Maria's Last Diet

Exercising Self-Control is What Makes the Dieter Lose Unwanted Weight

by Maria's Last Diet

Do you have a problem with self-control? Who doesn't! Here's an informative article from the New York Times that will help.

Straying From Your Diet Goal Can Be Helped

by Maria's Last Diet

So you’re unable to lose weight. You’ve tried, but you always go off your diet plan. You see some of your favorite foods and cannot resist. Whamo! Right back to your old ways. Weight-loss failure again.

It’s obvious that you can’t stick to your diet. That’s one way of putting it. Another is, you have trouble, lots of trouble, regulating yourself when it comes to eating the right food. Thinking of your failures to stay on your diet as failures in self-regulation may be a lot closer to the truth.

What to do? Follow the truth. See what’s going on with your ability to regulate yourself. Like a diet, you’ll have to work on whatever you discover is making it difficult for you to regulate yourself.  Clue: Often it some pesky emotion, now an integral part of some automatic habit pattern, that has propelled you to stray from your diet goal.

To Lose Unwanted Weight You Have to Self-Regulate

by Maria's Last Diet

Why it’s self-regulation, self-regulation, self-regulation. That’s all we think about when it comes to successful dieting. You can’t reduce your weight unless you can regulate yourself and learn how to eat less. Self-regulation means that you gain control over your eating habits. Self-regulation means that you eat normally and not overeat.

What is self-regulation, anyway? It’s exercising self-control. It’s controlling impulses. It’s you establishing an eating pattern that helps you lose weight and keep it off. It’s all these things and more. And, it’s too hard to do for most everyone who knows she should be losing excess weight.

You can say self-regulate all you want. Call it self-control if you like. Call it a diet—for that’s what your diet plan is all about: guiding you to have more control. Whatever you call it and however many times you try to do it, it’s going to be too hard to do, unless—unless you work directly on your lack of self-control when it comes to the way you eat.

The diet won’t do it for you. All the self-regulation finger pointing isn’t going to help either. Instead of making pounds or pant size your goal, it’s going to be more effective to make self-regulation your goal. And while you’re at it, be smart—make very specific plans, with lots of practice and lots of small successes along the way, to reach that goal.

 

How to Do Away With Self-Control and Still Lose A Lot of Weight

by Maria's Last Diet

Is it unrealistic to think that you can do without self-control when you are trying to lose weight and keep it off?

Self-control is hard when it comes to doing something you want to do, like sticking to a diet when you’re being tempted by some lovely fattening foods. This is the kind of self-control where you stop yourself from cheating on a diet. But there’s also the self-control it takes to start your diet. There’s stop self-control and start-self control.

Nevertheless, women who want to lose some weight find it hard to exercise either kind of self-control.

Here’s a proposal. What if you could get around this self-control requirement, and find another way to get from point A—starting to lose some weight—to point B—maintaining lost weight? Would you do it? Would you give up that have-to-use hard self-control strategy? Answer: In a heartbeat.

So, here’s the proposal. Why not set eminently reachable goals for yourself when it comes to losing unwanted weight, and let your goals guide you. Then you won’t have to exercise self-control to the max. Goals can do that. They can circumvent the need to have to have such effortful control over your thinking and your actions.

Try it. Start small. Maybe start with getting ready to do one thing to lose excess weight. Let that one thing be your goal. Your goal could be to find comfortable and comforting ways to think differently about breakfast. Or, it could be outlining one or two steps to begin thinking about taking better care of your physical or mental health.

There are lots of different goals that could help you get through your weight-loss difficulties and achieve successful weight loss. The more the goal fits you—really fits you—the less you will need to rely on having to exercise self-control. The goal itself will give you enough control.

Got a Diet Problem? Need Dieting Help? Having Weight Loss Difficulties? Well—Hear This.

by Maria's Last Diet

Hold on to your hat. Here’s what it takes. Call it what you’d like. Self-control, or…

• Self-regulation
• Self-discipline,
• Willpower
• Effortful control
• Ego strength
• Inhibitory control
• Impulse control
• Gratification delay
• Temptation resistance
• Perseverance
• Suppression (of habitual or automatic reactions)
• Conscientiousness

Whatever—it’s a mouthful. (Mouthful, get it? Eating reference.)

The definition of self-control is using your capacity for altering your behavior.

If you need help losing weight, what you’re up against is probably in the self-control department.

