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My Chocolate
Chip Cookie Diet: or, How to Lose Weight Without Deprivation
by Monica A. Frank, Ph.D.
The hardest thing about dieting is the
deprivation. It feels like we are being punished. No wonder so many people are
unsuccessful with dieting if it has such a strong negative reaction. We aren't
motivated by negativity except to move away from it. We are motivation to move
towards things that feel good. Therefore, the secret to losing weight has to be
in making it feel good. "How can I do that?" you ask because you associate the
words "diet" and "bad."
I don't have any miracle or new strategies to
weight loss. What I am presenting in this article are the old tried and true
techniques that have been shown through behavioral research to be effective.
However, the title is true. You can lose weight without deprivation if you
change some basic ineffective thought processes and behaviors.
First, let me tell you a little of my story. I
am a behavioral therapist and I have lost a hundred pounds using the methods
that I will describe. And I did it while being able to eat my husband's
fabulous chocolate chip cookies (he's the one who labeled this a chocolate chip
cookie diet). The principles that I will be describing I am sure you have heard
before. Also, what I am presenting isn't the only way to lose weight. In fact,
what I am advocating is to take the methods that have been effective for other
people and to adapt them to yourself. The more you understand your
psychological make-up and how your body responds, then you will be able to be
successful in any goals you set for yourself. The following are some ideas and
techniques to consider in your plan.
HAVE A DISCUSSION WITH YOUR PHYSICIAN
If you have a great deal of weight to lose, it is important to have a
discussion with your doctor, and not just for the usual reason of making sure
you are healthy enough to manage exercise and weight loss. Your discussion with
your doctor is also for the reason of determining whether there are any medical
reasons that may have contributed to your weight gain.
For instance, for myself, I already knew that I
ate when I was stressed (most of my weight I gained during graduate school).
What I didn't understand was why exercise, which is a great stress reliever, was
so aversive to me. Then one day, I mentioned to my doctor that I was having
breathing problems. I was afraid to say anything previously because I was sure
he would say it was just because I was out of shape. Instead, he determined
that I had asthma and gave me an inhaler. After my first use of the inhaler, I
realized I had probably had asthma for a long time. In fact, I remember having
chest pains and trouble breathing when I ran as a child; my mother told me it
was growing pains. I now know that I probably had exercise-induced asthma, and
naturally, I didn't like exercise because it was painful. Once I was treated
for the asthma and was able to breath normally, I was able to start a successful
exercise program.
I am not saying that anyone who doesn't like
exercise has asthma, but I do believe that the enjoyment of exercise is
natural. In fact, research shows that when we exercise endorphins are released
that are very pleasurable for us. If you find exercise aversive, it may be a
good idea to determine if there is a reason. Other reasons include any illness
that leads to fatiguing quickly such as anemia or allergies. Also, talk to your
doctor about disorders that may lead to weight gain such as low thyroid
disorders.
START SLOWLY
The advice that no one wants is that weight loss is a long-term project.
Everyone wants to lose fifty pounds in the next three months so they look good
for some particular event or just because they don't want to be on a diet for
longer than three months. This attitude is a guarantee to long-term failure.
An individual may lose weight in this manner but is not likely to keep it off
because they have not made an important attitude change.
That attitude change involves making a
commitment to lifestyle changes instead of making a commitment to weight loss.
The more you can learn to act "as if" you were normal weight and healthy, the
more successful you will be for the long term. This means determining how
physically fit people of normal weight behave and gradually incorporating these
behaviors into your lifestyle. For instance, a person of normal weight may have
a cookie for a treat, but they don't have a half dozen cookies.
Starting slowly doesn't give the immediate
gratification that our society thrives on. With my own situation, it has only
been in the last year that people have really noticed my efforts and are
complimenting my progress, but my commitment to lifestyle changes began ten
years ago. At that time, my husband and I made an agreement to reduce the
amount of fat in our meals by not frying foods as frequently. It was a simple
step that wasn't very painful because I could still eat fried foods but not as
often. Then about eight years ago, I started to exercise regularly. About five
years ago, I quit eating fast food (however, I fell off the wagon for a little
while). Two years ago, I decided to increase fiber in my diet. These are just a
few of the changes I made over the years, but the culmination of these decisions
led eventually to my weight loss.
One significant realization for me was that I
had gained weight slowly over the years. When I realized that it amounted to
about an extra hundred calories a day, I thought I could surely halt the weight
gain because eliminating a hundred calories a day couldn't be that difficult.
All I had to do was eliminate a little butter on my morning waffles. Once I had
achieved stopping the weight gain, weight loss wasn't any more difficult because
it meant slight changes in my eating habits. The most difficult change for me
was reducing the amount of milk I drink because I always loved a LARGE cold
glass of milk with my meals or snacks; again, I just gradually reduced the milk
rather than making a radical change that probably would have discouraged me.
CHANGE PERFECTIONISTIC ATTITUDES
The concept of starting slowing is one way of
changing perfectionistic attitudes. These attitudes are typically
self-defeating. In our society, we are bombarded with demands that we have to
be perfect in every way: the perfect career, the perfect parent, the perfect
body, etc. However, it is impossible for us to be perfect and if we try to
achieve it, we will be guaranteed failure. Therefore, one of the first things
you want to do is to identify self-defeating, perfectionist attitudes such as:
"I have to lose 50 pounds in three months."
"I have to exercise an hour a day."
"I can't eat more than my allotted number of
calories or fat grams."
"I should look like a supermodel."
"I should be able to leap over tall buildings
and be faster than a speeding bullet."
