Monday, October 24, 2011

Shrink and Boo!!!: Don’t Be Scared—Do the Math™

Halloween is the beginning of the holiday season, and candy is everywhere we turn. “You better watch out” is a favorite Christmas lyric line you may want to apply beginning this week in order to keep your focus on healthy living.
In this video, psychologist Pat Arean and I talk about planning for a joyful, yet healthy Halloween. Watch the devil and Wavy Gravy discuss how to have a great time celebrating Halloween while being mindful about how to focus beyond the sweets.

Decide how often you and your children (if you have them) will get a piece of candy. Maybe you’ll have a number per day after dinner or when homework is done after school.
Who would have thought Halloween could be an opportunity to teach your kids about math and altruism? Listen as Pat describes the games they play with candy at her house.
Don’t let Halloween derail your weight loss efforts. Keep your eye on your goals at all times. Decide way before October 31 how you’ll dress up and enjoy this silly (in a good way) holiday. Get creative; plan your treats, and when its time, donate, or trade in the rest.
When it comes to healthy living, the trick is to unmask excessive treats for what they really are.

Say Boo, but not Boo hoo this Halloween!

Have a happy and healthy Halloween.

-Ellen
Ellen Resnick is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and Redwood City, California. She specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and incorporates the use of mindfulness into the treatment of depression, anxiety, and emotional overeating. She runs a holistic weight loss program called Center for Thoughtful Weight Loss, www.thoughtfulweightloss.com. You can email Ellen at ellen@thoughtfulweightloss.com and follow her on Twitter at @thoughtfullellen.
Copyright © 2011 Ellen N. Resnick, LCSW

Monday, October 10, 2011

October is Positive Attitude Month—Keep Your Eye on the Prize!

Let’s say your goal is healthier living, whether it’s weight loss, less caffeine or alcohol, or a stronger, more toned physique.
No, you don’t need to become Pollyanna to be healthy. You do need to
be accepting of what IS in this moment, while making the effort to change the things you can. These ideas come from a philosophy called ACT—acceptance and commitment therapy. In ACT we Accept, Choose and Take Action (ACT) .
Remember you can only start from where you are, not where you would like to be.

ACT is all about living our lives in alignment with our deeply held
values. Many of us say that we place a high value on health,
confidence, happiness, and connectedness with others; but we’re not
consistently doing the things that lead us there. It’s hard to do sometimes,
especially when we hit one of life’s speed bumps or obstacles along
the way.
Let’s say you’re on a HealthyWage challenge to lose weight. Reframing sabotaging thoughts (see examples below) and changing the
things you can change will help you stay the course of your wellness goals,
EVEN when you hit a bump.
You can learn not to take your negative reactions to stressors so
seriously. After all, they are just thoughts in a moment in time. You
can observe your emotional reactions and still ACT in accordance
with your values.
So “This is too hard” becomes “Yes, it feels hard to get to the gym today,
but I know once I start pedaling I’m likely to feel better, and that’s important to me.”
ACCEPT your feelings, and CHOOSE to ACT in accordance with your values (feeling better inside and out).

The energy you’ve typically put into feeling guilt, shame, doubt,
worthlessness, and hopelessness when something difficult happens can
be put into positive actions that move you closer to the prize—better
health and maybe some dollars too!
You will still have negative thoughts and emotions—that’s being
human. The difference is you can have them without the usual
self-sabotaging behaviors that have typically accompanied them. You can
feel lonely, bored, scared or whatever resulted in your mindlessly
munching on a whole bag of cookies in the past. A healthy response
is to acknowledge those feelings and surf the urges and cravings
(compassionately observe them) without giving in to them.

Yes, your feelings and food cravings will pass if you don’t feed them.

Doing so will give you confidence.
Start by defining what you want your life to be:
Is your daily behavior consistent with your values? The good news is
that IS what IS in your control.
Learn to step back and observe your automatic emotions in response to
stressful events rather than being consumed by them (and consuming
food/alcohol to numb them out).
Remove the self-limiting beliefs that stand in the way of your living a life you value.
Act in ways that promote better results for you. You may have to
behave in ways that are opposite to how you’ve been acting. It’s
likely to be uncomfortable at first.

Keep your eye on the prize at all times.

Do you need an attitude adjustment to get there?


When the prize is weight loss and improved health and well-being, here are some ways to reframe your thinking:
Go from: “I have too much weight to lose—I’ll never be able to do it” to
“I CAN always lose 5 pounds” (a way to break down larger weight loss goals
into manageable chunks).
Reframe, “I don’t care,” to “I’m feeling overwhelmed today, but I do still value
being able to hike with my friends, so I’m going to meet them at the trailhead like I said I would.”
Acknowledge the thought, “Life is rough, I’m going to treat myself
today,” and remind yourself that cupcakes are a mistreat not a treat.
“Treating myself means lowering my stress—I’ll go for a massage
instead.”
“I don’t feel like it,” can be looked at through a more positive lens—”Even
though I don’t feel like it, I can do it anyway—it’s when I need it the most.”
Don’t let failed past diet attempts derail your efforts now.
Take it as a call to action to do something different than you’ve done before.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can
alter his life by altering his attitudes. ~William James
Keep your eye on the prize at all times. You are your values…live them!!!
The ACT ideas in this blog were adapted from The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression by Strosahl and Robinson.

Have a great week!

-Ellen
Ellen Resnick is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and Redwood City, California. She specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and incorporates the use of mindfulness into the treatment of depression, anxiety, and emotional overeating. She runs a holistic weight loss program called Center for Thoughtful Weight Loss, www.thoughtfulweightloss.com. You can email Ellen at ellen@thoughtfulweightloss.com and follow her on Twitter at @thoughtfullellen.
Copyright © 2011 Ellen N. Resnick, LCSW

Monday, October 3, 2011

Ice Cream Makes You Happy (Until it Doesn’t)

Wouldn’t it be great if the messages that we’re bombarded with everyday
encouraged us to make healthy choices instead of so blatantly sabotaging our efforts?
For all of us who are using challenges to lose weight, happiness
is being re-framed. In the past we may have defined joy as coming from the momentary pleasure of a huge banana split or a giant piece of chocolate layer cake.
Sure they taste good, but we know where that got us!
Now that we’ve looked at our values-inspired reasons to lose weight, our definition of happiness is probably quite different.
The true definition of happiness is those things that provide meaning, purpose and pleasure.
Time to think out of the (ice) box!
Here are some non-food activities that often bring happiness (some
even expend calories):
  • Dancing to your favorite band
  • Listening to live music
  • Hanging out with friends
  • Reading a good book
  • Watching children play
  • Hiking in nature
  • Going to a symphony
  • Reading the Sunday Times with a good cup of coffee
  • Taking fun photos
  • Doing volunteer work
  • Writing or reading poetry
And, hey, be sure to enjoy some ice cream now and then if you truly love it. It’s OK.
But to reach your weight loss and other life goals…

Keep your eye on the prize!

If you’re happy and you know it, what do you do?

Have a great week!
—Ellen
Ellen is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and Redwood City, California. She specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and incorporates the use of mindfulness into the treatment of depression, anxiety, and emotional overeating. She runs a holistic weight loss program called Center for Thoughtful Weight Loss, www.thoughtfulweightloss.com. You can email Ellen at ellen@thoughtfulweightloss.com and follow her on Twitter at @thoughtfullellen.
Copyright © 2011 Ellen N. Resnick, LCSW