Post by surfgirl on Jul 26, 2020 23:55:52 GMT
TODAY’S MANTRA: Once I accept the fact that I have to monitor my eating in this way, dieting will be easier.
Today we will all begin using our Thinking Mistakes from yesterday, and applying the 7 Question Technique to them, so we can begin to understand and practice how to first identify a Thinking Mistake, and then the questions we should ask ourselves about that Thinking Mistake in order to find new and positive/healthy ways of addressing and overcoming the Thinking Mistakes we’ve been telling ourselves for years and years. Fun factoid: my therapist said it takes about 90 days to make a behavior become habit...if you think about shedding old behaviors and adopting new behaviors, it's no wonder it doesn't happen overnight! Again, we think it's going to happen in a week and well, it's just not. For some it can take upwards of 8-9 months to make that new behavior stick! If you want to read more, check out this article and related links:
Forming New Habits
Anyhow, back to our regularly scheduled topic. Beck asks us to take one Thinking Mistake and apply it to her 7 Question Technique to it. I’m choosing to do my own response to my main Thinking Mistake in this thread as an example:
Surfgirl’s ST: Screw it, I’m stressed out and I deserve this, I’ll make up for it later on with better eating and extra exercise.
1. What kind of thinking error must I be making?
Oh, this is a lovely melange of Self-Deluded Thinking, Justification, and Overly Positive Fortune Telling. Hey, when I screw myself over, I do it up right!
2. What evidence is there my thought isn't correct or entirely correct?
I already know deep down that I’m not going to do extra exercise to compensate, though I can and do get back OP right away. And I know that even though I may indeed be stressed out, eating isn’t going to help de-stress me, it’s just going to make me either gain more weight OR make me not lose this week.
3. Is there an alternative explanation or another way of looking at this thought?
Yes, if I stop USING stress as an excuse to eat off plan, I will have a better chance of losing the weight I want to lose in a more timely manner. And I wont have to lie to myself about doing extra workouts that I know I wont do.
4. What is the most realistic outcome?
If I continue giving in to deluded thinking and indulge my every whim by saying “oh I’m stressed out, I deserve this”, I will either never get to goal again, OR it will take years to reach my goal.
5.What is the effect of believing this thought vs changing my thinking?
If I keep giving in, nobody loses out except me. If I change my thinking around, and exercise my resistance muscle, I will start seeing more losses at weekly WIs, and that will motivate me to keep OP.
6.What would I tell a family member or close friend if they were thinking the same thing?
I would ask them what feels better: giving in to a craving to eat and then NOT losing weight, OR resisting giving in to every whim and seeing the scale numbers go downward? Which is ultimately more satisfying and important to you?
7.What should I do now?
Any time I decide I want to eat something outside of the main three meals, I need to first ask myself if I am really hungry or not. I need to ask myself, IS THIS BULLSHIT THAT I AM TRYING TO FOOL MYSELF WITH?!? And I need to find a way to address the Thinking Mistake right away. THEN, I also have behavioral things I can pull out of my Beck Toolkit to use if indeed I think I am legitimately due for a snack/meal, etc. I can then drink a glass of water to see if that satiates me. And then if I still feel like eating something, I need to make sure it’s within my DPs and that I track it immediately – and use the 3 bites/drink/breathe technique - and STOP EATING once I finish that snack. No “never-ending snacking”!
This wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. But it left me thinking about how much of weight loss and maintenance is about getting our thinking correct, and the actual behaviors aren’t really that difficult to DO. I mean, PP gives me a shit ton of food to eat weekly, I seriously don’t NEED more food. I even KNOW FOR CERTAIN that when I remain OP I lose weight pretty easily, it’s not even that hard to do! The most difficult part of all of this is getting my thinking straightened out so I can identify STs and have a response to them, as well as a set of behaviors to use to support those new ways of thinking…if that makes sense!
TODAY’S REFLECTION: If you had to give percentage weights to the head part of weight loss vs. the actual behavior change part, how would you weight those two aspects? And when is the last time you told yourself something positive about yourself?
