When you first endeavor to battle negative thinking it will need to be a conscience choice. You will need to recognize this thinking and self talk and then work to change it. One thing that can help you make this change is to keep a journal. Writing down everything that you eat helps you to recognize your eating patterns and times when you overeat. Now to add to this you need to write down your self dialog. Now this journal is for your own benefit so you need to be totally truthful. If you thought what the heck I’ve eating two pieces of cake I might as well eat three, write that down. Now you can look back and say, you know that is all or nothing thinking and it is not helping me meet my goals at all. Now think about what you should think next time. Maybe next time you could think; I really don’t want another piece of cake. Eating another piece of cake is not going to help me reach my goal. I know that I will feel bad about it later. I don’t even want another piece of cake. I know actually writing down your self dialog can seem a little bit cheesy, but it really does help you recognize your negative thinking. Sometime when you actually write this dialog down you realize how absurd the lies that you have been telling yourself really were. If a child, spouse or co-worker told you such things you would have said “Are you serious?” But it has become our truth because it is what we have told ourselves. The other thing, and this is one I personally have a hard time with, don’t make everything about food. You can go to parties, you can still host holiday get-togethers, you can still go on vacation and you can still do anything that you want to do. The focus of these events just needs to be other than the food. Instead of food, think of the friends you will be with, think about the fun activities, think about the recharge you get after relaxation and recreation, remember the scenery. I can remember planning events or occasions specifically because it would give me license to overeat. I can remember going into an airport and buying very expensive fatty food, even though I wasn’t at all hungry, because it’s ok to eat whatever when you are flying. What negative thinking! This thinking that you are depriving yourself of food and these events give you the occasion to indulge is so destructive. The fact is by overeating you are depriving yourself of a healthy weight, you are depriving yourself of a healthy body, you are deriving yourself of the energy and vitality that comes from living a healthy life style. You deserve to be physically and emotionally healthy. You deserve to have the energy to be active and involved in the lives of those you love. Changing the way you think about food helps you to have the things you deserve. I learned all these strategies from the book The Ultimate Weight Solution The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom by Dr. Phil McGraw
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