Sensible Weight Loss Step 4
Changing Habits

You are now ready to begin changing habits, but first a recap from previous steps.

You believe in yourself and you believe that you can accomplish your goals.
You have specific goals in mind now that you have evaluated your eating habits, and you've done your homework learning about nutrition, labels, etc.

Okay, let's get started on step 4 - changing habits.

Introduce changes gradually one at a time. Take it slow and don't overwhelm yourself by trying to change everything at once. If your goal is to cut back on processed foods, for instance, you don't have to go cold turkey. Try it at one meal a day for a week, then a second meal...

Put your goal in writing and hang it somewhere where you can see it so that you are accountable to yourself about it.

Plan ahead. Changing habits requires you to consider your options and plan ahead for problems that may come up. Make sure you shop ahead for the healthy foods you want to eat so that you have them on hand.

Assign yourself a time to prepare the foods. This could be as simple as washing the fruits or vegetables when you get them from the store so they are ready when you want to grab them.

Sometimes it is only the convenience of grabbing an item that makes us eat it when we are prowling for food.

When you dine out plan ahead where you are going so you know what the menu options are.

Plan your lunches ahead so you can grab them as you leave for work. Better yet, plan ahead for the week and bring it all to work so you only have to deal with it once instead of five times.

Be aware of triggers-food or otherwise. If certain foods always trigger you, don't keep them around. Do you have people triggers?

You have a certain friend and each time you get together with her it involves hot fudge sundaes. Think about what you can do to avoid that. Maybe it's as simple as changing your meeting place. You won't know if you don't plan an alternative ahead of time.

Do you notice that around 8:30 every night you and your honey are prowling around for something gooey to eat. Plan something so that you're busy at that time. Maybe a long bath, some scrabble or maybe just relocating to the front porch to talk about the events of the day will do the trick.

Finally, don't give up. Practice. Changing habits takes time. If you give in to a trigger, or eat too much or whatever it may be, be kind and gentle with yourself. Acknowledge what happened, and prepare yourself to meet the challenge the next time it comes along. Be consistent and keep on practicing.

New habits are built on repetition.

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Habits

Are you looking for a technique that you can rely on to help you as you work on changing habits? This technique is not limited to food related habits, but in this example I'll talk about food.

Pick a goal related to eating that is not only healthy but will also (most likely) result in a positive weight loss outcome.

Be sure to frame this in a positive way. In other words, it's not about what you won't do (eat dessert, eat second helpings, drink soda, etc.) it's about what you will do.

For instance say to yourself, "I will have fruit for dessert, I will drink water during the day, or I will fill my plate once with at least 50-60% vegetables at each meal."

Be sure you choose a positive action and be sure you only eat foods that you truly enjoy to build the new habit. That's important.

Okay. Here's where changing your thinking comes in. Let's say you choose the vegetables option, that is, eating mostly vegetables at each meal.

You might encounter some mental resistance when you shop, prep, cook or eat the veggies.

Each time your mind tells you anything contrary to your goal of changing habits, picture a stop sign, a great big red one, and say the word STOP! To yourself. Say it strongly and with conviction. Then replace the negative thought with a positive one.

For your positive thought, you may want to tell yourself, "This is something good I am doing for myself."

To review, each time a negative thought about food, eating, or your body, appears in your mind, you quickly SEE the STOP SIGN, SAY STOP! to yourself and REPLACE with a positive statement.

So the routine is SEE, STOP, REPLACE.

You are probably thinking that this is really corny. Well, corny or not, it definitely works.

Pretty soon, because of the repetition, you are believing that you are doing good things for yourself and soon after that you WANT to do more good things for yourself.

As you continue to build positive responses and your behavior becomes a habit you will marvel at how wonderful it feels to treat your body well.

Small Ideas To Make Changing Habits Easier

Have you noticed that you eat more when you buy the huge box or bag of food from the warehouse club store. Unless you are super-disciplined the extra large quantities that are sold in warehouse stores can be dangerous.

When products are not packaged in individual food serving sizes, you may be setting yourself up for disaster. If you must buy there, repackage when you get home. Create individual servings in baggies, and make it inconvenient to get to the leftovers.

Hide food that you don't want to eat. Sometimes just seeing it can cue you to eat more.

When you sit down to eat, decide how much you are going to eat before you serve yourself.

If lunch at the office is a problem for you, plan an activity after you have your lunch. Don't sit at the lunchroom table where others may join you and offer to share their food.

Reminder

The routine is SEE, STOP, REPLACE.

Eat your lunch and then go for a walk, or read a book in a different location.

If you have to drive by the bakery in the morning and the smell gets you focused on foods you don't want to eat, changing habits might mean change your route. Even little things like this can make it much more doable to change your eating habits.

Remember that your eating choices are not "right" or "wrong" and foods are not "good" or "bad". They are simply choices. A poor choice today can always be followed by a better choice tomorrow. You are on your way to success. Don't give up.

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