Know Thyself

Talk therapy: It works!

As you know, I have been going to the library lately and getting my hands on as many books as I can find on emotional eating. I've talked about the "Three Legged Stool" for weight  maintenance my clinic educates us about: The physical exercise leg; the calorie intake/portion control leg; and the emotional behavior leg. I think we can all get a handle on the physical exercise and calorie counting on our own and with help from the clinic, but when it comes to understanding the reasons why we overate -- what drives the behavior -- well, this is an area that I think we need some different experts to help us. By this I mean talk therapists. Your clinic may have a psychologist on staff but ours does not. And I suspect the reason some people plow their weight back on after losing it with the products is the stool collapsed because the emotional behavior leg gave way.

When I reached goal and began to transition off of the products, my anxiety level went through the roof. Now that's just me, and I have an anxiety disorder, but I'm guessing other people went through this/will go through this as well. The sheer terror of gaining my weight back rattled me greatly (still does to this day) and I've spoken about this frequently in my blog. That has led to constant vigilance in my eating followed by strange mini-binges on the weekend. I took this straight to my talk therapist (and I tell Millie about it too) and immediately went to the library to check out as many books as I could find on emotional eating. I'm not going to attempt to navigate through this minefield on my own. I'm over my head. And I need help.

Some might say therapy is expensive -- to which I reply you spent a heck of a lot of money on Optifast. Why blow it and flush it down the drain? Manage your expenses to find the resources to fund your therapy visits. Obesity is a killer -- we are carving years off the back end of our lives (not to mention face outrageous healthcare bills) if we do not bring it under control. Therapy is hard sometimes, can be very painful at times. But it works. This is an investment in yourself, just like Optifast is. And it reaps dividends. No doubt about it.

Learning to "know ourselves" is critical. Actually, I'd advise you to start educating yourself while you are on product. Begin your therapy, start reading books. I like the old fashioned way of browsing the stacks at the public library, but there is always Amazon.com. Search "emotional eating" and "overeating" and see what comes up. You may see reference to "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" which is a method designed to change your behavioral way of thinking. My therapy is based on this. See what's out there. And improve your odds of keeping your weight off for good.

No one wants to gain their weight back after reaching goal with the Optifast products. Yet so many do. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they never figured out why they binge/eat salt, sugar and fat; what feelings they are trying to manage or suppress; who they are trying to please; why they might be perfectionists or "black and white thinkers"; and why they struggle with low self-esteem. Just to name a few things. Help with figuring all this out is available. Go find it. Make your therapy appointment, get a hold of your books. Your success in weight management depends upon it.