by Rita Black
I kept no accurate data on my progress, so distorted thinking and emotions sabotaged me.
My house, car, and work were booby trapped with trigger foods that I spent much of my time trying to resist and then giving in to.
The people in my life didn’t support me because I hid the fact I was even trying to lose weight.
When I began honing my environment skills, I not only changed my world, I also changed how I saw myself. I realized I could take a stand for my own health and success. I’m looking forward to you making this shift for yourself.
“I avoided the scale and what I was eating for years. I thought the scale was my enemy and that tracking my food would make me obsessed about it. So I struggled, wondering why I wasn’t progressing with my attempts at weight release. I was thinking about food all of the time. Learning the environment skills was the key to being free of my food obsession and to focus instead on success.” Mandy F. (Released 31 pounds, maintaining 28 months.)
Step up to the second level of your home of weight mastery and begin building with Skill 4 Self-Monitoring.
CHAPTER 28
WEIGHT MASTERY SKILL 4
Self-Monitoring
SKILL 4: Self-Monitoring. The skill of using your personal data (food intake, nutrient intake, exercise, weight) to stay on track for weight release, mentally and physically.
There is mounting evidence that aligns the practice of self-monitoring with long-term weight success. Over 74 percent of Weight Masters tracked their food, exercise, and weight as they released weight. Fifty percent of them continued tracking their food and weight as they maintained the release.
A lot of the pain of the weight struggle is the frustration that arises from not being able to correlate the effort you give to weight release with the results you see on the scale.
Self-monitoring allows you to release weight from a rational place rather than an emotional one.
You are now going to be free from:
Guessing. “Did I eat too much?”
Distortion. “I blew it!”
Emotional Assumptions. “I was bad.” “I hardly ate anything, so why did I gain weight?” “I must have pigged out.”
We are now going to look at self-monitoring data in two key areas of weight mastery.
1-Tracking your food and exercise each day.
2-Tracking your weight at least once a week.
1-Self-Monitoring: Tracking Your Daily Food and Exercise
Fat Thinking And Tracking Food And Exercise
Here are some comments that my clients express when I bring up tracking for the first time.
“Tracking food takes too much time.”
“I hate counting calories. It’s soooo diet-y!”
“Thin people don’t have to track their food. Why can’t I be like them?”
“Tracking makes me think too much about food.”
Maybe you share some of these sentiments? That’s okay, because whatever experience you have had with tracking has been as a Weight Struggler. Many of my clients discover that tracking becomes their favorite part of Weight Mastery. Self-monitoring their food and exercise helps them make decisions based on fact and not emotions or distorted thinking.
Thin Thinking And Tracking Food And Exercise
Here are five important reasons why tracking your food and exercise helps you shift from fat to thin thinking:
You know how much energy you are eating and burning over the week, so you can predict your weekly weight release. Unless you have a clear goal and track to achieve it, your mind can easily distort your behaviors and thwart your expectations of the scale. That leads to frustration, disappointment, and giving up. (Coming up, you’ll learn the role of the scale in tracking.)
You are free of distorted, all-or-nothing thinking. Instead you concentrate on fact-based, problem-solving thin thinking.
You won’t underestimate how much you eat and exercise. Most people underestimate how much they eat. Research shows non-dieters underestimate their food consumption by 20 to 30 percent and dieters underestimate by 50 to 100 percent. If you think you are eating only 1,200 calories a day, you may be eating 2,000 or more calories. (See Chart X)
CHART X: But I Only Ate
You make better choices and build better habits based on what works. If you don’t have the facts, you are never clear about what works for you and what doesn’t when you try to change your behavior. For instance, if you mindlessly reach for sugar every afternoon when you lose energy at 3:00 p.m. you can spot this trend in your food records. Once you are aware that the sugary snack is taking you over your Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release, you can figure out a solution like bringing in a healthier snack for that time.
You avoid the anxiety of not knowing whether or not what you are eating is causing you to gain weight. When you don’t know the energy value of what you eat, it is easy to fall prey to estimating and judging what you eat and then worrying about the impact of the food on your weight release.Many people won’t count calories because they think it makes them think too much about food. I find the more you know how many calories a food has and fit it into your budget, the more it releases you from anxiety, and you are free to truly enjoy the food.
“With the Shift Weight Mastery Process, I finally understand tracking calories from a powerful place. It’s not about being “good” on a diet and restricting myself. It’s about getting clear, getting the facts, and making adjustments so that I can release weight without mystery or drama. Self-monitoring is a skill that I now appreciate from a whole new perspective.” Josh K. (Released 27 pounds, maintaining for1 year.)
Case Study: No Way, I Am Not Doing Thaaaaaaaat!
Nancy owned a company that helped save big corporations from going under. She had a brilliant business mind, and, let me tell you, this woman was tough. When she sat down in my office, she got right to business and didn’t mince words. She said, “I want you to know that you probably aren’t going to be able to help me. No one has helped me to date.”
