When we first start working with new clients, they often report that they have trouble staying on track when they get home from work, and that the hour or two between arriving home and eating dinner is often filled with unplanned eating. We think that there are several reasons why this is such a troublesome area: Read more
Not enough is written about maintaining a weight loss, and this is a problem because for most dieters, that’s where the real work begins. Losing weight is unquestionably difficult but it comes with enormous positive reinforcement – watching the scale go down, fitting into clothes, getting compliments, etc. Weight maintenance has many fewer new and motivating milestones and it becomes about getting ourselves to keep doing what we’re doing, even though most of the excitement has passed. Read more
How did you do last week with writing down 5 credits every night? Did it help you focus on the positive (and have a more realistic perspective on how things are going)? If you didn’t actually do it last week, we wholeheartedly recommend that you start this week. If you started last week – CREDIT for doing it! Try it for another week and see how much of a difference it makes.
This weekend, make sure you continue to read your Advantages List and Response Cards to help you stay on track. The weekend is a time use EXTRA skills, not drop ones that help.
Remember, dieting is not all-or-nothing. You are not either 100% perfect on your diet or totally off of it. You are entitled to make mistakes but you are NOT entitled to use those mistakes as an excuse to throw in the towel.
Sabotaging Thought: I’m too busy to work on healthy eating right now.
Response: Just because I’m busy doesn’t mean I can’t make time for it. If I had a severe nut allergy, no matter how busy I was I would make sure all my food didn’t have nuts in it. Telling myself I’m too busy is just an excuse – I can still do it!
No matter how much you exercise, if your eating is out of control, you likely won’t be able to lose weight. Don’t spend all your energy getting yourself to the gym, make sure you save enough of it for healthy eating.
Make it a goal this week to, every night, write down at least 5 things from that day that you deserve credit for. Doing so will help you realize that you’re doing a lot of things right and the more we see what we’re doing well, the better we feel. The better we feel, the more motivated we are, and then dieting gets easier. This week, choose to put your focus on what you’re doing well.
If you’re going to watch the Super Bowl this weekend, remember: you can’t eat (and drink) everything you want, in whatever quantities you want, and still lose weight. But you CAN plan ahead to have some extra treats, stay in control of your eating, and enjoy them guilt-free.
Cravings always pass. Even if you do nothing, the craving will go away eventually on its own. Cravings do NOT just get worse and worse until you eventually give in. And, you can make cravings go away much more quickly by getting distracted. The moment your attention is fully engaged in something else is the moment the cravings passes entirely.
The Beck Diet Program was developed by Dr. Judith S. Beck with Deborah Beck Busis, LCSW.
Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a leading international source for training, therapy, and resources in CBT.
One Belmont Avenue, Suite 700
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004-1610
PHONE: 610-664-3020
FAX: 610-709-5336