Beck - Day 24: Deal with Discouragement

Beck's topic for today is how to keep the momentum going. She talks about how in the beginning of any diet, motivation is usually high but at some point, it begins to get harder. At some point, you will feel overwhelmed and discouraged -- which is perfectly normal, she emphasizes! She reminds you that you always have a choice and says that dieting does get easier (it does?). To help deal with discouragement, she suggests the following:

1. Read your Advantages Response Card more often. Really?? I feel like I already read this enough... I know all of the advantages I listed by now, in the exact order they're in. But maybe I need to re-write the card.
2. Add up the difficult hours. This is interesting. Beck points out that most people say that they've had a hard week or tough day but if they really sat down to think about how much time they actually struggled for, it wouldn't be that long. It's probably as little as 20 minutes and a couple of hours once or twice during the week! I'll have to remember this when I complain about my impossible day.
3. Focus on what you can do today. This is supposed to help from feeling overwhelmed. Instead of stressing out about the future, just focus on today, each meal, each choice.

The to-do list:

I am having a pretty good day today so far. The only thing on my checklist I didn't do was monitoring everything I ate in writing after I finished eating. Somehow I forget to do this more on the weekends. I think I need to put my notebook with my food plan where I eat so I can automatically check off the items after the meal.

I wasn't looking forward to riding 60 miles by myself this morning (it's going to be soooooo boring) but just said, "Oh well..." and did it. And surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. I also didn't want to run afterward, but used the same technique. AND I gave myself credit for doing so!

One good choice begets another... I am finding if I make the good choice of eating healthy foods, I'll automatically want to continue with the next meal. There is something about not breaking a streak with me.

I read my Advantages Response Card, NO CHOICE card, and It's Not Okay and Get Back on Track Response Cards at least twice.

I read other Response Cards as needed.

I ate slowly, sitting down and noticing every bite: Every Time

I gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful dieting behaviors: Every Time

I did spontaneous exercise: Once or twice

I did planned exercise.

I wrote out a food plan for tomorrow.

I monitored everything I ate in writing right after I finished eating.

I worked toward accepting what I have to do to lose weight (Oh, well).

I prepared for feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.