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Authors: Mike Dow, Antonia Blyth
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and lifestyle.
3. Go to the list of pitfall foods on pages 213 and 228. Identify which are part of your current regime.
4. Look at the outline on page 50. Select the correct number of booster foods and activities to add and pitfall foods to subtract over the twenty-eight days.
Those are the basics. Add booster foods and activities, gradually increasing them over the twenty-eight days, and, two weeks into the program, start cutting back on your pitfalls until you’re down to only two or fewer per day (one pitfall serving is about 300 calories, so you’re down to a maximum of 600 calories in pitfalls). If you’d like some additional support in avoiding pitfall types of thinking and adding booster thought patterns, continue reading this chapter.
Pitfall Thought Patterns: The 7 P’s to Avoid
As a cognitive-behavioral therapist, I specialize in identifying thought patterns. You could boil my whole profession down to one simple sentence: Thinking in certain types of patterns makes us feel better, while thinking in other types of patterns makes us feel worse. As a therapist, I help my patients identify the thought patterns that get them into trouble and encourage them to reframe their thoughts into a more helpful approach.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is actually an integral part of Diet Rehab, because pitfall thoughts hurt your brain chemistry and are also more likely to be a result of low levels of serotonin and dopamine—another example of a downward spiral.
How do pitfall thoughts erode your stores of serotonin and dopamine? By feeding your anxiety, self-doubt, hopelessness, and despair, which lead to behaviors that cause more of these unpleasant feelings. Pitfall thoughts can make you feel helpless, worthless, and unsafe, and they can contribute to feeling stuck, trapped, and bored. As we have seen, these are the feelings that accompany insufficient stores of serotonin and dopamine, which is precisely the brain-chemistry condition that sends you running for cheeseburgers and cheesecake to boost your mood. In fact, even if your diet is filled with terrific booster foods, pitfall thoughts can undo your good habits and push you toward your fat or sugar fix.
Luckily, there is a way to reframe pitfall thoughts, so let me show you how it’s done. Then, in the next section, I’ll help you identify booster attributes that can raise your serotonin and dopamine levels—and fill your life with joy.
Pitfall #1: Personalization
Personalization is when you assume that something is happening because of you. Of course, sometimes you are responsible for a problem or a situation, and then you should realize that and own it. But the personalization pitfall comes into play when you have no explanation or another explanation—yet you still choose the one that involves blaming yourself.
PITFALL THOUGHTS:
“They didn’t call me for an interview. I’m not smart enough.”
“He didn’t call me because I’m too fat.”
“This diet isn’t working because I have no self-control.”
REFRAMED THOUGHTS:
“I really would have liked that job, so I’ll keep looking. Perhaps they had already hired someone else.”
“I don’t know why he didn’t call me—maybe he’s busy, insecure, or interested in someone else he met before me.”
“This diet isn’t working—maybe it’s time I did things differently and looked at what I need to change.”
Here’s how you can tell if you personalize something: Just about every explanation for anything that goes wrong begins and ends with you not being good enough.
This kind of thinking can get you into trouble, because in pretty much any circumstance, you’re usually only one part of the equation, and your failures and shortcomings are only one part of you. Personalization blocks out all the aspects of life and relationships that are about other people or circumstances in general. Blaming yourself and taking things personally makes you feel hopeless, helpless,
3. Go to the list of pitfall foods on pages 213 and 228. Identify which are part of your current regime.
4. Look at the outline on page 50. Select the correct number of booster foods and activities to add and pitfall foods to subtract over the twenty-eight days.
Those are the basics. Add booster foods and activities, gradually increasing them over the twenty-eight days, and, two weeks into the program, start cutting back on your pitfalls until you’re down to only two or fewer per day (one pitfall serving is about 300 calories, so you’re down to a maximum of 600 calories in pitfalls). If you’d like some additional support in avoiding pitfall types of thinking and adding booster thought patterns, continue reading this chapter.
Pitfall Thought Patterns: The 7 P’s to Avoid
As a cognitive-behavioral therapist, I specialize in identifying thought patterns. You could boil my whole profession down to one simple sentence: Thinking in certain types of patterns makes us feel better, while thinking in other types of patterns makes us feel worse. As a therapist, I help my patients identify the thought patterns that get them into trouble and encourage them to reframe their thoughts into a more helpful approach.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is actually an integral part of Diet Rehab, because pitfall thoughts hurt your brain chemistry and are also more likely to be a result of low levels of serotonin and dopamine—another example of a downward spiral.
How do pitfall thoughts erode your stores of serotonin and dopamine? By feeding your anxiety, self-doubt, hopelessness, and despair, which lead to behaviors that cause more of these unpleasant feelings. Pitfall thoughts can make you feel helpless, worthless, and unsafe, and they can contribute to feeling stuck, trapped, and bored. As we have seen, these are the feelings that accompany insufficient stores of serotonin and dopamine, which is precisely the brain-chemistry condition that sends you running for cheeseburgers and cheesecake to boost your mood. In fact, even if your diet is filled with terrific booster foods, pitfall thoughts can undo your good habits and push you toward your fat or sugar fix.
Luckily, there is a way to reframe pitfall thoughts, so let me show you how it’s done. Then, in the next section, I’ll help you identify booster attributes that can raise your serotonin and dopamine levels—and fill your life with joy.
Pitfall #1: Personalization
Personalization is when you assume that something is happening because of you. Of course, sometimes you are responsible for a problem or a situation, and then you should realize that and own it. But the personalization pitfall comes into play when you have no explanation or another explanation—yet you still choose the one that involves blaming yourself.
PITFALL THOUGHTS:
“They didn’t call me for an interview. I’m not smart enough.”
“He didn’t call me because I’m too fat.”
“This diet isn’t working because I have no self-control.”
REFRAMED THOUGHTS:
“I really would have liked that job, so I’ll keep looking. Perhaps they had already hired someone else.”
“I don’t know why he didn’t call me—maybe he’s busy, insecure, or interested in someone else he met before me.”
“This diet isn’t working—maybe it’s time I did things differently and looked at what I need to change.”
Here’s how you can tell if you personalize something: Just about every explanation for anything that goes wrong begins and ends with you not being good enough.
This kind of thinking can get you into trouble, because in pretty much any circumstance, you’re usually only one part of the equation, and your failures and shortcomings are only one part of you. Personalization blocks out all the aspects of life and relationships that are about other people or circumstances in general. Blaming yourself and taking things personally makes you feel hopeless, helpless,
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