Weight Loss Understanding the pscylogy and sabatoge of weight | Page 11

i The Book in Overview The second week of a diet is always easier than the first . By the second week you ' re off it . Jackie Gleason One of my clients told me the story of how his wife found him eating his favorite high in sugar , low in food brightly colored cereal for breakfast only a few weeks into this new eating lifestyle . With some glee she smugly remarked , ‘ So , the all-singing all-dancing new “ low sacrifice eating lifestyle ” has already gone the way of all your previous diets !’ Tony ( as with all the cases I will describe in this book , his name and other identifying details have been changed for confidentiality reasons ) responded , ‘ This may be hard for you to believe , but this is my new eating lifestyle . We need to eat certain foods for no other reason than because we love them . It doesn ’ t matter if they are less nutritious than the packet they came in . In fact , Dr George has actually prescribed this brightly colored cereal of no known nutritional value and told me that if I don ’ t eat them I ’ ll be in trouble . If I were to deprive myself of them , I would crave them . Once I crave them , I ’ m on the slippery slope to rebelling and sabotaging my weight loss . I can show you the prescription if you don ’ t believe me .’ His wife was not convinced . ‘ You have got to be joking ?! What sort of a diet allows you to eat that rubbish for breakfast ??’ ‘ It ’ s not actually a diet – there are no foods that I can ’ t eat if I really want them . In fact , one of the keys to the psychology of weight loss is that if you don ’ t continue to eat your favorite – or what Dr George calls your “ High Sacrifice ” – foods your unconscious will ultimately sabotage the program . You know it makes sense . We both know that in the past I have deprived myself of foods I love and then ended up bingeing on them ! And , by the way , while we ’ re at it : I ’ ve been eating chocolate for morning tea at work !’