Nancy quickly got to the heart of the matter. “No matter what I do, I cannot shake this weight. I have tried trainers and diet programs. I was checked out medically, and I know I am healthy. I am in control of every aspect of my life except my weight, and I can’t stand it!” she said.
I told Nancy that I could guide her to help herself and that all of her skills in coaching high-level CEO’s in business could help her create her own Inner Coach. Nancy loved the Inner Coach concept. As we talked, she began to relax and even lighten up a bit. That is, until I mentioned that she would be tracking her food and exercise calories.
Her face darkened. “I am not going to do that. It’s ridiculous! I don’t have time to write down my food! Even if I did, isn’t that going to make me think about food all of the time? I did that in other diet programs, and I hated it. Can’t you just hypnotize me to hate food, so I can leave and never think about food again?” she asked.
I could clearly see Nancy’s anger, agitation, and impatience. She looked ready to hop up and leave my office, never to return. I took a deep Shift Breath and said calmly, ”Nancy, I have a question for you, if you went to a big corporation and sat down with the CEO who needed your help to save his company, what would be the first thing that you’d ask of him?”
Nancy replied immediately, “Well I would want to see that company’s monthly profit and loss and financial statements, of course. I would want to see where they were losing money, what they were spending too much on, and where was the company failing to generate revenue.”
I asked, “What if the CEO told you ’I’m sorry, we don’t bother with bookkeeping. We found it too annoying and time consuming. We just go by how we feel the company is doing.”
Nancy narrowed her eyes at me. “I would tell that CEO that he was a fool and didn’t know how to run a business. There is no w
ay I can solve the problems of his company unless I know what the problems are. Where was the money going and how much did the company make and lose each month. There is no way to assess a company’s performance without accurate recordkeeping.” As she listened to herself, she chuckled and relaxed into her chair as she realized my point. “Oh, I get it. I am that CEO. I am the fool ruining my weight loss?”
I told her, “Nancy, writing down your food and tracking may seem like a ’diet,’ but consider tracking through the eyes of the CEO of your weight release. Tracking is the only way to accurately assess why you might not be losing weight. Tracking also gives your brain the tools and incentive to perform better.”
“I get it,” she said. “People who monitor results accurately are able to improve based on their desired outcome. You are right. There is no way I could SHIFT the needle on my weight without tracking my food intake of calories and calories burned in exercise and metabolism. I am excited now. How do I start?”
Daily Tracking
I am going to insist you try tracking your food and exercise calories during the 30-Day Thin Thinking Practice to see the power and benefits of this skill. You will be convinced, I am sure! You can track manually in your own journal or on the printable worksheets provided online or you can try an app like Lose It! or My Fitness Pal.
Here is an example of an “on track” day in recordkeeping for Nancy. According to her Calorie Budget for Weight Release of 1,550 calories, she would release a pound a week. (Chart Y)
CHART Y: Nancy “On Track” Day
Here’s an example of a day when Nancy had birthday cake at an office party. (Chart Z) Oops! But see, by recordkeeping, she didn’t go into “I blew it!” mode. Instead she ate lightly at the end of the day. She was able to stay within her Calorie Budget for Weight Release. If she wasn’t tracking her food, chances are she would have said, “I blew it.” Then she would have eaten too much that day and possibly for the rest of the week.
CHART Z: Nancy Office Party Day
Weekly Tracking
If you keep tabs on your weekly calorie burn levels and not just daily ones, you avoid being pulled into the “I blew it today” cycle.
During your 30-Day Thin Thinking Practice, you will keep an ongoing record of what you eat and how you exercise. Using this weekly system for the 30 days of the process with a food and exercise app or journal you gain insight on how to problem-solve and stay consistent with weight release.
Chart AA: Nancy’s Stressful Week Weight Release Planner
Here is a week (Chart AA) where Nancy had a stressful two days (see bold numbers) at the office. She ate too much pizza Wednesday night with her team (Wednesday). The next night (Thursday) she celebrated and ate steak and drank wine. But because she was tracking, she could monitor her calorie intake, make adjustments, get back on course, and still release weight that week. Nancy was happy to feel in charge of her weight release during a stressful time.
The advantage of staying connected to yourself with tracking your food and exercise is that it keeps you in a powerful, problem-solving dialogue with your Inner Coach. When things don’t go as planned, you and your Inner Coach can decide how to solve the challenge instead of saying “I blew it!” You can learn to be okay with going over budget occasionally. When you overeat one day, you can adjust on other days and keep the total calories for the week within your Calorie Budget for Weight Release. It’s the going “off” your budget, day after day, that creates caloric damage and leads to weight gain.
Weighing and Measuring your Portions
When you first begin tracking your daily food intake, you will need to be clear on portion sizes. Food products have nutritional labels that tell you exactly how big a serving is and how many calories is in the portion. Some foods even come pre-packaged in single servings. This makes it very easy to know how many calories you are consuming. Nevertheless, you may have to measure portions, especially at first, so that you are clear on what a food’s specific portion size is.
