Sue and I were talking about times in the past when she had started to gain weight. It appeared as though each time started with a small weight gain; then she started thinking that dieting was too hard, then she abandoned her plan.
I wanted to prepare Sue in case this same kind of thing happens in the future. I asked her whether there was anything else in her life that had been very difficult, but that she had managed to push through anyway. She gave me a perfect analogy:
Sue explained that several years ago she was headed toward being a professional singer. But she had a teacher who taught her incorrectly, and Sue actually damaged her vocal cords. Singing became very difficult and she thought about abandoning it. But she didn’t. She persevered. Eventually she found a really good teacher, who taught her very important lessons. Sue returned to practicing very hard, and was able to achieve a good measure of success as a singer.
Now Sue is going to create a Response Card to remind herself that she had the necessary perseverance and the right tools to reach her goal of becoming a singer—and this same perseverance, coupled with the tools she was learning from The Beck Diet Solution, will allow her to reach her goal of maintaining her weight loss.