Jul 24, 2016

Balancing thoughts for long-term health goals – Brainerd Dispatch

Overcoming negative or self-defeating thoughts is part of staying the course and maintaining the weight loss and health goals.

The hundreds of people who signed up for Your Energized Year are through the once-a-week meetings after 16 weeks along with the program and are now meeting at least monthly through the remainder of the year-long program.

To help participants and others who are interested in health and fitness, Crow Wing Energized is hosting monthly sessions at the Brainerd Library as part of the Lunch and Learn series.

Last week, Joanna Collins, lifestyle coach, addressed the National Diabetes Prevention Program ways to counter self-defeating thoughts.

Examples of self-defeating thoughts included:

• Be either perfect on healthy eating or workout goals, or be a finish failure. Counter: Falling to temptation for those cookies or making a few bad choices is not the same as failure.

• Jumping to conclusions, such as saying since eating that piece of chocolate today, now reaching any healthy eating goals is impossible. This approach may then open the door to finishing off the entire bag of chocolate or going on to add to calorie count by thinking the healthy food choices may as well go out the window. “I don’t have actually to be perfect. I make healthy food choices most of the time.”

• Discounting positives. Falling short of 150 minutes of exercise each week shouldn’t mean discounting the 100 minutes of walking that did happen. Give credit for each positive action. It’s more likely the activity numbers will increase if building on the positive efforts of getting up and moving instead of focusing on the numbers not reached.

• Beware of food myths such as being able to eat anything as long as it doesn’t happen after 9 p.m. The National Diabetes Prevention Program notes a calorie is a calorie, no matter when it is consumed. Look at the total intake for the day.

• It’s OK to eat as a remedy to being stressed out. Emotional eating is a habit to break, the NDPP reports, advising finding ways to cope along with tension in healthier ways than breaking open the treats. Exercise and meditation are recommended as healthier options to work off tension and deal along with tension.

• Eating is out of control and activity has actually fallen off. For those who may have actually strayed from their plan to live healthier by eating better and getting more exercise, the good news is a plan can be rebooted anytime to get back on for a fresh start. If weight-loss efforts have actually stalled, look back at the plan’s beginning—reset—and start again along with watching calorie and fat intake, recording what is consumed, setting up a plan to be more active each day—even in 10-minute increments. Add exercise in the morning before those plans to spend that time on yourself is carried away by demands of the day. Make a deal along with yourself to exercise during commercials. Plan to walk 30 minutes each day.

What’s next?

Next Lunch and Learn event—Healthy Eating: Taking it one meal at a time, along with Billie Linstad and Julie Florell, is noon to 1 p.m., Aug. 18, at the Brainerd Public Library. Participants are invited to bring their lunch and share in the conversation. Can’t be there in person? Follow along along with the tips on social media through real-time posts via the Brainerd Dispatch Twitter and Facebook pages.

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