Taste Life Blog

“Chere, last night I focused so hard on not eating after dinner that I ended up eating two Luigi’s Italian Ices, a bowl of cereal, and a Jello cup. Help!” You’ve overeaten. You feel lousy and probably annoyed with yourself. Everyone overeats from time to time.  Your feelings are perfectly normal and understandable. The following are body, mind and spirit bounce back steps.

Immediately after over eating move yourself to a place in your home where you feel safe and secure. Do you have a room that nourishes your spirit?  Remember, our environments are stronger than our will. It can be as simple as sitting in your favorite chair and lighting a special candle. Think about your strengths, accomplishments, talents and anything else you can feel positive about.

 Set an initial goal of not eating for fifteen minutes. Then decide on an activity you’ll do for those fifteen minutes. It could be reading, calling a friend, walking – anything you want. Then, set another fifteen minute goal of not eating and decide on another activity. You can do this for an hour or until it’s time for your next meal. You may feel like you need to starve yourself after you have overeaten, but starving only sets you up to overeat again. Starving creates body mistrust.

Remember change is a process not a state.

Think about your behavior change as a journey. Picture that journey as a road you must travel on your trip. Your efforts to change are part of your ongoing journey in spite of twists and turns in the road.

Your weight management is simply a journey through your life, so your challenges and mistakes seem like a natural part of the process.  Just like on a trip, the roads will have potholes, scenic vistas and yes, detours! When you are on a trip, and “hit gravel” do you change plans and return home? Of course not!

If you see weight control as something dichotomous, mistakes take on a huge significance and a perception that you lost control. You see problems in weight loss as “road closed” rather than simply potholes.

Are you focusing on being “good or bad?”

It seems most people adhere to two traditional models of eating – “on your diet” or “off your diet.”  You are either good or bad.  If you follow your diet plan and eat nothing else you are “good” and if you don’t you are “bad.” Hasn’t worked too well has it?

Remember mistakes are a natural part of self change. Mistakes are evidence you are normal, not hopeless. Mistakes are your evidence of your success. Every road has potholes and falling into them is natural and not a sign of weakness.  You can either hit your “potholes” and bump into them or swerve to avoid them but keep moving forward no matter what.

Know your triggers by tracking your high risk situations

What are the high risk situations and who are the people that trigger your “stress mode” resulting in overeating? Or is your trigger being bored, lonely or tired? You can prevent lapses by simply monitoring your daily behavior (eating meals or skipping meals), identifying your high risk environments (having potato chips in the house), anticipating your high risk situations (my dinner club) and devise coping strategies (keeping bread out of the house). Remember it takes a lot of lapses to relapse and it is not over until you collapse.  A lapse is a baby mistake and your first instance of backsliding. A relapse is many lapses strung together. It is temporary not permanent. A collapse is when your relapse is complete. Your trip is over!

Source: Dr. G. Alan Marlatt from the University of Washington has studied relapses in overweight persons, alcoholics, smokers and drug addicts and gamblers.