I attribute this mostly to our session right before Thanksgiving, where the topic was “Changing our Thinking.”  We were given an excerpt from Dr. Phil’s book, The Ultimate Weight Solution. 

In the chapter we read,  Dr. Phil gives 10 examples of faulty thinking, some of which are self-explanatory, such as “all-or-nothing thinking” (“I’ve already blown it this week on that piece of pecan pie, so I might as well eat the whole pie.”) or “catastrophizing” (“If I don’t succeed on this weight management program, I’m doomed to be fat for life.”) or ”pipe dreaming” that sets us up for disappointment (“Maybe at the end of this program, I’ll look just like Jennifer Anniston!”).  Some are less obvious, such as “externalizing/ internalizing.”  This is a key one.  We were asked to figure out where our “weight focus of control is,”  i.e. internal, external or chance.  Do we assume that both our weight gain and weight loss are under our control (internal) or do we see it as the result of external factors (“being fat runs in my family” or “there was just too much good food on that table”) or do we see it as due to chance (“Being overweight is just my bad luck.  There’s nothing I can do about it.”)  I felt very smug to realize that mine is internal, since this is supposed to be the best, until I realized that this perspective can also get you in trouble, if you take it too far.  After all,  if you assume you are completely in control, you can also end up feeling totally guilty/shameful if you slip up a little bit, and that can lead to another kind of “faulty thinking,”  i.e. “frustration thinking” (“It’s too hard.  It’s easier to stay fat.”).

The other types are “labeling” (believing the labels people have given us, so we don’t believe any evidence to the contrary), “gut-level reasoning” (“I feel fat, so I must look fat.”),  “fortune telling” (“This won’t work.  I’ll fail.”) “self-downing” (“I can’t lose weight because I don’t have any self-control.”) and “poor me thinking” (“Life is too short to suffer and deprive myself, especially when everyone else around me can eat and not get fat!”)

It was fascinating to me to realize that, to some extent, I’ve had different versions of most of these types of faulty thinking going on in my head my whole life.  They may not have been as dramatic as some of Dr. Phil’s examples, but they were there, lurking under the surface, just waiting to trip me up.  So, I found it very encouraging to think there’s something I can do about them.  According to Dr. Phil, the important first step is to make the process conscious and challenge those thoughts by putting them to these tests:  1) is the internal dialogue true? 2) does it serve my best interests? 3)does it advance and protect my health? and 4) is it helping me achieve my weight-management goals?  If I answer no to any of these, then it’s time to change my thinking, which is hard.  In a nutshell, that means that, instead of saying “I have to exercise 4-5 times a week,” I would say, “I choose to exercise 4-5 times a week” or “I like to exercise 4-5 times a week because it is making me healthy.”  Instead of saying, “I hope I can get through Christmas dinner without overeating,” I would say, “I will get through Christmas dinner without overeating because my health is important to me.” It’s a little corny at first, but I can tell you that, based on my experience with Thanksgiving dinner, it works!  Every time I felt deprived or hopeless, I decided to keep saying this mantra in my head:  ”I’m choosing to do this for my health.” Over and over again.  It may sound trite, but it works!

The following are what I consider the two most important sentences in Dr. Phil’s book:  “It’s my choice, and I can do something about it.” and “There are no victims, only volunteers.” Onward and upward to Week 8!