Day 7 - Beck Diet Solution, Change Your Environment

If your environment is not in line with your goals, then you need to change it. Environment is everything. As Joel Osteen said, you can't soar with the eagles if you're pecking around with the chickens. So too is it with dieting.  If, in your environment, you're surrounded by junk food, temptations, a lack of organization and putting everybody else's needs ahead of yours, you are not soaring with the eagles yet.

Set yourself up for dieting success.  Throw out the junk food and any trigger foods.  If you have other people in your house who eat that food, ask them if they would be willing to eat that food outside of the home, or at least put in a place that is out of sight.  If those other people are children, you might want to make that decision for them.

Maybe you have small children and mealtimes can be hectic, where you feel like you have to rush through your food just to attend to them.  You could consider having two separate courses or mealtimes, having something light like salad or soup with the children, then excusing them and finishing the rest in an "adult dinner."

Other suggestions:

1. Have fun decorating your dining room so you want to pause and linger over your meal.
2. Ask if the office candy jar or goodies can be put somewhere out of sight, with a label or sign to tell people where they are.
3. Also make your car a junk food-free zone.
4. Put up inspiring pictures and quotes, like of how you want to look or words that fire you up about your goals.
5. Put pieces of fruit on your kitchen table and desk so that you have a healthy snack when you need it.  Having fruit around, for me, helps to set up a healthy atmosphere too.

© Steven Pavlov / http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Senapa, via Wikimedia Commons