I will interrupt a patient immediately when these words are uttered during an office visit: “Doc, I was bad this week” OR “Doc, I cheated this week”. The “bad” and “cheated” refer to the person’s eating/drinking foods/drinks that are not recommended during the SP Dietary Plan. The reason why I interrupt the person: When people eat carbs or down alcohol drinks, they are not “bad” and they are also not “cheaters”. Referring to one’s self as a person that is bad or prone to cheating turns into self-loathing behavior patterns. This is what I term “negative energy” and does absolutely nothing to help weight control efforts.
Positive energy is when a person focuses on meal planning, researching recipes compatible with one of the SP dietary phases, heads out grocery shopping with a list, preparing lunches the night before work, etc. When we spend time dwelling on our past “failures” as opposed to devoting that time to future behaviors, the chances of long-term weight control dwindle.
During our weight control journeys there will be times when weight goes up, we “fall off the wagon” into some old behavior patterns and we struggle. That is expected to happen. The important point is to ensure that you are spending positive energy to get back on track and keep your eyes on the pot at the end of the rainbow: Better health and happiness.