There’s an urgency that you can’t resist. Or, you act without fully thinking it through. Or, you’re seeking the stimulation, or the sensation, or the satisfaction. Or, you give up easily.

These are examples of lack of self-control. They are examples of what not to do—because you cannot lose weight if you do them.

It sounds like acting with self-control has to be arduous in order for it to work. If it’s not arduous, is it still self-control? It would be oh so much easier not to have to exercise self-control—like you’re running on a treadmill?

Well, what about a different way to get greater control over your eating behavior? Something easier.

• Finding a temptation unattractive
• Long-term goal beats short-term goal every time
• Making self-control a habit 

You have to have good self-control if you want to lose excess weight, so why not make it as easy on yourself as you can.

 

Can You Learn Self Control As You Try To Lose Some Weight?

by Maria's Last Diet

Compulsive eating, without any doubt, comes under the heading of lack of self-control. So, if you’re a compulsive eater—can’t stop yourself from eating so much and just have to have that food treat, then you’re not exercising self-control.

Having enough control over yourself is complicated. It is not something that you either have or don’t have—but it can look like that. For some who have little control by the time they reach adulthood, lack of self-control has gotten to be a character trait. For most people, though, their capacity for being self-regulated is less a matter of who they are than what situation they’re in. In other words, most people have self-control when they need it, but show a lack of self-control in certain situations.

When it comes to the weight-loss process, self-control is a must. Lack of self-control is what makes weight-loss progress such an iffy proposition for people—both kinds—character trait and situational. 

Making a plan to lose weight, as you can see, must include what it will take you to exercise self-control. Learning to have more control can be accomplished by setting self-control goals right along with your weight-loss goals.

• A common goal: “I will stop eating when I’ve eaten a normal portion. (I may have to redefine what is a normal portion.”)

• The plan: “I’ll do this at every meal, whether I eat home or eat out.” I’ll start slowly by doing this at breakfast. Depending how I do at the end of a week, I’ll add lunch to the plan. And then a week later, dinner, as well.”

• The reinforcement (aka reward): “I’ll write down my feelings of pride and self-esteem after each time I do this.” (intrinsic reward) “I’ll ask my husband to write down his feelings about me when he sees me do this.” (extrinsic reward) “I’ll also give myself a small, but meaningful (non-food) gift each time I reach 10 or more successes in a row.” (another extrinsic reward)

• Practice: “Since I’ll be practicing every day, I’ll have 7 practice sessions the first week, 14 the second week, and, by the third week, I’ll have 21 practice sessions per week. Just to see how I’m doing, I’ll rate my ease of self-control each day using a subjective scale from 0 to 100. Zero will be self-control is not easy at all. One hundred will be self-control is the easiest thing possible.

• Successes (plural): “I will make sure I have lots of successes, big and small, when it comes to learning how to have greater control.

• Transfer of learning: “While I’m learning how to have self-control in relation to my compulsive eating, I’ll remember the good control I have over myself in some non-eating situations and bring this control to bear on solving my compulsive eating pattern.

 

Eating Less, Losing More (Weight), Maintaining Lost Weight. Have Self Control and You’ll Get There.

by Maria's Last Diet

If self-control results from the ability to withstand impulses for immediate gratification, where does being out of control or losing your control come from? This might seem like a dumb question. With an obvious answer.

Self control can be refraining from doing something you don’t want to do or shouldn’t do. But it can also be doing something you want to do or should do—like keeping on the track to successful weight loss. So, exercising self-control is inhibiting your impulses, but it also can be engaging in goal-oriented actions, in the case of losing unwanted weight, the goal being your weight-loss goal.

So being out of control or losing your control, like in eating out of control, comes from not using or not having enough of what it takes to inhibit your impulses . But it may also come from not having the self-control umph to move you forward toward your desired weight.

Are you aware when you use each of these forms of self-control to lose some weight—inhibiting your impulses or promoting your goal?   

 

Everyone Knows Someone Who is Having Weight Loss Difficulties. Is That Someone You?

by Maria's Last Diet

I know a young lady who swallowed a cake

A big mistake, to swallow a cake

I know a young lady who swallowed her fork

What a pork, she swallowed her fork

 

I know a young lady who swallowed a house

No, not a mouse—a whole great big house

 

I know a young lady who swallowed a goose

She played fast and loose, and swallowed a goose

 

I know a young lady who swallowed her face

Not a trace left of her beautiful face

 

I know a young lady who swallowed twelve eggs

Couldn’t stand on her legs, too heavy with eggs

 

I know a young lady who swallowed her pride

It hurt her inside to swallow her pride

 

I know a young lady, that lady is me

Who looks in the mirror and says, ‘can it be?’

