One reason dieting is painful is that dieters often struggle with themselves over whether or not to eat something they know they shouldn’t. For example, you’re at someone’s house and even before you see them, you can smell the scent of fresh baked cookies. You begin to go back and forth in your mind about eating or not eating them.
Sabotaging Voice: Those cookies smell so good!
Logical Voice: You know you’re not supposed to have them.
Sabotaging Voice: But other people are eating them.
Logical Voice: It doesn’t matter. You’re dieting.
Sabotaging Voice: I don’t know if I can resist them!
Logical Voice: You’ll be sorry later.
Sabotaging Voice: Oh, I just don’t care. I’m going to have one anyway.
This internal struggle is unpleasant. Many times dieters end the struggle by giving in and eating. They get momentary pleasure, but then feel terrible afterwards.
One of the many techniques in The Beck Diet Solution to handle situations like this is learning how to say, “NO CHOICE.” If you think about it, you probably have put many things in your NO CHOICE category. When you walk through the mall, don’t you see dozens of things you wish you had? Why isn’t it a struggle to keep yourself from buying them? Because you don’t give yourself a choice.
Imagine how difficult it would be if you struggled over every item you wanted! “Oh, that big screen television looks great! I wish I could have it. I know I don’t have the money for it but I really want it. I know I have to pay for essentials first, but I don’t know if I can stand not having it!” Imagine if you struggled not only over this television, but also over items of clothing, electronics, DVDs, appliances, watches, furniture…It would be torture.
Fortunately, you don’t struggle over every item that calls your name. You don’t fight with yourself. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’ve put these items in your “NO CHOICE” category. You need to do the same with food that you haven’t planned in advance to eat. Did your coworker offer you a brownie-but you brought low-fat yogurt for a snack? NO CHOICE. Is lasagne on the dinner menu at the restaurant-but you planned to have a salad topped with chicken? NO CHOICE.
Dieting will become so much easier when you do two things: When you accept the fact that you can eat whatever you want OR you can be thinner, but you can’t do both. And when you become proficient at saying, “NO CHOICE” to any food you hadn’t planned in advance to eat.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D. is the Director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research and a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania. Listen to her interview on Healthful Living’s Reality Sandwich Radio where she speaks in detail about The Beck Diet Solution.
Tags: dieting for health, health, healthy
