Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Goals: Why Even Bother?

Sometimes the question is not "Why do I want to accomplish this goal"?  Sometimes it's more like "Why shouldn't I just do whatever I feel like doing? Why do I want to bother myself with goals when I could just be relaxing instead?" You might then ask yourself, if I forget the goal what do I miss out on?  Am I ok with that?  Will I have regrets one day?  Which will cause me more stress - abandoning the goal or following through on it? What will my life look like next week, next month, next year if I do/don't accomplish the goal?  Sometimes when it's the desire for accomplishment that falters, it's the fear of loss that keeps you going. 
Post a Comment
Read more

You Only Need One Yes: My Winning Query Letter to the ABA

This is the query letter that got me a book deal with the American Bar Association.  All it takes is one yes.  Never give up! July 7, 2010 ___________________ Director of Book Publishing American Bar Association Publishing 321 N. Clark Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 Re: Proposal to Publish Foreclosure Defense Articles and Guides Dear Ms. _________ : I am a Florida attorney and have been practicing law for almost six years. Most recently I worked with one of the largest foreclosure firms in Florida, representing lenders and servicers. However, in May I left this firm to begin my own private practice focusing instead on foreclosure defense. I have been posting a number of instructional guides on Avvo.com, explaining to foreclosure defendants in plain English various defenses to foreclosure they may have. I have posted eleven articles in the last month alone. The foreclosure crisis in Florida is so severe that I have been willing to put my work ou...
Post a Comment
Read more