Dan has been in private practice for many years and has run several successful weight groups for men. This information was based on surveys of 160 people who lost a minimum of 20 lbs and kept it off for at least three years. They can apply to just about any behavior change. The common concepts found are as follows.
1. Believe you can do it. Finding a role model helps this too.
2. Control self talk. They were highly aware of their self talk when they reached to eat food. Making a collage of what your self image is or doing mirror work with journal writing can lead to further positive strides.
3. Make the change for yourself. Half of them did it by following a structured eating plan. By coming into alignment or agreement with it they learned to love the plan. The other half took the initiative and created their own plan. Either way you need to be creative. Align with the program, whether it's yours or an other's.
4. Accept that this is a life long habit change. Grieving is an integral component since you are going to lose some old food friends like pasta and rice. A good suggestion is to make a list of perceived and expected losses so they won't sneak up on you.
5. Break the relapse cycle by becoming aware of the days and times that you find you want to go back to bad eating habits. Journal writing helps here as you document when you have food cravings.
6. Be aware of thoughts that trigger bad eating habits and reverse them. Some of these are beliefs like "eating always makes me feel better".
7. Increase your exercise. The average was 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week.
8. Get into the behavior to learn what that behavior does for you, how it serves you. Find out if you can let this behavior go. How can I be soothed in a more appropriate way than eating a bag of corn chips?
9. When they got more out of life they found they ate less food. Question your values. Find out what is important to you and what you are not getting. These may be the ones you are substituting for food. Begin to act on the parts that you define as important yet you are not attaining. A values questionnaire was handed out. (This could be scanned and provide if there is interest)
10. Don't do it alone. Find professionals that will stand behind you saying you can do it and that you won't lose anything. Discover if there are people in your life that need you to be heavy. Surround yourself with those who will support you in being healthy and thin.
The rest of the group centered on the basics of the Zone program. Since
there were a couple of vegetarians tonight the food examples were all
non-meat products. Many of the folks were stunned to find out that there
was such a thing a tofu hot dogs. (These are average Americans)
We
constructed 3 zoneful snacks: Tofu dogs on crackers, yoghurt sweetened
with a dash of sugar and vanilla, Tofu rella and crackers. Some of these
combos were closer than others but the idea was to show that these foods can
be put together on the fly as long as you have the basic ingredients on hand.
We met last week's challenge to zone out a Hershey bar. 1/2 Hershey bar with almonds with one fat free cheese stick. Heavy on fat but close on C:P. They were agog even with the warning of high GI.