Staying on Track with your Diet
Let’s face it. Who wants to think about changing your food selection if you like what you are currently eating? Change is challenging and having the brain energy to think about new food choices take time, energy and patience.
Let’s not talk about what to eat today but some mantras for keeping on track. Gimmicky? Maybe. Sometimes those gimmicks help redirect your thought processes over time to make changes more inviting.
Several years ago I attended a seminar given by Judith Beck, whose father is the founder of cognitive behavioral therapy, a method of retraining your thought processes towards change. She wrote a book called The Diet Beck Solution. In both the book and the seminar, she offered many helpful tips to health care processionals and I regularly share these with my patients. Here are a few to get the ball rolling!
- I can’t have it both ways: I can eat what I want when I want it or I can be thin but I can’t have it both ways
- I’ll care later: I may not care right now if I eat this, but I will care A LOT when I get on the scale
- Say NO to extra food. It will be wasted in the trash can or in my body. Either way, its wasted
- DO IT ANYWAY: Even if I don’t feel like eating clean, I have to do it anyway. If I do only what I feel like doing, I won’t be able to lose weight and keep it off
- Putting Lifestyle First: I have to plan my life around exercise and healthy eating activities, not vice versa. I deserve to put myself first
- Get Back on Track: If I eat something I should not have eaten, I haven’t blown it. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just a mistake. Get back on track. Don’t keep on eating. It’s a million times better to stop now than to allow myself to eat more
Having a few of these memorized can be quite helpful in difficult food situations. Write one or two down and the next time you are tempted to eat off plan, pull one out and see how a mantra or two can help keep you on track!
