Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just eat healthier, sticking to a new diet is tough. Because you’re not just breaking one eating habit but you’re building a new one at the same time.
“My clinical approach with my clients is to gradually change a few number of factors first. Because we have a finite amount of willpower, and the more things we remove…the harder it is” says J.k Ryan Fuller, PhD, a clinical psychologist and executive director of New York Behavioral Health who specializes in weight loss.
Breaking habits — especially the kind that trigger your brain’s reward centers, like when you gorge on ice cream — takes time and effort.
Here are the strategies that clinical psychologists who specialize in weight loss recommend if you want to change your diet habits in a safe, sustainable way.
How to break the habit of a poor diet
“I advise people not even to call it a diet. That brings up all kinds of negative emotions and expectations, such as deprivation, rules, food logs, etc,” says Kimberly M. Daniels, PsyD, who specializes in overeating and weight issues. Visit https://observer.com/.
Daniels explains that when it comes to breaking bad habits, it is helpful to think of current habits in terms of self-care.
“Binge eating ice cream every night would easily be defined as a bad habit, but people do that to soothe or comfort themselves. So it’s actually self-care. Self-care that doesn’t get you anywhere good, but still self-care.”
Daniels recommends trying to uncover why you are performing this self-care habit by asking yourself some questions.
- If you’re eating ice cream every night, why?
- What are you avoiding?
- What are you distracting yourself from?
- Why do you feel the need to comfort yourself in that way?
Once you understand your reasons more clearly, you can start to address the real cause of the behavior and break the bad habit. For example, “if you’re eating ice cream every night because you’re lonely, how can you boost your social connections?” says Daniels.
Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just eat healthier, sticking to a new diet is tough. Because you’re not just breaking one eating habit but you’re building a new one at the same time.
“My clinical approach with my clients is to gradually change a few number of factors first. Because we have a finite amount of willpower, and the more things we remove…the harder it is” says J. Ryan Fuller, PhD, a clinical psychologist and executive director of New York Behavioral Health who specializes in weight loss.
Breaking habits — especially the kind that trigger your brain’s reward centers, like when you gorge on ice cream — takes time and effort.
Here are the strategies that clinical psychologists who specialize in weight loss recommend if you want to change your diet habits in a safe, sustainable way. l
How to break the habit of a poor diet
“I advise people not even to call it a diet. That brings up all kinds of negative emotions and expectations, such as deprivation, rules, food logs, etc,” says Kimberly M. Daniels, PsyD, who specializes in overeating and weight issues.
Daniels explains that when it comes to breaking bad habits, it is helpful to think of current habits in terms of self-care.
“Binge eating ice cream every night would easily be defined as a bad habit, but people do that to soothe or comfort themselves. So it’s actually self-care. Self-care that doesn’t get you anywhere good, but still self-care.”
Daniels recommends trying to uncover why you are performing this self-care habit by asking yourself some questions.
- If you’re eating ice cream every night, why?
- What are you avoiding?
- What are you distracting yourself from?
- Why do you feel the need to comfort yourself in that way?
Once you understand your reasons more clearly, you can start to address the real cause of the behavior and break the bad habit. For example, “if you’re eating ice cream every night because you’re lonely, how can you boost your social connections?” says Daniels.
Deep down inside, all hunters want the Spirit Beast…
Sure, I have a full stable, but, that warp stalker? The one I love to pieces? Sure, he can go! For a sparkly snow leopard (have I mentioned I love snow leopards?), I’d give my soul!
Haven’t ever used vent (no need, yet), but I’d totally say “Oh Snap” on it in those situations. 😛
“You can’t decide whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that your third attempt at playing a paladin… might actually result in something this time.”
QFT
I’m so with you on number 1 <3 Kara.
I’m with you on number 8 too, though with my druid…
I’ve done 15 *oh the shame*
How Pike does that make me? 😀
@ Eresin – should I make Members’ Only jackets?
Great Idea!
🙂
Haha Yeah my girlfriend is the same way with number 1 lol
I also loved Karazhan’s music. I’m a music major, so I make sure to play with th game music at all times… except in battlegrounds. Then it’s time for some Days of Ruin.
That, and Karazhan had the Opera event. I loved the opera event!
Plus, I felt useful at Moroes. Chain trapping = fun times.
Oh Kara… oh the memories. I even have (embarrassing) screenshots.
And…
7.) And you think a screenshot of a gnome doing said transmutation while standing next to an Arcane Guardian would be the funniest thing of all time.
You win the internets. <3
I’ve done #4, despite being neither an herbalist nor a miner to no avail. However, randomly flying by a spawn point at midnight to turn in a Frenzyheart daily +18 seconds later=one happy hunter.
I lol’d at #7. Someone needs to do this.
Pfft, I’d like to see you say that next to mine. 😉
Incorrect. Have absolutely no desire for it. Ayamiss > Loque, any day of the week.
My fiance does #10 regularly. Mostly when he knows I’m looking at trade chat. The ensuing drama is always entertaining!
By the way? I miss Kara, too. 🙁
Sorry, Rilgon, I should have specified. -removes foot from mouth-
All Beastmaster Hunters want Loque. You can forgive me for the slip, four years of “every person that plays X class is exactly the same” in FFXI causes me to generalise things a bit, even with this whole different specs in each class nonsense!
I’m resisting the temptation cause it means abandoning one of my other precious pets (Cause I’m a sap like that.), but, damnit, he’s so awesome.
Pike, you are Awesome! 😛 I also miss Kara… it’s just so much prettier than Naxx!
