Cognitive Behavioral Strategies

Lynne S. Gots, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist

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Possibly the Only Thing You’ll Need to Do to Start Losing Weight

By Lynne Gots, posted on April 26th, 2013.

 

Last week’s record high temperatures forced me to abandon the layers of sweaters and loose tops hiding the extra winter pounds around my middle and break out my warm weather wardrobe. The tight waistbands made me uncomfortably aware of a need to take corrective action.

I’m no fan of crash diets—or, for that matter, of any overly rigid dietary regimen that eliminates whole categories of foods such as carbs, gluten, or dairy products. Unless there’s a medical reason for such restrictions (which often can lead to backlash bingeing), I think a more effective and sustainable approach to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is to make gradual changes.

To that end I recommend picking one problem behavior to work on at a time. If you’re making unhealthy choices or consuming too many calories, eventually you’ll be able to adjust what you eat to boost weight loss. But you won’t have as much trouble sticking to a nutrition plan if you’ve already put better habits in place and started to eat more mindfully.

Mindful eating means paying full attention to your food and the process of ingesting it—to the smells and tastes and to how your body feels before, during, and after a meal. It means tuning into your hunger and noticing when you’re just full enough, stopping before you feel stuffed.

Grabbing food on the go and unconsciously nibbling can be major obstacles to mindful eating. It’s easy to consume an entire meal’s worth of calories without realizing it if you’re scarfing down your breakfast on the way out the door, tasting while you cook, popping handsful of M & Ms in your mouth as you pass the candy jar on your coworker’s desk, or polishing off your toddler’s mac and cheese as you carry the plate to the garbage disposal.

My solution to these mindless eating habits is to implement just one rule: eat only when you’re sitting down. When you remind yourself to sit before you take a bite of food, you may be surprised to discover how often you nosh, taste, and nibble without even knowing it.

Of course, if you’re prone to frequenting the MacDonald’s drive-thru, munching on a vat of buttered popcorn at the movies, or digging into a bag of chips while you watch TV, sitting down won’t eliminate all your mindless eating. But it will help you pay more attention to what you’re putting in your mouth. Later you can add the step of sitting at the table to enhance your mindfulness.

Take this first step and you may notice your waistbands feeling a little looser before bathing suit season (though with the crazy weather fluctuations we’re having in DC, that could be tomorrow, at which point nobody will be ready).

 

 




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Posted in Acceptance and Mindfulness, Behavior Change, Techniques |

Comfort Food

By Lynne Gots, posted on November 10th, 2011.

I’ve been thinking a lot about food lately.  Maybe it’s the shorter days and chillier weather triggering a primal instinct to fatten up for hibernation.  Or maybe it’s all the glistening Thanksgiving turkeys and pumpkin pies on the covers of the magazines arriving in the mail.  Either way, I find myself collecting recipes for hearty casseroles, stews, and soups featuring potatoes, squash, and root vegetables.

Most of the time, eating is routine—mechanical, even.  If you’re like me, you inhale breakfast before rushing out the door in the morning and grab a quick bite to sustain you through the afternoon.  By dinner, you’re famished, and you wolf down your food so quickly you barely taste it.   Hardly the mindful eating recommended both for weight control and optimal satisfaction.

Contrast the way most of us eat on a daily basis with a recent meal I experienced at a highly touted new restaurant.  Each dish contained a sensory rush of contrasting tastes and textures.  There were subtle sauces and foams that delivered a distilled essence of pure flavor before vanishing on the tongue.  I ate slowly and savored every mouthful.   By the last forkful of dessert, I was sated but not stuffed.

The dinner was one of my most memorable.  But I wouldn’t want to eat that kind of fare every day.  In fact, the next night, still out of town and looking for a good place to eat, I opted for pizza.  Crusty and smoky from the wood-fired oven, it was anything but evanescent, the antithesis of the previous night’s foamy confections.  Delicious.  It was exactly what I wanted and left me perfectly satisfied without having eaten too much.

Different foods for different moods.   That’s what truly mindful eating is all about.  And why rigid diets—which proscribe whole categories of nutrients such as carbs, or sugar, or fats—don’t work over the long haul.

You don’t have to indulge in rich sauces or exotic ingredients to enjoy eating mindfully without breaking the calorie bank.  Yes, it’s possible to take as much pleasure in crisp vegetables and nourishing whole grains as in a take-out burger and fries—more, even, if you think about the tastes and textures you’re craving.  Sweet or salty?  Crispy or creamy?  Hot or cold?

But sometimes only the burger and fries will do.  So go for it.  But be mindful, and you may find less is more.

 

 

 





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Posted in Acceptance and Mindfulness |

This blog is intended solely for the purpose of entertainment and education. All remarks are meant as general information and should not be taken as personal diagnostic or therapeutic advice. If you choose to comment on a post, please do not include any information that could identify you as a patient or potential patient. Also, please refrain from making any testimonials about me or my practice, as my professional code of ethics does not permit me to publish such statements. Comments that I deem inappropriate for this forum will not be published.

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