This is the classic attitude problem that plagues dieters. It involves viewing the world and dieting, as either; right or wrong, perfect or terrible, good or bad, friend or foe, legal or illegal. I see this in nearly every dieter I work with.

Here are some examples. You might have six straight days in which you meet your calorie level and then splurge the seventh day by eating cake and boosting your calorie total to 2000. The common response would be “I really blew it now, I am off my diet”. Notice the phrase “off the diet.” This is the unrealistic view that you are either perfect or terrible, that you are either on or off a diet. This is where the term “Light Bulb Thinking” was born- because a light bulb is either on or off. Please refer to our “Dimmer Switch” article.

The danger in this is the despair that you […]

We would always like to be perfect – it is human nature. However, this desire is unrealistic. Although this is obvious to most people, many dieters expect more than they can deliver.

Your Thinking Process

We set goals for everything we do. Although we do not articulate a goal for every activity, hidden within our mind are expectations of how well we should perform. If you mow the lawn, write a letter, buy clothes, or simply talk to a friend, you expect a certain level of performance. If you scalped the lawn, wrote an unintelligible letter, bought gaudy clothes or said insensitive things to your friend, you would be upset because you expected more – you did not satisfy your internal standard.

You can see how difficult life would be if your goals were absurdly out-of-reach. If you expected Better Homes and Gardens to lust after your lawn, for the National Archives to […]

Restaurants and Trips

a)      You may go to restaurants; it is a pleasurable moment to spend with cherished ones.

b)      Decide in advance what you want to eat and choose your restaurant accordingly.

c)      Refrain from reading the menu; the temptation may be too difficult to resist.

d)      Order in an assertive fashion, without shyness before the other people at your table.

e)      Begin your meal with tomato juice or a big salad. Ask to have a slice of lemon to eat with your salad instead of dressing.

f)       Here are a few examples of menus that you are able to order at restaurants:

Roast beef, veal cutlets or lamb chops (without gravy), Bar-B-Q chicken or roast chicken, (without sauce, without fries, take off the skin), grilled fish with lemon juice (trout, salmon, lobster), grilled steak, vegetables that are suitable for your own diet, potatoes must always be oven baked, for dessert you may have […]

After a deviation from your diet, you may feel like a failure.

Please stop for a few seconds and answer these questions carefully:

1.     I’ve deviated from my diet:

a)     With a  large amount of food,

b)     With a moderate amount of food

c)     With a small amount of food.

2.     The quality of food that  I’ve eaten was:

a)     Very high in calories,

b)     Average,

c)     Low in calories.

3.     Compared to past deviations, I’ve eaten:

a)     More than usual,

b)     As usual,

c)     Less than usual.

4.     Considering your faulty behaviour during the last week, how many times, days, or minutes did you deviate:

a)     All of the time?

b)     About ¾ of the time?

c)     About half the time?

d)     Less than half the time?

e)     Number of minutes?

5.     Facing hardship, what is the best attitude to have:

a)     To quit?

b)     To persevere?

c)     To learn from your mistakes in […]

If you look at this sheet at the beginning of your program, make a personal commitment to go through this

drop-out sheet before quitting:

I ____________________, engage myself to go through and answer these questions with honesty and objectivity should I ever want to abandon my program.

Date: ________________________

Signature: ____________________________

When you feel like quitting your program, stop for a few seconds and answer these questions:

1.     You feel like quitting, why?

_____________________________________________________________________

2.     Write at least 1 to 3 other reasons that make you want to quit:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

3.     Write down what your goal was:

I wanted to weigh: _________________________

4.     Write down at least 5 benefits that you were looking for:

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

5.     At the beginning of your program, did you intend to succeed without encountering any hardships or temptations to quit?       Yes      No

6.     Why do you want to quit?

a)     Guilt feelings […]

Over the years, I’ve been treating over-weight patients who wish to change their eating habits, so that they don’t regain weight, once they’ve lost it. Most of them have a history of past failures. Collectively they’ve tried an incredible number of diets, but most of them eventually have regained the weight that they had lost. When I tell them that it’s relatively easy to change an eating habit and that it can usually be done within about 3 weeks, they can’t believe it. “That’s impossible”, they say, “I’ve tried every imaginable diet in the last ten years; I’ve always regained any weight that I had lost and I’ve never lost my craving for sweets”.

You might be wondering how it can be so easy to change eating habits, when some 95% of obese people can’t seem to manage it.Imagine two arrows pointing in different directions. One arrow, number one, represents the physical aspect of our […]

This is a true story:

Two old friends are getting together. Denise has invited Mary for supper on a Friday night.

Denise: Come in Mary, I’m so happy to see you.

Mary: It’s been months.

Denise: Let me get a good look at you. You look terrific!

Mary: I’ve lost 38lbs since I last saw you.

Denise: So I was told, but I couldn’t imagine it. You look wonderful.

Mary: (she blushes) Thanks, thanks a lot. But you know, you could be down to your ideal weight too, we began the program together…

Denise: Yes, well… I couldn’t believe it when Pauline told me you’d lost all that weight. How many diets did we start together and then give up on?

Mary: At least five, I’m sure.

Denise: Right. Well, I just gave up again. I’m hopeless. You’re lucky, your problems are over.

Mary: You think that it’s luck?

Denise: I thought for sure […]

Personal Journal

to

Help You Control Your Emotions

“It’s Terrible”

When you realize that you’ve eaten more than usual and that your overeating was the result of a disappointment or some other emotional trauma, examine your behaviour as follows:

Sequence: a) an external cause

b) triggered a thought process

c) which resulted in an emotional response and overeating

Example: a) I suggested something to my child and he did the opposite

b) I find it terrible and unbearable when my children ignore my advice, as I was right!

c) I felt frustrated and ate too much

YOUR NEW PROGRAMMING:

(to replace your old B sequence)

It would be better if my children listened to me all the time, but they have the right to make some of their own decisions, even if they end up in trouble. It’s not terrible and shouldn’t seem unbearable; it […]

Trips to restaurants can be a mine field of temptation. The best intentions can crumble when you are enjoying yourself with people who are feasting on delicious foods. Two aspects of this concern us. The first is how much we eat, but there are methods for keeping eating under control. The second is to control our response to the event.

One trip to a restaurant never torpedoed any diet with its calories alone. An extraordinary meal of 5000 calories could only bring a pound and a half of weight. The response to those calories, however, could lead to trouble, your attitudes during and after these events are as important as what you eat.

Eating at Restaurants

It is hard to be virtuous at restaurants. This is a real problem for people in business or those whose lifestyle includes eating away from home. What should we do when dessert comes with the meal? What about a […]

Fill in this diary questionnaire as soon as possible after a slip:

Time: ________________

Were you physically hungry?    Yes ___                        No___

If you were, what did you crave specifically? _______________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Did this food remind you of certain people or places that you like? (vacation, summer, childhood, etc)?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

How did you feel just before you slipped? ______________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Were you “emotionally” hungry?          Yes___             No___

If so, what would it have taken to satisfy you? _____________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Food eaten: Quality: __________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Quantity: ___________________________________________________________________________

How did you eat the food:         fast___             hiding from others___               slowly___

with gusto___                without thinking___

Did the food satisfy you?          Yes___             No___

If not, why not? _______________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

How did you feel after your slip? _________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Did you have any other reason to feel this way at the time? ____________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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