that become repetitive day after day after day. When weight control is problematic, the approach to eating/drinking/exercise is clearly not working. Patterns need to be changed. Without taking time to think about what the current approach is to eating/drinking/exercise AND what needs to change, there is no chance that weight control will occur. The affected person effectively needs to take a “Time Out”, write out exactly what the patterns of eating/drinking are, then take out the Serotonin-Plus Dietary Guidebook (blow off the dust) and see what the differences are between what is being done and what is recommended. Then, action must be taken to implement the changes needed to reverse course and get that weight off.
It is difficult to take a “time out” when work is constant, kid issues are overwhelming and house responsibilities are bountiful. However, sometimes the “time out” only needs to be for 10 minutes. And unlike football, you can get more than 6 time outs the entire game. And the “game” is won by being healthy, happy and living long!