Day 33 - Beck Diet Solution, Eliminate Emotional Eating

People without weight problems don’t turn to food when they get upset. BDS teaches us to do the same. There is nothing wrong with having negative emotions – they are just a sign that there’s a problem. But we need to handle them without relying on food – otherwise we will just not be able to sustain weight loss over the long term. Just like hunger, negative emotions are not emergencies. We can learn to withstand and diffuse them without food ever coming into the picture.

Tomorrow we will learn techniques about how to solve the problem that led to the negative feelings. But for now here are some ways to find relief from the negative emotions without bringing food into the equation:

· Call the feeling what it is: a negative emotion and not hunger. Labeling it as such will help.

· Remind yourself: NO CHOICE.

· Think about what will happen if you eat and how you’ll feel then, think about all the times you promised yourself you wouldn’t give in to food and then did, how that felt…is it really worth it to go down that road and add those problems to the one(s) you already have?

· Read your Advantages Response Card and remind yourself of all the reasons you wanted to lose weight in the first place.

· Find an activity on your Distraction Activities Chart. How many have you tried by now and did you rate how effective each one was for you?

· Drink a low or no-calorie beverage.

· Practice relaxation techniques like yoga, meditation or taking a long bath.

At first these techniques might be most effective with minor to moderate negative emotions, but the more you practice them the better they will work against more severe emotions. Just remember that you deserve to be comforted, but food is not the way to go about it.

Comments

Pariah

so burnt out looking to socialize i take a few sips of the libation my senses heighten i just listen to the sounds of the room frenetic chatter all around me right next to me within inches of me the drink feels like my only friend that's how i know i'm going into a dark tunnel triggering all the worst in me people jabbering on like robots not talking to let people in but to keep people out like me how different this is from the days i wandered through Demarest Hall at Rutgers vibrations all around were pulling me in urging me to make merry with them with no alcohol in sight just love proliferating.... everyone was welcome everyone was celebrated and then there was tonight the chattering all around me me just sitting there invisible i tried to reach out tried to connect tried to feel like it felt when there was no barrier just acceptance no judgment but they turned away back to the safety of their own whatever that means so i put a stop to it i put my drink on the bar i walked...

Day 22 - Beck Diet Solution, Say “Oh Well” To Disappointment

Inigo Montoya: Who are you? Man in Black: No one of consequence. Inigo Montoya: I must know... Man in Black: Get used to disappointment. Inigo Montoya: 'kay. The Princess Bride (20th Century Fox 1987) Just as Inigo shrugs off the disappointment of the Man in Black’s declining to reveal his identity and gets right back into the duel, so too must we shrug off those discouragements that go hand-in-hand with losing weight and keep truckin’ down the weight loss trail. It’ll go easier for us if we do. What if we just lay around bellyaching about how horrible it is that we can’t have that donut, can’t eat/drink exactly what everybody else does at parties, can’t just open the fridge and eat whenever we felt like it? How much would we really accomplish that way? Even if we do stick to our plans for a little while under that mindset, we’d be fighting an exhausting battle with ourselves every day and eventually give in. Even the patience an...

Day 18 - Beck Diet Solution, Change Your Definition of Full

Sacha Chua via Flickr Naturally-thin people are usually good at the skill of eating to the point of normal fullness. In general, this means being just as able to take a brisk walk after a meal as before the meal. Eating past fullness doesn’t feel normal to thin people – it feels uncomfortable to them, says BDS. But for people with weight problems, this overfull sensation may actually feel normal for a number of reasons – wanting to prolong the eating experience, taking advantage of food being around, wanting to load up to avoid being hungry between meals, and so on. If you’re worried about getting hungry before your next meal, just remember what we’ve learned about hunger – that it’s never an emergency and that we can withstand the sensations. We have plenty of distractions and anti-craving techniques at our disposal to deal with cravings as well. If you’re triggered to eat more because there’s food sitting around, like at a dinner or party, you c...

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