Key Concept #6 – Rejecting Food
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,” as well as helping you learn to extinguish over-learned behaviors and overcome resistance.
Key Concept #7 – Lapse, Relapse and Collapse Prevention
Lapses do occur; unplanned eating does occur. Change is a trial and error process. It takes time and practice. So, you need to learn from mistakes. If a lapse occurs, you’ll want to practice and develop skills to prevent a relapse or even a collapse.
Key Concept #8 – Avoid Binges
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.
Key Concept #9 – Understand and Avoid the Spontaneous Recovery of Old Cues
Success at long term weight management requires you to beat your old food cues and put them through extinction. 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.)
Key Concept #10 – Eat Only When You’re Hungry
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. You also want to start thinking about food as fuel for your body – you want the best because you are a Maserati not an old jalopy.
Go through all five "Key Concepts" from last week and make sure that the main points of each are mentioned.
(Be sure not to let this run too long or get too far off topic.)
Play the lesson.
Anyone have any thoughts they'd like to share?
Questions? "Ah Ha Moments"?
If there are no responses, simply move forward.
When someone comes up with one, be sure to have them talk about why they chose this particular one and why they think it’s important.
Note: If the key points about the maintenance behaviors (shown below in Green) don’t come up during the discussion, you can read them to the group.
The eight maintenance behaviors are:
1. Don’t plan to go back to eating the way you used to, but just in smaller portions.
The first is information and instructions for how to establish a baseline for your maintenance calorie requirements. Obviously, if you’re not yet at goal weight and want to continue losing more weight, you will adjust accordingly. Use this to help you maintain your new healthy weight or help you make a calorie plan so you can continue to lose weight. This will help you stay on track physically.
The second will help you stay on track mentally. It’s the "Better for Me Behaviors Checklist” which is a reminder of most of the general "Better for Me Behaviors" that you are incorporating into your weight management routine. After the end of this course, you can use the checklist to assess your own personal self care formula. Look it over at least once a week to check your progress.
For now, let’s work together as a group, and use the “Better for Me Behaviors Checklist” as a basis for the rest of our discussion today. I’ll read the items and please speak up if you’ve found one or more particularly helpful or if you have any other thoughts or comments to add.
Eat only in response to hunger?
Eat in an appropriate designated eating place?
Only eat when eating? (No reading the paper or watching TV)
Record my calories?
Take time to enjoy my meal?
Chew slowly? (20 chews per bite)
Notice what stimuli made me feel like eating when I wasn’t hungry?
Arrange my environment to keep junk food at a distance?
Use opaque containers?
Ride out urges to eat?
Try alternative behaviors?
Have an eating plan?
Follow my plan?
Keep the cabinets stocked with low calorie drinks and snacks?
Record my weight?
Record my measurements?
Drink plenty of water?
Put the fork down between bites?
Plan delays in the meals?
Practice relaxation/breathing techniques?
Keep my exercise commitment?
Record my exercise?
Collect my non-caloric rewards?
See myself as I truly am?
Practice imaging my thin, fit body doing something?
Measure my successes by how well I know I’m doing?
Pat myself on the back?
Treat myself kindly?
Mentally rehearse difficult situations?
Practice assertiveness?
Utilize effective communication skills?
Remember “I” messages?
Do the things I want to do?
Practice being who and what I want to be now?
Say NO?
Allow myself to make mistakes?
Elicit support from my environment?
Ask for the things I need?
Identify problem times, places, people, thoughts?
Identify my behavior chains?
Intervene as early as possible?
Say Yes to “Better for Me Behaviors?”
Add your own: Did I...?
Here’s some basic advice for transitioning off the modified fast:
Gradually modify your eating routine. The key is to do it gradually, over several weeks, and not just go right back to your pre-DA Lite eating habits and your old, standard routines.
Most important: Plan your meals. Continue to count calories. Use healthy ingredients. Stick to a regular mealtime routine.
Establish the caloric intake that you believe will either keep you at your new weight or allow you to continue losing weight at a healthy rate.
Calculate the calories you have available and plan a second and third healthy meal to add to the 600 calorie meal that you’ve been having daily. Or, if you prefer and it works for you, you can plan to have five or six small meals throughout the course of the day. Whatever works for you, but the point is to have a plan.
You probably have already crafted a number of 600 calorie meals that you’ve been rotating over the past months. Do the same with these next meals.
Start to craft breakfast, lunch, dinner, and/or snack or tapas-like menus (if you’re doing several small meals daily) that work for you and rotate them for variety.
The good news is as you get more and more used to doing this, the need to actually weigh, measure and calculate calories lessens so that creating a delicious and varied menu for yourself will get easier and easier over time.
Weigh yourself according to your regular routine:
Weekly – if you are still losing weight
Daily – if you’ve reached goal weight and are now working on maintenance.
Assess your progress. Adjust your meal plan and caloric intake accordingly, up or down, to get to a plan that works for you.
And don’t forget to keep moving! Whatever movement or exercise you’ve been doing during the course, keep it up!
Finally, keep this in mind: You’ve worked really hard to get to where you are – don’t falter now. Keep up the good work. It’s worth it. You are worth it.
OK. See you next week.