Losing Weight in 2010 Part II

Lauren Muhlheim, Psy.D. is an American psychologist who has worked in the field of eating and weight disorders since 1991.  She sees clients at Parkway Health and the Community Center and is President of the Shanghai International Mental Health Association.

Appeared in Shanghai Courier, March 2010.

Last month, in the first part of our two-part series on losing weight in 2010, Dr. Lauren Muhlheim gave us some great tips to help us prepare to lose weight this year.  Now that we’re acting as if we already have our ideal body and have consulted a healthcare provider, assessed our motivation and readiness, set realistic expectations and planned, enlisted support, chosen a healthy eating plan, and committed to an exercise plan, it’s time to start taking the next steps in our weight loss journey.

Keep a food diary and exercise log

Self-monitoring, or keeping records of specific behaviors is considered a tenet of behavior therapy.  Research has demonstrated that self-monitoring of food intake is associated with a decrease in food intake and subsequent weight loss.  Knowing you have to write down what you're eating makes you think more carefully about your choices.  It also provides valuable information; if you have a rough spot or don’t lose weight you can look back at your food records and determine what was causing the problem.  Similarly, keeping an exercise log  can be a great motivator.   Your food log can be a simple journal in which you list all food consumed including amounts and the time it was eaten.  Additional resources are available online including food diary forms to download and websites that can analyze nutritional data. 

Experts in the field of weight loss have found that when self-monitoring is used on a regular basis, the likelihood of weight-loss success and maintenance increases. You may also want to consider investing in a pedometer or heart rate monitor.  The data provided by such devices can be very reinforcing. 

Learn strategies to manage hunger and emotional eating

Eating at regular intervals (at least 3 meals a day plus snacks) facilitates healthy weight loss.  It is also helpful to learn to tolerate a certain amount of hunger between meals.  If you are used to eating before you get hungry, experiment with delaying a meal one day and pay attention to your hunger cues.  Many people are surprised to find that a little hunger is quite tolerable.  Once you become more in touch with the signs of hunger and you get hungry between planned meals, you can tell yourself that your next meal is coming up soon.

Some emotional eaters cope with any difficult situation by using food.  They may never have learned any more adaptive ways of coping with a fight with their spouse, the loss of a sale, or some other disappointment.  If this is the case for you, make a list of other things you can try to do when you get upset.  Some things you might try instead of turning to food for comfort include:  calling a friend, going for a walk, a hot shower, reading a magazine.  Turning to food in these situations only puts you further away from your goal of weight loss which may increase your emotional distress.

Eat mindfully

Eat only when you’re seated.  Most of the eating people do while standing is impulse eating.  When you sit down and put food on a plate, you’re eating more planfully.   If you eat most of your calorie allotment while preparing dinner, you’ll be left with only a small portion of food on your plate and may end up feeling deprived.  When food is visually satisfying it’s more likely to be physically satiating as well.  Similarly, eating too quickly or absentmindedly makes the food seem less satisfying.  Try to eat without distractions such as the tv and eat slowly.  Pay attention to the taste and texture of every bite.  Take sips of water after every few bites.  Eating slowly helps you to notice when you become full and reduces the chance that you will overeat. 

Look at sabotaging thoughts and prepare cards to challenge them

While it may seem at times like you have no control over your eating, the truth is that there is virtually no situation in which one eats without first deciding to.  The problem is that sometimes we’re not aware of having the thought.  By paying attention to the thoughts that lead to overeating, one can change one’s behavior.  For example, a co-worker leaves a plate of cookies in the break room.  You say to yourself, “Oh, these look so good, I wasn’t planning on eating now, but I can’t resist.” 

However, if you can instead remind yourself of your weight-loss goal, you can train yourself to talk back to that sabotaging thought and not give in to temptation.  You can say instead, “Eating that cookie won’t help me in my goal of losing weight.  It looks good, but I don’t have to eat everything that looks good.”  It is often helpful to make index cards in which you write the sabotaging thought on one side and the more helpful response on the other side.  Since the same situations tend to come up over and over again, you can read the cards over several times a day and also pull them out whenever you have a sabotaging thought.

Reward your progress, but not with food

Celebrate your successes, whether it’s resisting a second dessert at a dinner party or getting up to work out on your day off.  Plan something you enjoy, like a cup of tea, immediately after exercising; or treat yourself to a foot massage to reward yourself for your efforts after a whole week of healthy eating and exercise.  Give yourself credit for every effort you make – believe it or not, this simple conditioning really does help to build a positive association with your weight loss efforts.

Expect and plan for setbacks

Remember that everyone has bad days and everyone gives into temptation or gets off track at times.  However, what you say to yourself in these moments is critical.  You can beat yourself up and decide to just give up or keep things in perspective, remember that slips happen, and get back on track as soon as possible. 

Sustained weight loss is possible.  It requires more than just changing behaviors; it involves changing the way you think.  With concerted effort and some scientifically sound cognitive behavioral strategies, you can be a successful.  And for full support along the way, consider enrolling in ParkwayHealth’s Medical Weight Loss Program.

Resources:

Parkway Health is now partnering with Weight Watchers for our new Medical Weight Loss Program.  Led by our American Board Certified Physician, Dr. Hina Pandya, this program takes a holistic approach to weight loss with a focus on both the cosmetic and medical benefits of a healthy body weight.  In addition, Lauren Muhlheim, American Clinical Psychologist can provide emotional support and cognitive behavioral strategies to facilitate weight loss. 

Email enquiry@parkwayhealth.cn or call 6445-5999 for more information.

Weight Watchers has meetings for expatriates in both Pudong and Puxi (www.weightwatchers.com)

The Beck Diet Solution:  Train Your Brain to Think like a Thin Person by Judith Beck, Ph.D.(www.beckdietsolution.com )