One of the most useful things that Cognitive Therapist Bradley Drake suggested was to list the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight. I revisit the list regularly and suggest you create one too if you are on the journey.<\/p>\n
Why I eat healthily and stick to my eating plan.<\/p>\n
I can participate in walks and hikes with JP.<\/p>\n
I have reduced the risks associated with being diabetic like gangrene and nerve damage.<\/p>\n
I have minimised the risks of high-blood pressure like death by stroke or being a vegetable.<\/p>\n
I can fit comfortably into an economy plane seat and not spill over onto the person next to me.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have to ask the airhostess for an extension belt.<\/p>\n
I can turn over easily and without pain in bed.<\/p>\n
I no longer have nerve pain in my leg.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s an emergency and I can\u2019t walk down stairs, a stretcher could take me.<\/p>\n
I will help avoid cancer and Alzheimer\u2019s in later years.<\/p>\n
I practice not satisfying immediate wants.<\/p>\n
I have the opportunity to learn new social behaviour (ie. Not around food).<\/p>\n
I have the stopped taking 15 pills every morning and seven at night.<\/p>\n
I have stopped damaging my joints.<\/p>\n
I no longer stand out in a crowd just because I\u2019m fat.<\/p>\n
I can engage fully and not use the excuse of \u201cbeing fat\u201d to opt out.<\/p>\n
I can practice tolerance for feeling hungry and feeling unfulfilled.<\/p>\n
I avoid back pain\/immobility.<\/p>\n
I practice tolerance for not getting to eat what I want to eat.<\/p>\n
I continue to develop the skill of being satisfied with food limited in quantity and variety.<\/p>\n
I continue to learn to be at a table with the smell of freshly baked bread and not eat it.<\/p>\n
I continue to get better at differentiating between hunger and cravings.<\/p>\n
I continue to develop a greater acceptance to saying no, thank you.<\/p>\n
While I wish it weren\u2019t this difficult to keep to my plan, there is no rule to say it shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n
While it is difficult for me to give this up, there is no evidence that it is too difficult. The fact that I have already lost 60kg is proof of this. I can do this.<\/p>\n
It is worth tolerating discomfort purely for the sake of improving my tolerance for discomfort.<\/p>\n
While I, too, can fail, it is important that I learn what to do differently so that I succeed the next time.<\/p>\n
I practice leaving food on my plate so that I become better at saying no when it is so easy to say yes.<\/p>\n
I can cut my toenails myself.<\/p>\n
I have energy to climb the stairs at home<\/p>\n
I can fit into clothing that I haven\u2019t been able to for a long period and can buy off the rack at any store.<\/p>\n
I continue to become healthier and stronger with each day.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m able to stand for more than 15 minutes which I couldn\u2019t do when I was 60kg heavier.<\/p>\n
I can kayak and snorkel and ride a bicycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most useful things that Cognitive Therapist Bradley Drake suggested was to list the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight. I revisit the list regularly and suggest you create one too if you are on the journey. Why I eat healthily and stick …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21,34,110,154],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weight_loss","tag-brian-berkman","tag-cognitive-therapy","tag-psychology","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}