How to say NO?

haleysimmons3 wrote: »

How do you hold yourself accountable when placed in a situation that can get you off track with your diet?

No one else is going to hold me accountable!

If there's a challenging situation coming up, it can help me to "pre-script" it in my head, then rehearse that script in my head a few times as vividly as possible, like a little movie I'm playing in.

For example, if I'm going to dinner with friends, I might look up the restaurant menu online, plan what I'll order. Thinking through the social side, I might plan to orderr a small side salad with a low-cal dressing on the side, and ask the server to bring it with my friends' appetizers so I'm not just sitting while they eat tempting things and offer me a taste. If I think they'll urge that taste on me anyway, I can either factor a taste into my calorie goal, or imagine telling them something like "no thanks - eating lightly, still full from lunch". If there are drinks, I'll plan what to order that fits my goal, and order a large water alongside to sip so I don't gulp the caloric drink. I'll imagine myself sipping slowly so that when my friends order another round, I have some left and can say "go ahead, I'll wait til I'm done with this, and maybe catch up later". Etc.

So, imagine the situation & challenges, think of strategies, vividly imagine what you'll do and say, rehearse mentally a few times. When the event comes, start your script and stay on it.

My number one problem is I have trouble saying no to food or unhealthy snacks (I LOVE FOOD)... What are some tricks to staying on track?

A lot of these moments are tradeoffs between brief pleasure for our current self, vs. a better life for our future self. The current moment seems much more vital and real. But the future is real, too.

Older Haley doesn't enjoy being overweight, unhealthy, with joint problems, maybe even mobility issues. Those things constrain her life activities, cost her money, make her feel sick and unhappy. You don't have to make every choice every day to benefit future Haley at the expense of current Haley's enjoyment. But it may help to think about her now and then, and take some steps to be kind to her, because she's you, too.

I'm 62. I'm not a person who looks back and regrets things, because it's pointless: Nothing I can do to change the past. But there are definitely choices I could've made differently that would've improved my current situation and the decades in between. I'm just trying, now, to make choices that better value future Ann as well as current Ann.