Day 12 - Stimulus Control

TODAY'S SHIFT FROM FAT TO THIN THINKING:

I am now reaching more rich and satisfying things in life than my old useless trigger foods.

Welcome to Your Thin Thinking Practice Day 12

As we have learned, only 12 percent of our brain power is will power. That is why having “loving boundaries” around your over-stimulating trigger foods is key to long term success. I have learned that life is far more peaceful when candy corn, black jelly beans, and frosting (my biggest trigger foods) are out sight and therefore, out of mind.

There are plenty of wonderful foods in the world that I found pleasure in eating, once I was clear those foods that awakened my Inner Carb Zombie were “not an option”. When you are clear with yourself on what is off limits, your mind is free to focus on other things that you can do to treat, and reward yourself that are far more deeply satisfying than the fleeting high from refined foods.

If you do find yourself eating something that you had put a loving boundary around, don’t despair but get right back refocused on your healthy Mastery Zone eating.

Today’s coaching session: Don’t Start Over (below) reminds you of the Shift into Thin Thinking Technique that you can use to stay on track, even after eating something that triggers YOU.

Today's Shift From Fat To Thin Thinking: I am now reaching more rich and satisfying things in life than my old useless trigger foods.

Rita’s Coaching: Don’t Start Over--Start Celebrating the Chance to Problem Solve

The biggest difference between Weight Struggling and Weight Mastery occurs in that moment after you eat something that “isn’t so perfect”. What happens in that moment is what distinguishes Weight Strugglers from Weight Masters.

Weight Strugglers will feel bad, think “I blew it”, vow to start over tomorrow and then continue to eat more, knowing tomorrow they will have to be “good” again.

Weight Masters will recognize what happened, get the facts and then come up with a solution and continue with their Weight Mastery--no matter how far over their calorie budget they went.

The Weekend is Coming!

The reason I am bringing this up right now is that the weekend will be coming soon for you and usually that is when many people fall off their plan and decide to start over on Monday. Before my own Shift, I would usually fall off my diet Thursday or Friday and then spend most weekends binging on junk all night Friday and all day Saturday and then would go to the bookstore Saturday night and buy the latest diet book and read it on Sunday while gorging myself on cinnamon rolls, knowing that Monday the new diet would begin.

The habit of feeling like “I blew it” runs deep and the impulse to come up with an excuse and decide to “start over and be perfect tomorrow” runs even deeper. I want you and your Inner Coach to be able to intercept any of that old fat thinking and begin practicing thin thinking and Weight Mastery instead.

Celebrate, Fix the Problem, and Keep Shifting!

The first time you go over your Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release, I am going to invite you to do something pretty out there—I am going to invite you to CELEBRATE!!! Yes, because finally you get to practice your problem solving skills and begin breaking that old useless habit of starting over. Celebrate the opportunity to break that old habit and use the following steps to get back on track instead:

Get clear on how much you ate.

Record what you ate and see how it fits into your daily calorie budget (or how much you might have gone over).

Look at your solution options. The following three choices are what I have found to be the most easy and effective choices to give yourself at that moment. I mean it, get your Inner Coach in there in that moment and start offering yourself some solutions:

1) Rework your food for the day: You can solve the problem by taking a moment to sit down and rework your food plans for the day to allow you to come in at budget and be on target for releasing weight even with eating the “mistake food”. (Often, if the eating didn’t get out of hand you can do this quite easily.)

Example: ”That pizza was about 500 calories but now I don’t need my snack which was about 300 calories.”

2) Focus on re-balancing for weight release later in the week: You can solve the problem with being okay with the fact you went over your calorie budget for the day and that you can make it up on some other day by altering your food intake or exercising a bit more.

Example: “I went 500 calories over today but can take 100 calories off my budget the next few days.”

3) Be okay with going over: You don’t have to exactly meet your weight goal every week. You can still release weight for the week but maybe not as much, but that’s okay—releasing is releasing.

Example: “Okay that pizza was 500 calories but even if I don’t do anything to make that up, I can still burn 3000 calories and so I will be releasing almost a pound, just not a full pound. I can be okay with that!”

The thing about Shifting is that you can embrace the slips along the way, build the powerful problem solving muscle within yourself and keep moving on. Persistence, not perfection is the key to a slender, healthy and masterful you.

Here’s looking forward to mistakes and imperfection!

ox Rita

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