DAY 4: Good Job!

Today's step in the program is giving yourself credit for your good behaviors and hard work.

This chapter of the book may have been written just for me; I "do have a tendency to focus on the negative, berating [myself] for everything [I] do wrong". I can see that it's important to give myself credit for the things I do right, to "reinforce [my] self-confidence and build an awareness that [I'm] strong and in control". This would be a good thing for me in general, but specifically, it will keep me strong on my diet. I'm just not sure it'll be easy.

As Dr. Beck suggests, I'm creating a credit account, depositing a quarter for every positive behavior I congratulate myself on and also a quarter for every day I complete everything on my To-do list. With the proceeds, I'll buy myself dinner at my favorite restaurant at the end of the program.

As a reminder to give myself credit, I wrote CREDIT on a bright green Post-It and stuck it on the fridge next to my ARC reminder and my SIT reminder.

But a monetary reward and a Post-It note aren't enough to overcome a lifetime of half-empty glasses. So I also created 2 more Response Cards:

Sabotaging Thought: I don't deserve credit for doing things I should already be doing.
Helpful Response: If I don't give myself credit for essential behaviors, I'll be less likely to practice these behaviors consistently. If I were naturally thin, had a small appetitie, and didn't have to work at controlling my weight, perhaps I wouldn't deserve credit. But I'm not naturally thin. I do struggle. I do deserve credit every single time I think about something in a helpful way or engage in helpful behavior.

Sabotaging Thought: I don't deserve credit until I've lost all the weight that I want to lose.
Helpful Response: It's counterproductive to wait. I need to strengthen the part of my mind that believes I can follow the program. I'm only human and might stray from my plan from time to time. When this happens, a sense of helplessness might kick in. Continually building my confidence by giving myself credit can protect me from feeling helpless and hopeless and from throwing in the towel. And, actually, the process of losing weight is the hardest part. Once I've learned the skills I need, maintaining my weight will be easier. So I deserve lots of credit now, while I'm working the hardest.

I'm nervous about this step, because a lifetime of negative thinking can't be undone overnight. I'm not even sure it can be undone in the next 6 weeks, but I do believe it's important to my dieting success to recognize my triumphs along the way. And that's the first thing I can give myself credit for!