Personal summary of my favorite Monday Motivation posts from Beck Diet Solution > Daily Diet Solutions
Remember, there are many ways to feed your soul without feeding your mouth.
Food tastes so much better when it is not served with a side of guilt or shame. If you think you'll feel dissatisfied if you only eat regular meals and say no to excessive snacking, remind yourself that you actually feel MUCH MORE dissatisfied when they end up feeling bad about eating chaotically, too much or crap, or skipping workouts. Staying on track feels hard some of the time, but eating quality foods in healthy portions often feels GREAT, whereas being off track feels hard ALL of the time, physically and psychologically.
Eating normally, like any other skill, gets easier the more you practice it. If you think, "this is so hard, there is no way I can keep it up forever," remind yourself that it WON'T be this hard forever. It's hard now. In 2 months it will be easier and in 2 years it will be much easier. All the small steps along the way are what add up to the big changes. Give yourself step credit for each step.
All dieters and maintainers go through periods when dieting feels more difficult. This is completely normal and happens to EVERYONE. Pay attention to progress, not perfection. Keep doing what you’re doing and dieting WILL get easier again.
EVERY SINGLE dieting mistake can be turned into avaluable learning opportunity if you take the time to figure out why it happened and what is going on with you. Think about specifically what you can do in the future to change the outcome of a similar situation. Prove to yourself that you never have to wait to get back on track, and you can always make the rest of the day/week/month better than it has been.
Even though the prospect of continuing to work on healthy eating during times of stress may seem daunting, many dieters find that once they gain control over their eating, they feel so much better (mentally and physically) in way they hadn’t even imagined. Feeling in control of their eating helps them feel more in control in general. So what they think might make them feel more stressed actually does the exact opposite.