Maintenance is Easier When You Feel Better

Jul 01, 2020

I’ve been thinking about grief lately.

Wonder why?!

Spring/Summer of 2020 has brought so much. For each of us individually and collectively as a community, Country and World.

The frequency and consistency of the bigger griefs can make us more sensitive to the small ones. Grief is easier to recognize since we’re more familiar with the feeling these days.

This heightened sensitivity brings an opportunity for those of us learning to maintain our weight loss.

Following the grief will lead us to our particular roadblocks when it comes to maintaining.

Once we identify these blocks we have the key to our success.

After the thousands of articles you’ve read, discussions you’ve had and foods you’ve tried, you know perfectly well which foods work best for your body and what behaviors would have you looking and feeling great.

Knowing isn’t the problem—doing is.

And the only things preventing you from doing are the thoughts and feelings you have about what it means to change behaviors.

Once we find those thoughts, it gets so much easier.

So don your Sherlock Holmes hat (it’s called a “deerstalker” in case you’re interested—I was :) and grab the magnifying glass because we’re going to look for clues.

Ask yourself, “Where am I feeling grief/sadness/disappointment when it comes to eating or food?”

Maybe it’s when . . .

You realize you’re full but there’s still a few bites left.
You have an inkling that it no longer makes sense to have 3 glasses of wine at a time.
You’re thinking of skipping dessert after dinner.

Now, identify the thought that’s leading to the sadness. Maybe it’s:

I’ll miss out on the pleasure of the taste of the rest of the food.
How will I deal with my long evenings?
Everyone else gets dessert but me.

Now that you know what you’re thinking, you can start to question the validity and usefulness of the thought.

Just because you think it, doesn’t make it true.

Isn’t that wild!?

Thoughts are just sentences in our minds. We can come up with new ones at will and question the old ones.

So question the old thoughts that create the sadness around food then come up with some new ones that are true for you. For example:

I enjoyed this meal. I’ll make sure to have good tasting food at my next one, too.
Good question. What is something else I can do in the evenings that I’d look forward to?
I love fitting in my new jeans. I can have dessert whenever I want. I’ll choose the best time for me.

These thoughts feel better than the first ones, don’t they?

New thoughts bring new feelings and make “doing” possible where it wasn’t before.

Maintenance is Easier When You Feel Better

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