Thinking thin can help you be thin

How Cognitive Therapy Works
Cognitive Therapy is based on the concept that the way people think affects how they feel and what they do. For example, let’s say you have the thought I’m hungry. If you then have “sabotaging thoughts”—such as, This is terrible ... I can’t stand it ... I have to eat!—you’ll feel panicky and grab some food. On the other hand, if you counter your thought with “helpful responses”—But it’s all right ... I’m going to eat in a couple more hours ... I can wait—you’ll feel in control and get involved in an activity. Cognitive Therapy helps you identify your sabotaging thinking and effectively respond to it, so you feel better and can behave in helpful ways.

Cognitive Therapy teaches people how to solve problems, and dieters can have lots of problems. For example, have you ever strayed from a diet for any of the following reasons:

• You finished all of the food on your plate but didn’t feel satisfied.
• You felt upset and thought that eating would make you feel better.
• You were too tempted by the sight of food when shopping at the supermarket.
• You were too tired to cook, so you opted for fast food instead.
• You were too polite to turn down the dessert that your friend baked.
• You were at a party and felt like treating yourself.

To successfully lose weight and keep it off, you need to solve these kinds of practical problems. You’ll also need to solve some psychological problems, such as:

• Feeling overwhelmed by the requirements of your diet
• Feeling deprived
• Feeling discouraged when you don’t lose weight consistently or lose as much weight as you had hoped
• Feeling stressed by other life problems

Cognitive Therapy helps you solve both practical and psychological problems and learn new thinking and behavioral skills — skills you’ll be able to use for the rest of your life. You’ll not only overcome your current problems, but also learn how to use your new skills to overcome future problems.

Are You Like Sue?
For more than 20 years, I’ve used Cognitive Therapy to help many people resolve many different problems, including struggling to lose weight. Sue (name has been changed) is typical of these dieters. Before Sue came to treatment, she’d tried many diets, off and on, ever since high school, only to become mired in a familiar cycle: During the first few weeks or months of each diet, she’d confidently lose weight and feel in control; eventually, however, something would make her stray.

The reasons varied. One day her boss asked her to work late, which, she said, “caused” her to pick up a pizza on the way home. Another time, after an argument with her husband, she was upset and “found” herself eating a pint of chocolate ice cream. Yet another time she “lost control” at a holiday party while at a buffet table covered with one tempting dish after another.

Whenever Sue gave herself an excuse to deviate from her diet, her resolve quickly diminished. She’d continue to eat out of control. Then she’d feel like a failure, decide she’d never be able to lose weight, and give up entirely, eventually gaining back all the weight she’d lost — and sometimes more.

Sue began yet another diet soon after her first session with me. The first two or three weeks of her new diet went smoothly, but then she had a setback. She was so upset by a situation at work that she began “to eat everything in sight.” Fortunately, Sue came to see me the next day. When we examined what Sue had eaten, it became apparent that she had not “totally blown” her diet. I helped her see that if she just got right back on her diet, she would likely gain, at most, a half pound for the week — not a major setback. By changing her thinking from, I’m such a failure ... I’ll never be able to lose weight, to I can start again right this moment, she was able to get back on track.

Sue continued to have some mild setbacks along the way, but she learned how to keep these setbacks in perspective. She also learned how to prepare in advance for stressful times. She got to the point where she was able to stick to her plan, no matter what was going on in her life. She broke out of her yo-yo dieting cycle, lost more than 55 pounds, and has kept it off for more than 12 years.

Sue’s story is typical of the dieters I work with now and have worked with over the years. It can be your story as well.

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