One of our dieters, Andrea, has been doing extremely well lately. She’s been working out hard at the gym, following her diet faithfully, and really working on all of the skills in The Beck Diet Solution. She has lost 40 pounds over the course of five months and is absolutely thrilled with her new body.
We were talking with Andrea this week about her sister’s upcoming visit, which she was eagerly anticipating. In the past, Andrea has had a somewhat troubled relationship with her sister, who was always been thin and has made some negative comments to Andrea about her weight. Andrea reported that her sister knew she’d been “working out” but has no idea about how much Andrea has truly transformed her body and attitude in the past few months and she is really looking forward to shocking her sister with her weight loss.
We took time this week to help prepare Andrea for two possible scenarios of her sister’s visit: either her sister will be complimentary, or she might have a different reaction. While it would be wonderful if Andrea’s sister expresses nothing but delight, it’s possible that she could say something negative (“You know, it might not last.” “You really should lose more.” “I thought you’d look better than you do.”) We reminded Andrea that she has been looking and feeling great, and nothing her sister might say can take away from the amazing accomplishment of reaching her goal. We also reminded her to list the names of all the people who have said complimentary things to her and to look at this list to counteract her sister’s words, if she says anything unkind.