Remember there is a tendency to underestimate the amount of calories you eat. You may think of something as “just a hundred calories” when it’s two or three hundred. These incorrect estimates add up quickly and cause frustration. You expect to have released weight, and the scale says you haven’t. It could be that the scale isn’t broken, but your eyeballs are.
There are two ways to train your eyes to know portions:
Use a food scale and measuring cups for accurate portion sizes.
Use everyday objects to estimate the size of a serving.
Use a Food Scale and Measuring Cups and Spoons for accurate portion sizes. When you begin tracking food, it helps to weigh and measure everything you eat so you know what an appropriate portion size is. Many people think they know what three ounces of fish looks like, but they are overestimating or underestimating. And what about the creamer you put in your coffee? What may seem like a tablespoon might actually be three tablespoons. The best way to know is to use measuring cups and spoons and a digital food scale. I assure you it is worth the effort and can be incredibly enlightening.
THE “BIG” APPLE
I often bring my scale to Shift Weight Mastery Process seminars to show how easy it is to be off in visual estimates. My Kitrics™ scale is great, because you put the food item on it and punch in a code number for the food. The scale will then tell you exactly how many calories are in the food on the scale.
I demonstrate by taking small, medium, and large apples, and asking the participants for calorie estimates before I weigh each apple. The small apple is around 60 calories, the medium is around 125 calories, and the large apple (The one I would always choose when any diet said “an apple.”) can be as much as 250 calories. Yes, for one apple! Participants are often amazed and amused at the difference in calories between a small and large apple.
If you picked up a big apple and said to yourself, “it’s an apple and around 80 calories.” You could be consuming over 150 extra calories and not even know it. This is what I mean about distortion. Even after years of shifting, I still put certain foods on a scale to retrain my eyes at least once a month.
Use everyday objects to estimate the size of a portion. If you don’t have your scale handy, you can eyeball portions. Here are some ideas for estimating portion size.
1 cup of cereal = baseball
2 tablespoons coffee creamer = shot glass
1 ounce of nuts = fits into the cup of your palm
1ounce of cheese = 3 small game dice
½ cup mashed potatoes = small ice cream scoop
1 tablespoon peanut butter = 2 Scrabble tiles
½ cup pasta = golf ball
3 oz. meat or fish = bar of soap
Many of my clients clear up what they think is their “slow metabolism problem” by getting out their measuring devices and accurately determining how many calories they are eating.
Nancy Took Control of her Records and Excelled
Nancy began tracking, measuring her food, and listening to hypnosis. She immediately began releasing weight, because she finally saw how many calories she was mindlessly eating. She also realized that what she thought was eating healthfully was in excess of her body’s daily calorie needs.
Nancy released 25 pounds in six months and felt on top of the world. More importantly she gained mastery in an area of life that had eluded her—managing her weight.
“The hypnosis made a huge difference to my overall shift, but I have to say that tracking my food and exercise helped me so much by changing my perceptions, calming me down, and giving me insights into behaviors I needed to change. I don’t think I would have been this successful without tracking my food and exercise and weighing myself every week.” Nancy C. (Released 25 pounds, maintaining at 2 years)
2-Self-Monitoring: Tracking Your Weight Release
The other important strategy th
at goes hand in hand with tracking your food and exercise is weighing yourself daily or weekly. Why? Without tracking your weight along with your weekly food and exercise records, it’s difficult to:
Know whether your food and exercise recordkeeping is accurate and allowing you to release weight at your desired rate.
Recognize and target issues and problem-solve when your weight release slows.
Stay in your thin thinking mind, guided by facts and not emotions.
Fat Thinking And Weighing Ourselves
Now, I understand that weighing oneself is a heated subject for many. The challenge with the scale isn’t the device itself. It’s the mind’s distorted fat thinking that happens around and on the scale. For years you may have been weighing yourself as a dieter. Now you are going to weigh yourself powerfully like a Weight Master. The difference is not on the scale; it’s in your head. Maybe you have fallen into one of these groups that struggle with the scale:
You weigh yourself regularly hoping the scale will be down. Since you haven’t been keeping food and exercise records, you have no idea what the number on the scale should be. So, you often are disappointed when you get on the scale and it’s not the news you want.
You weigh yourself obsessively while you are trying to lose weight. The problem with running to the scale to see if there is any action is that you are now putting the focus only on the numbers and not on creating long-lasting changes in your thinking and habits.
You have thrown away your scale and go by the fit of your clothes. This tactic may seem sound, but clothes are unreliable and inaccurate, since they stretch and shrink with washing and dry cleaning. By not weighing yourself, you are still giving power to the scale.
Thin Thinking and Weighing Yourself
According to the National Weight Control Registry, 75 percent of Weight Masters weighed themselves once a day or once a week, while releasing weight.