Slide Week 23: More Key Concepts
Past week review (no longer than 10 - 15 minutes). Last week’s lesson introduced the “Key Concepts.”  Who can name one of them and explain what it means? Pause for answers. Who can name another?  Go through all five "Key Concepts" from last week and make sure that some of the main points of each are mentioned.  They are:

Key Concept #1 – Personal Responsibility
The acceptance of personal responsibility has been found to be the single most important factor in weight management.

Key Concept #2 – Monitoring Your Internal Environment
Important because you must learn to switch from being controlled by externals to judging and making assessments based upon what you know to be the case internally.

Also, supports the next key concept because the more internal awareness you have, the better prepared you are to trust yourself to be able to deal with any challenges that might arise.

Key Concept #3 – Trust Yourself
You must have enough confidence in yourself to rely upon and act upon what you know internally to be true.  You must learn to be able to take action based upon your own self knowledge.

Key Concept #4 – Positive Self-Talk
Develop the ability to not let sad or negative thoughts overcome you and to turn such thoughts around so they become encouraging and upbeat…move from discouraging to optimistic in your thinking.

Key Concept #5 – Playtime
Learn to make positive activities a part of your life so you can develop a balance between work and play and avoid the anxiety and frustration that arise when you don't make time for yourself.


If time permits, you can go on to this next question: Who can give us an example of a change you have made or are planning to make relating to one of these Key Concepts?


Now, before we go on to the lesson, does anyone have any other insights or interesting experiences that they think would be valuable to share with the group? What about any questions? Discuss.

And then play the lesson. Slide After Audio Check-In:
What did you think of the lesson you just heard?
Anyone have any thoughts they'd like to share?
Questions? "Ah Ha Moments"? Give people a bit of time to flush out initial reactions before moving on to the next discussion point.
If there are no responses, simply move forward.
 Slide Discussion Point 1:
The lesson said that last week’s Key Concepts centered around preparing yourself mentally to deal with the challenges you'll face as you continue to lose weight and develop your new lifestyle formula.

This week's Key Concepts concentrate on your greatest challenge – dealing with food.

So, let's talk about the Key Concepts in today's lesson.  The first was:

Key Concept #6 – Rejecting Food


So, has everyone done the rejecting food exercise by now? Look around the room for "yes" nods…or non responses. Anyone not done it yet?  If not, why not? Call on someone who either didn't respond or who has indicated a "no" answer. Who would like to explain why doing this exercise and being able to reject food is so important? Important because: Being able to reject food helps you get control over food, so you won’t eat it just because it’s presented to you…helps you be able to say “No.”  Also, the rejecting food exercise is a way of helping to learn to extinguish over-learned behaviors and overcome resistance. What did having the experience of rejecting food mean to you? Call on people if no one volunteers. Have more than one person respond. Discuss.


 Slide Discussion Point 2:
The next Key Concept was #7 – Lapse, Relapse and Collapse Prevention.  Who would like to explain what this is all about and why it's so important? Important because: Lapses do occur; unplanned eating does occur.  Change is a trial and error process.  It takes time and practice.  So, learn from mistakes.  If a lapse occurs, practice and develop skills to prevent a relapse or even a collapse. Anyone have any experiences they'd like to share with the group on how learning to deal with lapses has affected them since they started on this journey? Call on people if no one volunteers. Have more than one person respond.

Then, as you did last week, move on in the same way with the same questions for each of the remaining Key Concepts that were presented in today's lesson.  They are:


Key Concept #8 – Avoid Binges

Important because: You don't want to fall into the trap of saying you are "out of control."  You always have total control over your eating.  If you do binge, don’t let it discourage you.  Learn from your mistakes.  Plan for a more positive outcome when faced with a difficult situation again in the future. Any experiences to share? Key Concept #9 – Understand and Avoid the Spontaneous Recovery of Old Cues

Important because: Success at long term weight management requires you to beat your old food cues and put them through extinction.  You have been doing that.  Be vigilant because if you start to respond to some of these old urges with your old food behaviors, you will experience the spontaneous recovery of old cues and the urges will come back stronger than ever. Remember DRL reinforcement:  random and rare like a slot machine. Any experiences to share? Key Concept #10 – Eat Only When You’re Hungry

Important because: You need to change from your old eating habits. Changes like eating only when you're hungry, rather than eating because food is available.  And not giving in to false appetite.

Here would be a good place to ask: Who remembers the difference between true hunger and false appetite? Answer:  True hunger builds, while false appetite, although intense in its onset, simply goes away if ignored for 15 minutes or so. Also, how should you be changing the way you think about food? Answer: Start thinking about food as fuel for your body and you want the best… because you are more of a Maserati not an old jalopy. Any experiences to share? As you did last week, try to ensure that people really understand the points of the Key Concepts and get people to talk about where they need to be concentrating their efforts.


 Slide Wrap-Up:
You are now in the "practice, practice, practice" part of this whole process.  Make use of the Key Concepts.  Concentrate on developing and refining your strategies and your concrete plans for change.

Whether you have reached your goal weight or still have more weight to lose, begin living your new lifestyle formula.  This is the basis for your continuing success.

Have a productive and successful week.  See you next time!  Track Your Progress:
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