ABC's  of Weight Loss Psychology

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Changing Your Food Choices Diet & Fitness Changes Are Vital The following excerpt is from the self help psychology book, Be Your Own Therapist. We commonly tend to think the reason we eat a particular food regularly is that we like it. A more accurate statement would be that we like that food because we eat it regularly. This is an important difference, because the more accurate statement leads to many possibilities for changing from a fattening diet to one that is slimming. If I have no psychological trauma or allergy associated with a particular healthy food, eating it regularly will cause me to start liking it more.* Millions of us have experienced the change from regular milk to blue (nonfat) milk. Initially the blue variety tasted thin and watery, and we missed the "right-tasting" regular milk. After a few weeks, however, it was the blue variety that tasted right; and the regular milk then seemed too thick, almost like cream. We came to prefer what we ate regularly. Gratefulness Exercise. This will be most effective if read aloud. I am grateful for the food I eat, its taste, its texture, its variety and its temperature. I appreciate that I have food. I particularly appreciate the existence of the following foods:________(Fill your own blanks). A reminder- people who often feel appreciative or grateful are happier than most. This is often a basic success principle involved in weight-loss programs. Their food is eaten for weeks or months, food lower in fat and higher in fiber. At the end of the program, your food preferences have changed! You can use this principle for yourself and by yourself. Following the above Add-A-Carrot diet for a month will do just that, change your food preferences. If you want to increase your liking of healthy foods, then get them into your diet regularly in the easiest way possible for you. Cook up rice, divide it into seven or more small portions and reheat it throughout the next week in your microwave. Do the same with beans, soup, winter squash or whatever healthy food you wish to make a more significant part of your diet. (Success may not result if you attempt this with foods that were forced upon you as a child.) Food Exercise. For your next meal or meals, try to stay completely focused upon the acts of eating, sensations, tastes, aromas, textures, feelings, etc. This exercise serves two purposes: (1)it will help bring you more often into the present moment, which will make you feel more contented no matter what and (2)it will probably help with weight control, for one important feature of many successful weight loss plans is their requirement that you become more aware of the process of eating. If you are a parent who wants to change your child's eating in a healthier direction, provide a reward (longer story-time, TV-time or whatever) for eating a tablespoon of everything served. Your child will come to like almost everything that is regularly served. Success Tip - Flavor Instead of Fat. An ingrained habit pattern in this culture is the widespread consumption of too much fat. Yet when we attempt to reduce the fat, we often don't feel satisfied with the food consumed. To feel satisfied with reduced fat items, it is helpful to replace the fat with flavor. If I use nothing on my green beans, I may feel deprived and unsatisfied. If I substitute garlic salt and lemon juice instead of butter, I feel satisfied "because the beans are interesting." Setting up your own flavor substitution goals could be productive. For example, if you like the combination of garlic and onion, you might set up a goal of having garlic powder and onion flakes on three vegetables during the next week. Vary this in the following weeks to include: other spices, lemon juice, low-salt soy sauce, poppy seeds, salsa or other new-to-you flavors. Next Weight Loss Excerpt

ABC's  of Weight Loss Psychology

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