Week XII: Putting it Together

You are complete. It is time to organize all the behavioral changes and choices that you've made these past three months into a Monday through Friday style of living that you can sustain over the long term. As with each of the weekly challenges you've engaged, your weekends are celebratory. Don't binge, but do enjoy the things that you normally restrict during the week.

This final week of the Never on Sunday program, we'll track our behavior in much the same way that we did in our first week's exercise, "Written in Stone". We'll apply all that we've practiced thus far and record our success at each of this week's meals. So you'll once again need to carry a little notebook or electronic recording device. In addition to noting the time you eat, the particular foods and the quantity of each, you'll add a fourth column in which you'll record any of the eleven numbers below that pertain to that meal (you will need to carry a copy of this list so that you may make the appropriate entries):

1.   If you're logging this information while eating rather than waiting until after the meal, enter the #1.
2.   If you put down the fork between bites
3.   When you count your bites until full and stop eating at that point
4.   When you give a mental satisfaction rating to each component of your meal
5.   If you make a deliberate attempt to reduce external stimuli at the meal
6.   When you divide the meal in half and delay eating the second portion
7.   Add the #7 when the meal is part of a palm-size only portion in a day of grazing
8.   When your only beverage at the meal is water
9.   Vegetarian
10. When the meal omits starches and dairy
11. When the meal is primarily liquid.

For example, here's what my lunch looked like today.
7/4/10   1:00 PM   1 1/2 cups Fried Calamari, 1 pint beer
#s 1,2,3,5,10
The #s indicate that I wrote it down (1), put my fork down between bites (2), counted my bites and quit when full (3), sat outside and kept quiet (5), ate no bread or dairy with the meal (10).

Make it Real:
If you want to relax your discipline for Friday night repasts, then you could call Friday at sundown the beginning of your weekend. However, in that case, your more carefully studied and controlled weekday eating begins at sundown on Sunday.

If this kind of awareness and regulation of your weekday diet is going to stick with you, what changes to the diet or to your usual eating behavior have to be made?

Food for Thought:
Review the #s at the end of the week. Which tasks or changes did you avoid? Are there some that might contribute to your weight loss success?

Is there a behavioral eating challenge that you'd like to add to the dozen listed on this blog? You can create your own and offer it as a suggestion, addition or improvement to those described here.

Consider giving this diet system a rest period and then trying it again, perhaps with a friend or group of friends who might support, inspire and team up with you in your effort. Your will power can increase with every twelve-week round of effort.