I know this much is true.

Deborah says:
Here’s what I know about myself. I know that my eating/exercise/fat habits are well ingrained in my brain. It’s how I lived a solid 25 years, give or take, of my life. No matter how good a day I have or how much weight I lose, those habits are there, waiting to assert their authority again.

Some people say I’m tough on myself. It might appear that way, but I don’t know if it’s really tough, I think it’s more like being vigilant, not tough. I have worked really hard to stop lying to myself, gaining insight into the behaviours that made me unhealthy. And then I worked even harder to break those habits and develop new ones. But the truth is I’m only just four years into this new lifestyle – that’s a brand new baby habit that can’t stand up to the 25 year old granddaddy lurking inside me. I know I’m one box of Kraft Dinner away from the old me. Every morning when I get up I make a decision as to who I am going to be. And then I spend the day trying to live up to that decision.

What’s interesting is the people who say I’m hard on myself don’t see the times I don’t live up to those intentions. Like the milk chocolate covered macadamia nut in the lunchroom a few days ago. And for me, it’s not that that one chocolate did a huge amount of caloric damage – it’s that I spend the entire day thinking about it, planning more excuses to go into the lunch room, more ways I can work it off later. That’s the hard part for me, putting those thoughts back to bed once I’ve allowed them out for a minute. And that’s why I ate even better the rest of the day.

Reinforce the new, not the old. It really is okay to make mistakes. I make them all the time. And I don’t punish myself or blame myself or get into that big guilt circle – I try and learn from it. I try and figure out what got me there and how to avoid it again. But mostly, I don’t let one mistake become my entire day. I get back to my intentions immediately, and tuck those sneaky old habits back into the closet as quickly as I can, before they take over.

Arlene says:
I know this much is true… it is where you put your attention. When those brain patterns develop they include habits of focus. We spend entire days thinking about the “problem” food or our decision to eat the problem food. Retraining the brain is about practicing a new focus. Recognizing what our focus is, REWARDING ourselves for noticing not blaming ourselves for still having this problem. Of course you will notice the chocolate, of course it will seem desirable, it is the next choice that doesn’t have to be “of course.” The next step can be … Excellent! I notice I am thinking about the chocolate and I want to do this differently so what can I do to redirect my attention? Then we practice, practice, practice that redirect.