[CHANGES] Interruption

[Sandra Ahten]

Hey folks, Good to hear from many of you -- who miss me at Weight Watchers 
and new folks who are interested in eating healthier, increasing their 
exercise and gaining peace of mind about their body and food.

Are you currently stuck?

Sometimes you just have to force yourself to do something different so that 
you can wake up to possibilities. It is one of the real benefits of 
structured diets. People who start them realize, “Oh, I can do something 
different. I can change. There are things other than what I was eating that 
will satisfy me.” The problem with structured diets is the rebound affect. 
People tend to be either on them or off of them and when they are off of 
them -- look out!

If structured diets were used to that end -- as an interruption in a 
hazardous food plan that wasn’t working. If they were used as an “in” to 
wake folks up to being conscious eaters with the goal of having the dieter 
understand that the diet needs to evolve. Evolve so that the individual can 
recognize what is right for their own bodies and their own lifestyle. In 
that case structured diets would be serving a great purpose. They would be 
the interruption that is needed.

Hatti needs an interruption. She says she wants to lose weight. She says she 
wants to fit into her other clothes. She says she understands what it takes 
and she knows she can do it because she has done it before. Hatti lost more 
than 100 pounds on Weight Watchers before. She has put on the and-then-some 
pounds that come with being on a diet and rebounding afterward.

She says she wants to lose weight. But for three weeks she has been in the 
Changes group and for  three weeks she reports following her usual pattern. 
Latte for breakfast. OK lunch choice -- often a salad, sometimes with chips. 
“I get home at 6pm, I guess I’m kind of hungry by then and so I start eating 
and I eat non stop until I go to bed at ten or so.”

We all listen as Hatti tells us what she is not willing to do. Counting 
points seems like a chore. She bought the book for the South Beach Diet. She 
finds it confusing. No way is she doing Atkins.

I see this as absolute progress. Hatti is not jumping on some diet 
bandwagon. She has been paying attention to what seems right for her by at 
least knowing what is wrong for her. But she needs an interruption. We 
brainstorm for possibilities that have worked for other people in the past, 
stressing that it is only for a week – just to be used as an interruption. A 
way to recognize there are other possibilities besides the path she is on. 
What about eating just three meals a day? Abstaining from sugar? Writing 
down everything you eat? How about making a food plan – being as lenient or 
indulgent as you want but writing it down and sticking with it. Hatti 
agrees, “OK, Well I guess I could do the food plan.”

Red flag. “Well I guess I could do the food plan.” We could tell by the tone 
of her voice and demeanor that “should” was the word that she wanted to use. 
“I know you think I should do the food plan.”

“No. No.” We cry. “We can think of something else.” It has to be something 
that you are really willing to do. There is a way in and it doesn’t have to 
be hard. It has to be sensible. It has to be appealing. It has to be where 
you can use the words “I get to” instead of “I have to.”

Hatti says, “You’re right. Writing down a food plan, just seems like another 
chore that I have to do. If I do it the night before I know I’ll change my 
mind the next morning and it won’t sound good anymore. Like when I lay out 
my clothes the night before. And I really don’t have time to do it in the 
morning.”

Finally Hatti decides that she will have her usual breakfast and lunch, 
perhaps increasing the protein. Then at two in the afternoon she is to do an 
inventory noting if she is hungry. Asking herself if the lunch that she had 
will realistically hold her over until dinner that night, so that she 
doesn’t have to walk in the house feeling famished. During her inventory she 
is to decide her dinner plans. This week she is to decide if she needs to 
start planning in an afternoon snack. We can tell by her body language that 
Hatti is buying into this. She has embraced this plan. Victory!

That’s it. That’s Hatti’s diet for the week. It has all the ingredients for 
success. It will begin to make Hatti conscious of her food choices in a less 
judgmental way. It is something she is willing to do. It will fit with her 
lifestyle. Very importantly -- she has a set time daily and weekly to 
evaluate and adjust.


Will Hatti’s plan lead to weight loss? Yes, it will. Remember this is the 
build-up plan not the let-down plan. If this is all she does it may just be 
5 or 10 pounds a year. But any mild change that you are actually willing and 
want to do because it is so easy to make a part of your lifestyle will lead 
to weight loss. The easier it is the more likely it is that that this will 
be permanent weight loss. Truly.

The problem for you is that you may not have a group to sort this all out 
with. You just have the voices in your head and they are filled with so many 
old messages of what you SHOULD do. You may be caught in the trap of knowing 
what you should do – but not being willing to do it and so not doing 
anything that interrupts this pattern. That is why it is imperative that you 
have at least a weekly check in time. If possible you need to do it with a 
group that can help you be realistic and recognize your accomplishments. We 
have been beating ourselves up with our diets and our feelings about 
ourselves around the dieting issue for so long that it is hard to live in 
reality. Group or no group -- please do yourself the favor of doing a 
check-in by using pen and paper. Write down your plan.

Sandra

I'll be sending out firm details on the next 6 week rounds of Changes Check 
in Group in a day or so. But don't wait for that. Interrupt your old 
behavior today!

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