Don’t Diet, Live It

You are going to do it this time. You’re determined. This is really it.

You begin your diet with high motivation; this time you’re going to succeed.

You’re thrilled that you shed the first pounds so fast; not knowing it is mainly water.

Then you reach a plateau. It gets harder. The scale seems stuck.

You feel discouraged and deprived. Maybe you start cheating and you eat your forbidden foods.

At this point you do one of three things:

1. You give up and make up for lost time by eating all the food you crave.

2 You resume your normal over- eating.

3 You white knuckle it to the end and reach your goal.

Why Diets Don’t Work.

Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles analyzed 31 long-term diet studies and found that about two-thirds of dieters regained more weight within four or five years than they initially lost. “…at least one-third to two-thirds of people on diets regain more weight than they lost within four or five years, and the true number may well be significantly higher.” http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Dieting-Does-Not-Work-UCLA-Researchers-7832.aspx

The end of a diet is like arriving a destination carrying old baggage. You may lose the pounds, but you may still carry the weight of your emotions that cause you to overeat. Foods that end up in your mouth begin with a thought in your mind.

Tip One: Determine if you use food to cope as a way to escape and to avoid uncomfortable emotions. Examine the thoughts and feelings that cause you to eat.

1. Triggers – Someone hurt your feelings. You feel left out. You had a stressful day. You’re exhausted. Someone disappointed you.

2. Thoughts- You think, “I deserve this.” “I’ve earned it.” “A piece of cake or a couple of chips can’t hurt.” “Just one.”

3. Decision- You decide to eat your forbidden food.

4. Action- You eat it.

Tip Two: Make a list of all the reasons why you want to lose weight. Carry it with you. Read twice a day and more often if necessary.

Tip Three: Make a list of your sabotaging thoughts and strengthening thoughts. Put them on a card and take them with you:

Sabotaging Thoughts……………………………………. Strengthening Thoughts

I can eat what I want ……………………………………….Or I can get thinner

I deserve to eat this. ………………………………………. I deserve to be thinner.

Just one………………………………………………………….Not even one.

Its okay to eat this because… ……………………………It is not okay to eat this because…

I’m starving. No I’m not. I’m only a little hungry.

Tip Four: Plan ahead to eat healthy snacks midway between meals.

Tip Five: Replace food with healthy indulgences to help you cope. Soothe your hurt feelings or stress in a warm bath. Walk off your anger by pounding the pavement. Look through a catalog and chose something you want. Have some fun. See a movie. Go window shopping.

Lasting behavior change begins with your thoughts.

Diets start fast and fail.

Behavior change starts slowly, and succeeds.

Don’t diet, live it.


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