Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Dieting

So, I'm fat. There I said it. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I want to discuss my failures in the dieting world.

I have failed at literally every single diet that I have ever tried. It does not matter what it is. I have no self control and pretty much just suck at dieting.

To be honest, this year I have just kind of given up and have decided to work on maintaining my weight. I kept seeing posts for a certain online diet program that was out of my modest budget. I researched it and learned that it uses cognitive behavioral therapy to teach you how to lose weight and keep it off.

This took me on my own adventure for a program that would offer me the same skills and information, but remain within my budget. What I found was the Beck Diet Solution.

So, I started reading the book this morning with the goal of finishing it over the weekend so that I can get started with the workbook on Monday. Beachbody On Demand just released the workout that I have been wanting to try, so I felt like a fresh start on Monday is going to be good for this.

I wanted to share with you a few quotes that I have found encouraging from the introduction/1st chapter and 2nd chapter of the book.

"Cognitive therapy is based on the concept that the way people think affects how they feel and what they do." 

"Cognitive therapy helps you identify your sabotaging thinking and effectively respond to it, so you feel better and can behave in helpful ways."

"You can learn how to to take better control of your eating decisions." 

"You may not be conscious of it, but you will always have a thought before you eat." 

"Sabotaging thoughts encourage you to eat. You'll probably notice that you have a large number of 'permission-giving' thoughts that allow you to rationalize what you eat." 

"Sabotaging thoughts undermine your confidence. These are the thoughts you have after you've eaten something that you think you shouldn't.

"Sabotaging thoughts increase your general level of stress. Dieting takes time and energy, so it's important to reduce your overall stress whenever you can. The way you think about non-dieting related situations can either increase or decrease your stress." 

"If you can identify the triggers that evoke sabotaging thoughts and lead you to eat in unhelpful ways, you can minimize your exposure to them or change your response to them." 

"Every time you resist eating something you shouldn't, you're strengthening your tendency to resist in the future. However, each time you give in and eat something you shouldn't, you're strengthening your tendency to give in." 

"So whenever you feel the urge to eat something you're not supposed to, think about which muscle you really want to strengthen. If you want to lose weight and keep it off permanently, you need to take every opportunity to strengthen your resistance muscle and to weaken your giving-in muscle." 

"Just as the decision to eat can reduce tension, the decision not to eat can reduce tension." 

The one note that I had for myself from reading these chapters was:

Write on notecards the answers to your self sabotaging thoughts.

So, while I have failed at every diet that has come before, I am hopeful that this will teach me the skills that I need to get rid of the excess weight and to keep it off while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.