The problem with these attitudes is that they
are all unrealistic. The more realistic your goals are, the more likely you are
to be successful. For instance, when I first started exercising I was extremely
out of shape; if I walked up a flight of stairs I would get out of breath so I
tended to avoid stairs if there was an elevator nearby. My first exercise was
on a stationary bike and I started with five minutes a day. I never could stick
with exercise until I got rid of the attitude, "What's the use in doing anything
less than an hour a day?" Instead, I told myself that anything was an
improvement and would move me towards my goal of being physically fit.
Speaking of the goal of being physically fit, I
found that it was a better attitude to take than focusing on the need to lose so
much weight. Generally, I was able to measure my increased fitness weekly by my
ability to exercise longer and more intensely. Therefore, I was always
achieving small goals.
Making small goals is also an important attitude
change. It is harder for us to say "I can't" when the goal is achievable. For
instance, many of my clients complain that they don't have the time or energy to
start exercising. I ask them, "Do you think you are capable of exercising for
five minutes a day?" Invariably, they say "yes" and I tell them to make that
their goal. By doing so, they can reward themselves daily for achieving these
small goals rather than beating themselves up over failing to achieve a more
difficult goal.
Which brings me to the tendency of people with
perfectionistic attitudes to focus only on outcome and not on process. They
usually will look ahead to how far they have to go rather than back at how far
they have come. As a result, they become discouraged, self-critical, and often
quit. The more you focus on the process and give yourself reinforcement for
each small achievement, the more successful you will be.
EXERCISE, EXERCISE
Many people don't want to hear that they need to
exercise. However, this article is actually more about fitness than weight
loss; the weight loss is just a byproduct of taking care of yourself. If you
change just one thing in your life that can result in tremendous benefits, is
literally the difference between life and death, it is to become more physically
active. Exercise has been shown improve the health of your heart and lungs, it
increases memory functioning, it improves sleep, it improves ability to manage
pain, it increases energy level and reduces fatigue, it has been linked to
reducing numerous other illnesses such as breast cancer, and it reduces
depression and anxiety.
I found that it was easier to add something into
my life rather than taking something away such as depriving myself of food that
I enjoyed. So I started with exercise and a commitment to increase my level of
fitness. It has been found that making a commitment to exercise is more
important than the length of exercise. If you commit to exercising daily if
only for five minutes, in the long run you will be successful in making exercise
part of your life. Sometimes I would tell myself I didn't feel like exercising
but I would still exercise for five minutes because I had made that commitment
to myself. Then, on some days I would stop after five minutes and on other days
I found the energy to continue longer.
MONITOR YOURSELF
Behavioral research has consistently shown that
monitoring our food intake has significant impact on how much we eat. However,
the main problem with this approach is that it was so time-consuming. To do it
correctly, a person had to write down every morsel of food, check the calorie
charts, plan menus, and add up the daily calories. Naturally, anything taking
so much effort has a high drop-out rate which certainly decreases its practical
effectiveness.
However, now with the advent of computer
programs, there are easier ways of doing this. I found a program called
Life Form
that I used to help me keep track of my food intake and exercise. Initially, I
bought it to help me increase fiber and decrease fat in my diet. But as I
started using it, I found myself making overall healthier choices and my weight
loss began in earnest. What I like about
Life Form,
in particular, is that it is easy to use (it takes me about 5 minutes a day) and
it has graphs. I love graphs because they let me see what I have accomplished.
In addition, this program allows you to graph anything you want and a side
benefit I had was finding out that my irritability level definitely corresponded
to my pre-menstrual days (in fact, I could pinpoint it to a particular day)
which allowed my husband and me to take precautions to reduce arguments.
The most important thing I found to make
monitoring a success was to make a commitment to it. No matter what, I
committed to putting my true food intake and exercise activities into the
program. Since I didn't like to see the graph take sudden upturns, this
commitment helped to keep me on track.
WHAT ABOUT THE "WITHOUT DEPRIVATION" PART?
I never felt particularly deprived because I set
reasonable behavior changes. For instance, when I first started reducing
calories, I started with a small reduction of 100-200 a day. This was such a
small change that I barely noticed it, yet I started to see results. Then, as
my body adjusted to the reduction in calories, I reduced may calorie intake
another 100-200 calories. I continued to do this until I reached about 1500
calories a day; this occurred over a period of several months.
In addition, I never forced myself to stick
exactly to the 1500 calories but tried to average around the 1500 mark. I also
let myself eat what I wanted on special occasions. Interestingly enough, I
would look forward to a holiday such as Thanksgiving thinking that I would pig
out only to find that my stomach would limit how much I could eat and I was
satisfied with much less.
Finally, I always tried to save enough calories
for a special treat such as a chocolate chip cookie. By doing so, I never felt
deprived and was able to stick to this plan for 18 months until I reached my
goal.
As I said before, I don't expect that everyone
can use this same method successfully. But I encourage you to experiment and to
learn what works for you.
Copyright ©
2000 by www.excelatlife.com.
Permission to reprint this article is granted if it includes this entire
copyright and link.
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Recommended
Books
Self-Esteem: A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques
for Assessing, Improving, and Maintaining Your
Self-Esteem
By Matthew McKay, Patrick Fanning
The
Self-esteem Companion: Simple Exercises to Help You Challenge
Your Inner Critic & Celebrate Your Personal Strengths
By Patrick Fanning, Carole
Honeychurch, Catharine Sutker
Romantic Jealousy: Causes, Symptoms, Cures
By
Ayala Mal Pines
"If you truly want a chance for your partner to
change, the best place to start is with yourself. "
"To be betrayed, the person must first experience trust in the
betrayer."
"...the way we make attributions about behavior
affects relationships and self-esteem."
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