“I’ve already blown it, so I might as well go ahead and eat the rest.”
Sound familiar?
But each time you say “I blew it,” you reinforce your sense of failure and disappointment with not staying on your plan.
You also give yourself permission to follow a minor slip-up with a major eating binge.
Phrases such as “I blew it” emphasize discouragement and failure. Throw these old dieting lines out the window and start using a kinder, more gentle voice when you talk to yourself.
Starting now, resolve that you’ll never say “I blew it” again in regard to your eating or your weight-loss efforts. Instead of treating a slip-up as a crisis, learn to view it as a minor event.
Come up with a neutral way to describe your eating struggle. For example, you might say to yourself, “Isn’t that interesting? I wonder what that was all about.”
Then look at your eating struggle and see if you can figure out what contributed to it. Were there any emotional issues that might have prompted you to head to the refrigerator or grab the cookies?
Once you can see what’s behind your eating pattern, you can focus on taking care of those needs instead of reaching for food.
Today’s assignment (My answers are in blue)
1. Resolve that you will never again describe your eating by saying the words “I blew it.” Write a declaration about this.
I will NEVER say “I blew it.”
This isn’t usually a problem for me, but it’s good to remind myself to not say this.
2. Invent some new phrases that acknowledge your eating struggle but at the same time encourage you to move forward. Write down a few ideas, and see how they feel as you say them.
Recently, I was at a family reunion where I’ve did a lot more eating than I’d planned. Especially on things such as cookies and ice cream. So here’s what started saying to myself:
That is an interesting time, and I don’t want to repeat that behavior. Let’s see… what can I do differently?
3. Record your favorite phrases below and memorize them so you can use them immediately whenever you have a slip-up.
I need to review this often!
Excerpted from Day 67 in the book 100 Days of Weight Loss