We have started a new weight-loss class here at the Beck Institute. Our new dieters have just finished the tasks from the first two Weeks of The Beck Diet Solution and today are embarking on Week Three: starting their diets. Our dieters are feeling nervous about starting yet another diet. This is, of course, a perfectly legitimate concern because all of them have had experiences, over and over again, of starting diets, falling off the wagon, and giving up. We asked our dieters to tell us why this time will be different.
This time is different because never in the past have they had two weeks of preparation before they actually started following a diet. Now they know so much more going in and have many more skills than they did before. Now they know how to get themselves to eat everything slowly, while sitting down, and enjoying every bite (Days 3 and 5 of The Beck Diet Solution). Now they know how to create both the time and energy in their daily lives to accomplish diet and exercise-related activities (Day 8). They have learned to differentiate between hunger, cravings, and the desire to eat (Day 11), and have proven to themselves that they can tolerate feeling hungry (Day 12). They have learned coping strategies for when they are experiencing intense cravings (Day 13), and they have learned to give themselves credit (an essential tool for building confidence) for the many positive diet and exercise-related things they do each day (Day 4).
We advised our dieters to go back and read through the To-Do lists from the previous Days so that they can clearly see how much they’ve learned and how much better prepared they are this time than ever before. We are confident that, like our other dieters, our new class is now ready to start losing weight, and to keep it off for good.