Response Cards

The only way to lose weight permanently is to learn dieting skills and practice them every day. Then dieting will get easier and easier.

I'm choosing to say NO CHOICE. If I want to lose weight, I have to do what I need to do, not what I feel like doing.

When dieting seems unfair, I remind myself that I am not alone. This is how all successful dieters and maintainers eat. I have a choice. I can let a sense of unfairness overwhelm me, cheat on my diet, and gain weight. Or I can accept that this is what I have to do if I want all of the benefits of permanent weight loss.

It is true that I don't care at this very moment. But if I eat this unplanned food, I am going to care quite a lot in just a few minutes. I know I will feel really bad if I give in, but I will feel terrific if I resist. I need to go do something else!

My weight isn't who I am. It isn't a measure of my worth. It's just a number that tells me important information.

I have to eat every bite slowly, while sitting down, so I can fully enjoy it. It's worth developing this lifetime habit so that I can have a lifetime of being thinner.

I really do deserve credit for breaking old habits, and it is essential for building my confidence. Once my confidence grows, everything will become so much easier.

Exercise is not negotionable for good health. I need to make it a daily lifetime habit. The hardest part of getting started. I'll feel so much better when i'm done. So get started!

Remember that five minutes of exercise is better then zero minutes

Hunger is never an emergency. It's only mildly uncomfortable. I can tolerate it. It will come and go.

If I feel hungry after a meal, I'll feel full within 20 minutes. I don't need to eat more, and I always feel so much better when I don't overeat.

Even though I feel like eating more, it's worth it to me to stop now. I really want all the advantages in my Advantages Deck to come true. Besides, the desire will go away once I get involvedin something else.

Extra food wil always go to waste, either in the trash or in my body.

Emotions are not an emergency. I don't have to ear. I can tolerate this feeling. Eating won't solve this problem. It will only makethings worse because then I have two problems: the original one, plus feeling weak, guilty, discouraged, and worried that I may have gained weight.

NO CHOICE.

Let it go

"I don't want to" is just my adolescent rebellion talking. Im not going to pay attention to it.

If Im not supposed to eat something, I will remind myself, just because I feel like eating doesn't mean I should....there is no emergency....I'll be so glad in a few minutes if I don't give in

Successful dieters and maintainers stay successful because they don't eat whatever they want, when ever they want it. They stick to their plan.

Every time I resist eating something I'm not supposed to have, I strengthen my resistance muscle--which will make it easier and easier and easier to resist in the future.

Every time I eat something I'm not supposed to eat, I strengthen my giving-in muscle--which makes it more likely that I will give in the next time... And the next time....and the next time.

If I eat this unplanned food, I'll get momentary pleasure, but then I'll definetly feel bad afterward. It's not worth it!

Either I deprive myself of eating this food today or it's highly likely that I will deprive myself forever of all of the advantages of losing weight.

If I want to lose excess weight forever, I need to stick to my plan --no ifs, ands, or buts.

I can always plan to eat this food tomorrow.