Everyday Systems

Recently I learned about performance statements. It's something you repeat to yourself throughout the day and keep top of mind. They may be something like these:

When I feel like having seconds, sweets, or snacks, I will remember that having regular meals helps keep me healthy. Or,

When I feel like having a cookie at the office, I will enjoy a delicious cup of tea instead

The key is to replace a bad habit with a good one, and the replacement should always be positive (i.e. avoid using the word "don't").

I've found this to be a surprisingly helpful tool. Does anyone else have any other mind tricks they use?

For some reason, when I repeat "no snacks, no sweets, no seconds," to myself, silently, I touch my thumb to my pinky (no snacks), ring finger (no sweets), and then middle finger (no seconds). You might see me do this, silently, when I am offered food or see food out at the office. It helps ground me.

Jenji, that sounds like something from NLP. It's a good tactic.

I used a lot of the thought recommendations from Judith Beck's book, or variations of them. Such as:

"If I give in to this urge, I'll keep this 40-year overeating habit going. I really don't want to live like that for the rest of my life. Just wait for the nice meal I have planned."

"This may feel uncomfortable now, but I'll feel uncomfortable later if I eat now. I'll do something else until it's time to eat."

"I've always given up when it got hard, but if I always do that, I'll never get a handle on this. Stick to the plan when it's the hardest and I'll get the biggest payoff."

Oolala, what is NLP?
I like these encouraging thoughts.

Neurolinquistic programming. It's been pooh poohed, and I'm no big advocate, but it says that it's good to pair a kinesthetic cue with a thought. If you do it enough, then even just the touch cue can be enough. That idea may not be confined to NLP. It kind of makes sense. Certainly the urge to eat has been paired with countless cues. The meal structure opposes them all, and thus can trigger a ton of them! And having a little extra internal (spoken) opposition and an opposite ritual are fair defenses.

oolala53 wrote:Certainly the urge to eat has been paired with countless cues. The meal structure opposes them all, and thus can trigger a ton of them!

This insight helps me understand in part why it's so hard sometimes to do something that seems so simple. Thank you for articulating this so well!