The Skinny Jeans Diet by Lyssa Weiss

Author:Lyssa Weiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

The Journey to Thin

SOMETIMES LOSING WEIGHT FEELS SO HARD. YOU THINK, THIS IS too much work, I don’t have it in me. You’re momentarily disappointed or feeling deprived, frustrated, and impatient.

At that precise moment, the cravings for your old food ways begin, undermining your desire to continue to care for yourself in your new way. You start to think that your old destructive behaviors and food choices will help you feel better. You venture into risky territory by doing something like agreeing to meet a friend for coffee . . . at your favorite bakery. In Growing Ourselves Up: A Guide to Recovery and Self-Esteem, author Stanley J. Gross, Ed.D., says, “At some point after making a change, the demands of maintaining it seem to outweigh the benefits of the change. We don’t remember that this is normal. Change involves resistance.”

Preventing one mistake from derailing you entirely requires a smart action plan. Have an action plan ready to go—and use it when it’s needed. For instance, have a plan to:

• Call a friend

• Slowly back away from the food

• Write in your food diary about what you’re feeling

• Remind yourself how far you’ve come—and acknowledge it

• Reach out to your nutritionist or other support person or group

• Review the basics of your diet plan

• Eat a low-calorie food until the urge for the tempting one passes (think carrots with salsa versus leftover pasta)

If we understand that making a mistake is a natural result of our resistance to change, we’ll be able to go back to our diet with minimal guilt and lots of confidence to keep moving forward. Here’s how to get your thinking back on track:

1. Congratulate yourself on your awareness of the mistake. Plenty of dieters make them—and neglect to pause and assess. Take time to pat yourself on the back, because this is the beginning of a long, productive ride. Every time you catch a mistake and nip it in the bud, you increase your skill set. You get another notch on your mistake experience belt, and you build your confidence going forward.

2. Think about how you became vulnerable, and zap the threat of it happening again. See what set you up and compare it to mistakes you may have made in the past. Does grocery shopping prompt you to eat bad boy foods—directly out of the cart? One solution might be to do your food shopping online, after you’ve eaten, or send your spouse to the market the next time. Was it the smell of fries at McDonald’s? Next time take the kids through the drive-thru to prevent risky situations—ahead of time.

My client Stacy, a nurse at a busy metropolitan-area hospital, is known for going the extra mile with her patients. They often thank her with homemade baked goods. Around the holidays, it’s not uncommon for her to get tins filled with cakes, chocolate-covered marshmallows, cookies, and muffins. One day she had a slipup involving a box of rainbow cookies. I asked her to formulate a strategy for the next time.

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