I keep going on and off every diet because I always get the urge to eat. What can I do?

When you get ready to go back on your diet plan, don’t just jump right back into it. Make sure your personal capability quotient is where you need it to be. If you think about it, getting back on the horse that threw you is a self-defeating thing to do unless you have the skills this time to ride it.

Instead of jumping right back on the diet that threw you, give yourself a chance to master what made you fall off in the first place. Give yourself “a course” (not a horse) in what you need to know before going back on a diet.

What’s been happening to you is that you haven’t mastered how to handle an inappropriate urge to eat. Urges are hard to deal with, but you can learn how to do it.

Here is a mini-course in urges.

Urges are physiological and psychological states in which people are motivated to seek out particular objects or feelings. Urges are triggered by stimuli that include your moods, your feelings, your thoughts, as well as difficult encounters with people, places, and situations in your environment. There are no doubt times when you find it too hard to get away from these triggers.

Urges are counterproductive when you are trying to stay on your diet and lose weight. The urge to eat can supercede good dietary control and cause you to slip off your weight loss regimen. Giving in to your urges serves to maintain your problems with overeating and weight gain.

What can you do about your urges? You can lower your “urge level” by more appropriately meeting the needs eating once met, like the need for relaxation and the need to deal with negative emotions and moods. You can try renaming an unwanted urge to eat: This urge doesn’t mean I want to eat now. It means I’m trying to cope. It means I have some need at the moment. It means I need to regulate my feelings. Here are some better coping strategies: doing something nice for yourself, encouraging yourself, using substitute rewards, using distractions, changing your routines, and waiting it out.

In fact, why don’t you use as many strategies as you can that you think will help you deal in the moment, and even help you anticipate your urges to eat. Don’t get unexpectedly thrown from your diet again. Practice lots of different ways to counter your eating urges and build the skills you need to ride out the rough spots of dieting.

© Maria's Last Diet. Maria’s Last Diet is an online weight loss support website for women. At Maria’s Last Diet, you’ll find the tools to fix the thoughts, feelings, and automatic habits that fight against you when you diet. Because it’s never just about the food. Visit www.mariaslastdiet.com for more diet tips and weight loss motivation.

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