Check out my recent live interview, Make Your Weight Loss Resolutions Stick, on ABC’s KATU2 On Your Side!
Watch the video and listen to my talk about these essential steps!
- Prep! Once you have a plan, prepare for the week. Shop on weekends or your day off and know what each meal will consist of. Creating a menu plan for the week increases your chance of sticking to it. If you have your lunch and a snack with you, you will less likely be tempted by the donut in the break room and your environment is set up for your success.
- Create a plan. A plan provides structure and brings awareness to our routine. It also eliminates the chaos and impulsive nature of food binges and spur of the moment relapses. Map out special events on your calendar and mark the days you have parties as splurge meals, you really can make good decisions (most of the time!), and enjoy yourself too. Knowing you will have a splurge meal helps you “hold out” and strengthens your ability to say no. A shift can then take place in your brain and begins the rewiring process.
- Be OK with being uncomfortable. This is the most effective tool I have found so far. When we can learn to be OK with being uncomfortable and watch our emotions to see how they can drive our behavior, we can see the humor in our thoughts. We see the little devil on one shoulder telling us to eat the donut, and the little angel on the other that begs us not to and we can laugh! When we can watch our mind trying to justify the donut, instead of buying into it we can smile and walk away.
- Eat only when you are hungry. Stop when you are full. You can do this by paying closer attention and wait for your stomach to growl, and tuning in to your body for the satiation signal.
- Premeditate your response to any situation in which you may face temptation increases your chance of overcoming it. Something like, “No thank you, I am trying to make good decisionsmost of the time.” Know it will be awkward and uncomfortable at first until your social network and you adapt – and be OK with that.
- Visualize! When you can visualize your strategy, it can excite and motivate you and help you stay focused
- Shift your perception of food. My favorite sweet is chocolate cake. The way the dense rich chocolate melts on my tongue and sends shivers of bliss straight to my dopamine center is like I’ve died and gone to heaven. But what if I change my perception of that same chocolate cake? What if I perceived it to be a sugar laden addictive wad of mind sucking, hormone disrupting chemicals? When we think of a food as being delicious and “friendly” we are likely to go after it. But if we if we think of it as “harmful,” we’ll be more likely to walk away.
