Day 29 - Beck Diet Solution, Resist Food Pushers

Today we work on special challenges that we might face, created by different environments and people.  In the comfort of our own home, we might have a lot more control over what we eat and it might be easier to follow our plan steps, but life will constantly throw us curveballs, and one comes in the form of food pushers.

Yes, there will always be people who push food on you.  It might be someone who just once says casually if you’d like some of the brownies they brought in to the office, or the more persistent pushers, like some family members who insist you just must pile your plate high, or some person who acts like they wouldn’t hear of you not having some cake on their birthday.

But before you cave to other people’s demands that you eat their food, consider these two BDSisms:

·       “You’re entitled to work toward your goal of losing weight as long as you’re not maliciously trying to make someone feel bad.

·       It’s okay to disappoint others.  Disappointment is a normal part of life.  Their disappointment most likely will be mild and fleeting.”

Beck, Judith S. The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think like a Thin Person. Oxmoor House, 2008.

If you still have a hard time with the idea of disappointing people when they offer you food, recognize that a sabotaging thought is behind this – “Other people’s desire to have me eat their food is more important than my weight loss goals.”  In talking back to this ST, consider the benefits and detriments to you and the other party if you eat the food.  If you eat the food, the benefit to the other person is small and fleeting while the detriment to you in going off your plan could be significant.  If you don’t eat the food, the other person’s detriment and disappointment (if any) will probably be small and fleeting while the benefit to you is huge: you’ve just stood up yourself and your goals and strengthened your resistance muscle.  Make a cost-analysis chart, where in two columns you list all the costs to you and the other person if you do eat the food.

Also role-play the food pusher exchange in your mind (or you could practice with a friend or your diet coach).  Plan out exactly what you’ll say.  If it’s a particularly extreme food pusher, imagine how one of your role models would respond – maybe persistently and politely continuing to say no, that you couldn’t possibly eat another bite, that while you won’t be having any it does look divine, praise the other person on all the hard work they put in making it, etc.

No food pusher’s desire for you to eat their food is more important than your own needs.  Stand up for yourself and your needs to be healthy and happy.