Blog Posts Tagged "Healthy Eating".

This tip follows on from Friday’s An Alternative to Willpower. I want to make sure I’ve explained the underlying principle really clearly.

You can create subtle changes in your behaviour by…

Changing the external cues you encounter in your daily life, in a way that increases the probability of you doing the behaviour you want to increase.

Examples

It’s easy to think of punitive-sounding examples like removing your sofa and any other seating from your lounge, and replacing them with a treadmill. However, try to think of examples that both fulfill the principle, and that you associate with positive emotions.

For example, say you’re a Dad and an important value for you is that you want to spend more just-the-two-of-you time with your 5 year old daughter. You might encourage your partner to go to the movies one night a week, and let your daughter know that you’ll do anything she wants that night while the two of you are home together. That way, your Daddy-daughter alone time is automatically scheduled.

In this example, the change in the external cues virtually guarantees you will do more of the behaviour you want to increase (Daddy-daughter just the two of you time). But, its also worthwhile putting cues in place that just nudge up the probability of you doing the behaviour you want to increase. All the little probability changes add up to significant change. Again, try to come up with examples that fulfill the principle and that you associate with positive emotions, rather than examples that feel like punishment.

End of this Post. But wait.... There's More.....

When a client finishes treatment, we usually finish up by making a relapse prevention plan.

If you have recently lost weight, it would be a good idea to make one of these for yourself.
You can construct a plan by listing items under each of the following 5 headings.

Q1. Things I do to maintain myself on a good track.

(One of the theories of how life stress can turn into depression is that life stress often disrupts people’s regular coping strategies.

For example, a person is extra busy at uni so needs to give up their sport.

The person then has the double whammy of the increased stress + reduced outlets for that stress).

Q2. Early warning signs of potential problems (signals that may indicate a slip).
Q3. What I will do if I notice my early warning signs.
Q4. Late warning signs of problems (more serious signals that indicate a potential relapse).
Q5. What I will do if I notice my late warning signs.

I’ve made an example pdf plan that you can purchase for $5 USD (plus 15% GST if you are ordering from within New Zealand). The example includes a mixture of the types of things clients typically put on their lists.

Its a digital download with a small file size so you’ll be able to download it immediately after purchasing. The document is around 2800 words (not too short, not too long) and contains lots of examples and tips.

Buy Now by clicking Add to Cart

The sample should help you come up with your own relapse prevention plan.

If you’re a therapist and purchase it, I’d be thrilled for you to make photocopies or email the pdf to individual clients, just please don’t upload it to the web or bulk email it out as part of a mailing list/newsletter etc.

NB: My plan is for most of my website content to remain free but have a few items that require purchase.

Sales Tax: Downloads from outside New Zealand are free from sales tax. I’m required to charge sales tax (GST) on purchases made from within New Zealand, which will be added at checkout.

Privacy: Please be aware that your ip address will be logged with your purchase. This will only be used for my tax records (showing the geographical location of purchasers).

Support: If you have any problems with your purchase, you can contact: products (at) aliceboyes (dot) com [formatted to fool spambots, replace with @ and .]

Legal: I am registered as a Psychologist in New Zealand only. Purchasing a digital download from this site is similar to if you were to purchase a self help book or CD from your local book store. I don’t offer additional services to purchasers. For legal purposes, purchasing does not constitute the establishment of a psychologist-client relationship between you and I.

End of this Post. But wait.... There's More.....

Cognitive processes (thought patterns) that lead to starting up again after you have initially stopped.

Learn what your high risk thoughts are. Once you know what your high risk thoughts are, you can prepare some balanced thoughts to counteract the problem thoughts.

These are some common high risk thoughts.

For example:

“I deserve to relax. I’ve worked hard today. Or, I’ve had a hard day”

“I can stop another time”.

“When the time is right I will give up for good. If I feel like going back to smoking or drinking now, maybe now isn’t the right time to give up”.

“When its meant to be, I’ll be successful in giving up permanently”.

“Telling people I’m not smoking/drinking will be awkward. No one believes any more that I will give up for good”.

Write a balanced thought for each specific problem thought. Keep the list in your wallet, or stick it on your fridge or computer screen.

For example, instead of “When the time is right, I will give up for good. If I feel like going back to smoking or drinking now, maybe now isn’t the right time to give up”.

you might try

“Whenever I give up, its going to require that I have the skill of persisting through moments when I feel like going back to my old patterns. Now is a good time to practice that skill and build it up”.

Write down your balanced thought responses before you need them. If you’re avoiding preparing balanced thought responses because it feels difficult, realize that it will only be more difficult to try to do it in moments when your commitment is wavering. Find someone to help you if need be.

Situation cues

Situation cues are very powerful. If you always smoke or drink at Thursday night poker night then don’t arrive at poker night in a hurried, stressed out state. You’ll need some reserves of self regulatory capacity, so have a relaxed day before you go. Plan a relaxed day, or plan a way of relaxing before a known high risk situation.

Practice smoke/drink refusal.

Practice what you’re going to say before you need to say it. Say the words out loud.

I know someone who decided to tell friends she was doing a month long cleanse involving only drinking on 3 days out the week to explain why she wasn’t drinking some nights (she was trying to reduce her drinking rather than giving up entirely). This gave her enough time to firmly establish her new behaviour before she needed to give any further explanations to other people.

If you’re thinking “Telling people I’m not smoking/drinking will be awkward. No one believes any more that I will give up for good”.

you could try instead

“It might feel awkward but I can cope with a little bit of awkwardness. The awkward feelings won’t last long, and my health and well-being is important.”

End of this Post. But wait.... There's More.....