 

What is the problem— I’m out of control

How did I turn into one big jellyroll

 

Enough is enough, that’s what I say

Get hold of this problem, starting today

 

I know a young lady who stated: that’s that

I simply do not want to end up this fat

 

I know my psychology’s the biggest part—

So that is exactly where I will start!

 

Do You Put Off Long Term Weight Loss. Act Rashly and Go for Immediate Reward. Then Here’s What You Can Do.

by Maria's Last Diet

We all know that you shouldn’t let your emotions rule your financial decisions. Does the same principle hold true for losing some weight? Yes, it does.

Impulse spending and impulse eating have one thing in common. They are done impulsively. Sometimes they are done to celebrate when you’re feeling positive. You don’t actually get out the party hats, but you do get out some treats. At other times impulse eating and impulse spending are done to lighten your mood when you’re feeling the very opposite of positive. You’ve had quite a day, and you’re feeling down, somewhat hopeless and helpless. You’ve been here before, and you know what it’s like. That makes it worse. In fact, you anticipate feeling as bad as you did last time. Antidote: go get something to eat. Not good diet food, of course. Some fattening food or lots of food.

Acting on impulse, whether it’s eating so much or spending so much, is something you must come to grips with—that is, if you want to have self-control to shed those extra pounds and keep those extra dollars.

Don’t wait until you start a diet or start the weight-loss process to work on your impulsive behavior. If you’re an impulse eater (and who isn’t at times), why not work on this very specific characteristic prior to even trying to lose some weight.

Here are some (weight-loss) strategies to get you started.

• Set up situations in which you can practice delaying rather than acting impulsively. Practice in non-food situations and in food situations.

• Before you have the impulse, try some substitutes that will keep you moving toward your weight-loss goal—like non-food treats.

• Practice riding out the feeling or the thought that makes you act on impulse, and help yourself do this by telling yourself that your feeling, thought, urge, desire, etc. has a beginning, middle, and end.

• Time your feelings and thoughts that lead to acting on impulse. Get to know how long they last. Use this information to make you confident you can get through it without acting rashly (and against your long-term weight-loss goal).

• Discover that not all feelings, thoughts, inner urges, etc. are the same. Some are more powerful than others. Use a subjective rating scale from 0 to 10: zero being the easiest to get through and 10 being the hardest to get through. Then when the thought, urge, feeling, whatever hits, you have a way of telling yourself how affecting it is, and you’ll be able to differentiate. Perceiving differences leads directly to behaving differently.

Keep in mind that controlling impulses is never perfect. Practice helps, but it does not make perfect. Cheating on a diet is a prime example of this kind of imperfection. You lose it, and you eat off your diet. It is an impulse, an imperfection, and it can be time-limited, maybe even situation specific. Don’t compound the lapse by thinking all is lost. Go right back to your good diet plan. The sooner the better. Learn from your mistake.

Last thought: This has been a discussion of impulses that take you away from your long-term weight-loss goal. Bad impulses. But of course not all impulses are bad. Impulsive behavior is not always a no, no. Acting on impulse, a self-affirming impulse that is, can be one of the joys of life. So make sure that on the spur of the moment you do that special something for yourself— because a fulfilled woman doesn’t have to fill herself full.

 

Has Permanent Weight Loss Been Beyond Your Control? Here’s a Way to Change That.

by Maria's Last Diet

People who live with high job demands and little control over their jobs have twice the risk of death from cardiovascular disease than people who do not suffer this stress

Providing people with greater control where there are high job demands improves their level of stress and also their health.

Can we take a page from this book when it comes to losing excess weight? The demands are pretty high here too. Otherwise, it would have been easy peasy to lose so much weight. But like other women, you find there are difficulties losing weight because the demands on your old eating lifestyle are high.

You’ve got three choices: reduce the demands or have more control—or do both.

Let’s take being more in control as the most malleable factor. What can you do to exercise more control over the weight-loss process? You can work on your weight-loss psychology—what your eating so much is all about. Work too on getting motivated to lose weight, prepare good weight-loss strategies that fit you, get a weight-loss buddy, get plenty of good weight-loss advice, and so forth.

To see how to have more control, get free weight-loss help at MariasLastDiet.com. The Reading Room at “Maria’s” will put you in control.