Using Psychology
to Lose Weight
If you have a diet cheat, what do you say to yourself about the cheat, and what do you say to yourself about yourself?
Do you say you can’t trust yourself? Do you say it doesn’t matter? Do you think you’ve lost control? Or do you think that you have pretty good control, and it was just a momentary lapse?
It matters how you perceive cheating on a diet, and it matters what you think of yourself when you cheat on your diet.
If, for example, you think cheating on your diet is just a temporary lapse, and you really do have pretty good control, you will expect to continue to have good success sticking to the diet. If, however, your diet cheat starts a process of creeping self-doubt or begins a buildup of feelings of frustration, helplessness, and hopelessness, the outcome will most likely be very different.
You might think this is an odd thing to say, but it pays to develop a healthy attitude about not sticking to a diet. This is one of the ways in which you will be using psychology to lose weight. Cheating on your diet is a natural phenomenon, psychologically speaking. Every dieter does it. In fact, it’s healthy to cheat. It means you have lapses in your resolve. (Who doesn’t.) Learning to live with such lapses and finding ways of resolving lapses so they don’t turn into relapses is what losing weight and keeping it off permanently is all about.
