Weight Management Behavior & Weight Loss Support

Self-Support: Often, your worst enemy to weight loss is your willpower. You might think you have all the "willpower you need to stay on your program, and willpower might have been your ally in the past, but it's not enough to insure your success. When you rely on willpower as the force to drive you forward, you can bring too much stress on yourself, and without any positive outlets, the stress can subvert your efforts to succeed.

You need to become your own best friend. Do something nice for yourself every day to reward yourself for choosing to make a commitment to health and well-being.

Make a list of your favorite non-food activities and set aside a half hour each day to reward yourself with one of these activities. You might enjoy a half hour of uninterrupted music to lighten your day. You might enjoy trying on hats in a boutique, or doing carpentry for fun. You might take a drive in the country, or a walk in the woods. Whatever your pleasure, do something for yourself each day. It's your way of telling yourself you deserve to be happy.

Monitoring Your Moods: One of the values of a restricted eating plan is the fact that it removes you from foods you normally eat without thinking and eat without limit. However, while you can restrict your food, you are not restricting your moods.

The desire to eat can be triggered by your moods. In the past, you ate to soothe yourself, ate to beat depression, and ate to relieve stress. But eating is not always the result of bad moods. The desire to eat can be triggered by good company, a happy occasion, and social celebrations, eating because you feel happy.

As you adhere to your program, moods will surface that will tempt you toward food. List those moods in a daily mood diary, then ask yourself: "What am I thinking that leads me to feel that mood and want that food?" Jot down notes about your thoughts, then follow up your mood with a non-food activity. In this way, you will control your moods, instead of your moods controlling you.

Food Rewards:Too often, in childhood, food is used as a reward for good behavior, and food is withheld as a punishment for behavior that is perceived as "bad." If you were "good" when you were young, you might have been rewarded with ice cream or a sweet dessert, and conversely, if you misbehaved, you might have been denied your favorite sweet treat.

This is how we come to see eating sweets as a reward, and believe (falsely) that we'll feel better when we eat them. This behavior can be "unconsciously" carried over into adulthood, and we eat without thinking, rewarding ourselves with sweets when we feel depressed, anxious, or deprived.

BREAK THE PATTERN! Learn to reward yourself with non¬food activities that give you pleasure without the fat and calories. Take a walk! Buy something for yourself! Take a soothing bath or shower! See a play! Take a course you've been putting off! Your real reward is weight loss and maintenance when you take control of your unconscious eating habits

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