Next time I’m pugging on my hunter, I’ll try out your LFG note and see if it gets me anywhere… 😉
#17 makes me smile 😀
I would go so far as to say that the majority of movie and game scores today are inspired by Holst. The man was just a good composer (and not just The Planets, I would also recommend his First and Second Suites for military band.)
I miss Karazhan too. Especially, the book finding competition. I had this macro on hotbar
/say BOOK MINE!
/squee! I feel the same why you do about the “ner!” I’m totally excited that I get to THINK again while playing!
Two more to add to your repertoire- “Awesome Possum” (a personal fav) and instead of OMG, try OME- Oh my Elune! teeeheee.
I’m so sad about Kara- I turned on the music in Naxx to see what it was like only to abruptly turn it off. We were in the plague quarter and it sounded like someone playing violin with a strangled cat. no happi. At least the rest of NR has really good music. ( <3 crystalsong forest)
You guys are insane, the compositions in Naxx are supurb. Not to say that Kara’s music wasn’t great, but nothing really compares to the skittering terror that the music in the spider wing instills in my gut.
OMG! Someone else thinks about the origins of the music too! <3!
My LFG note usually says “Aggro-responsible(tm) without a noisy pet”.
I used to think mages were bad jumping around firing off all manner of instant-cast spells in Stormwind but hunters are taking OVER the Noisy Asylum! Guns! Devilsaurs! Male night elves feigning death and going “YAAAAAAAAARGH!” like we’re ALL really impressed.
Oh my!
:O
“I AM THE DEFENDER OF THE LIGHT AND ALL THAT IS HOLY. AND DIRT.”
Kinna wielded that shovel for a while. Ah, fond memories.
Was in Kara last week, taking me non-raiding friends ta see the sights. Woulda invited ya if’n I coulda.
I miss kara, I look forward to the days when I can go back and solo it with my Gorilla.
Pike, you can keep trying to convince yourself that you don’t want the spirit beast, but you can’t fight that feeling of envy and awe when you walk into a major city and see some other hunter with your pet. /sigh.
As for hunter dissertations, I think we all tend to do that, but especially hunters. No one in my guild wants to hear my rants/aspirations as a hunter. I don’t understand why everybody in WoW aren’t excited about freeze trapping, gorilla tanking, spirit beasts, etc, etc. What is their problem???
# 15= my sister :O
Same skins too, she had a lion trio. She has since given up on the yellow one, but still has the black and white ones.
I say “oh, snap” all the time, does that get me a membership?
I am so totally gonna steal your LFG line and see if it works. Especially since it looks like I’ll be running heroic UK for a long time (lvl 80 hunter with Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix- wtb new bow plzkthx).
I do the same as #4, except I don’t even have the herbing excuse, my hunter is skinning/LWing. Maybe I can say I’m leather farming? (tho that’s kinda hard to do from wyvern-back)
The last time I had to put something in my LFG tag it was “I am engineered for Smack Laying in a downward direction”.
And it got me no invites, but a TON of confused questions.
<3 Holst
Heya Pike, just wanted to say that I like what you do! Even been thinking of doing my own hunter blog.. 🙂 It’s just that I enjoy playing WoW more than writing about it. But I also like reading about it.. Strange..
I also accidentially printed out all 17 pages of your blog! It’s a sign!
I also like alchemy but I send all my flowers to my shammie and let him deal with all the dirt.
Have you ever wondered how the agility potion tastes like? Maybe like redbull mixed with speed? Hmm..
Again, keep up the good stuff!
P.S. A request? Movies, not like BRK but like Pike.. Maybe 🙂
@ Yo – you are free to check out my YouTube account, I have several WoW movies there: http://www.youtube.com/user/Pikestaff
@ Myze – I am a fan of St. Paul’s Suite myself…
Cookies beat 2000 dps unbuffed *always*
Cookies…I haz ’em…
(nom nom nom nom)
@Faulsey
Nah, I really have no intrest in it. I just don’t like the look of it… If it was black/red or black/fel green…. then I’ld be all over it…
Hehe, I used the Goblin Power shovel for about 10 levels on my druid, love that er…mace.
Military Suite #2 in F Major by Holst is My favourite, along with Mars.
The first one is largely because I played it, and I had the really long solo in the first movement. I still have a vendetta against that solo, and it’s my quest to perfect the thing!
Oh, here’s hoping your move goes smoothly! =D
About #3, I totally feel ya there. (Well, to an extent, you see.) I’ve been playing a Marksman hunter since 2005, and I fell so heavily into the glorious game of shot rotations – lots of toys~! – and then I decided to make two more hunters, one a Beast Master and another a Survivalist (because I just CAN’T bear to respec my beloved Marksman cow!), and I keep finding myself OOM on my Beast Master hunter and I always wondered why… until I read #3 and went, ‘DOH! I keep using Marksman tricks on a Beast Master hunter!’ I’m smart, no? XD
“6.) And you make really dorky Fullmetal Alchemist jokes in /guild or Ventrilo anytime you transmute something.
7.) And you think a screenshot of a gnome doing said transmutation while standing next to an Arcane Guardian would be the funniest thing of all time.”
You, Pike m’dear, are WIN.
I must know – Vic or Travis?? (Or if you aren’t as rabid a fan as I am, Ed or Roy? :P) And now I will have to find a way to con a guildie into doing just that screenshot for me… blonde hair and everything. Somehow. /plots
Great blog, found it today and went through your favorite posts on the right. 🙂
on another note, good Karma and cookies outweigh 2k DPS… You can join my raid anytime!
Vel