Mental tips and tricks

Shadowsan

Hi all,

A lot of the things I see on the forums are people asking for tips and tricks to combat their mental state as opposed to their physical state.

So I thought this thread might be a good opportunity for people to state their coping mechanisms for common issues.

It'll come under some format for consistency:

What: <i.e. what the issue is that your coping mechanism helps>
Technique: <what your coping mechanism is>
Why: <what psychological mechanism your coping mechanism is actually triggering>
Further info/reading: <any relevant reading or info - even a wikipedia page will do>

I'm happy enough to start as an example:


What: I'm lacking self-confidence in my physical appearance

Technique: Look at yourself in the mirror... Pretend to act real serious and look at yourself cold dead in the eye and then state "I am the *kitten*/Goddamn i'm sexy/Looking good!/etc" and try to keep a straight face.

Continue to state things like this directly to yourself in the mirror every day until you can really do it without laughing at yourself or smirking.

Once you've finished and you can do it without smirking or trying to not look at yourself in the eye, you'll genuinely believe in yourself and that confidence will shine through, and generate success which will make you even more confident and it'll snowball.

Why: Referred commonly as "fake it till you make it" - It's the process of imitating confidence and extroversion until that confidence/extroversion promotes success, reinforcing that confidence.

Further info/reading:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_it_till_you_make_it
https://linkedin.com/pulse/confidence-9-ways-fake-til-you-make-bernard-marr-5985898918502821888

Shadowsan

Here's another one:

What: I struggle to estimate portion sizes

Technique: Put the amount you intend to eat into MFP first, get your scales, then put the food on your plate, estimating how much you think that amount should be. Then take a picture. Then weigh it. If it's not correct, adjust it, then put it back on the plate and take another picture.

The longer you do this, the more accurate you'll get at measuring by eye.

Why: The process of trying to get it right and learning when you get it wrong actually resets your expectation of what a portion size is. It also provides positive reinforcement the closer you get, which motivates you even more to become more accurate.

Further info/reading:
https://addi.ehu.es/handle/10810/13903

My_Butt

What: I snack when I'm bored.

Technique: drink a hot cup of tea, or coffee.


Why: You'll sip it slowly, so your mind and mouth get the feeling it is busy without overloading on the calories.

Shadowsan

My_Butt wrote: »

What: I snack when I'm bored.

Technique: drink a hot cup of tea, or coffee.


Why: You'll sip it slowly, so your mind and mouth get the feeling it is busy without overloading on the calories.

There needs to be a like button on forum posts!