When trying to lose weight, there are certain foods that each person is more attracted to than other foods. Some find the morning cup of coffee quite addictive. To others it is bread. Many cannot have dinner in a restaurant without having an alcoholic beverage. With me it was always something sweet.

Tally

A good first step is to tally the number of times you consume each category of food in a seven-day period. Then, after the next seven-day period, do it again. Making a list of foods such as bread, salad, starch, dessert, beverage, and alcohol is a good idea. You can compare each week with the previous to see if you are achieving some of your goals.

Addiction Model

You’re not only trying to lose weight and to feed the smaller person you are becoming, you are also trying to reverse the progression of the addiction model here. In a progressive addiction, the portion-size and frequency of usage keep escalating each time you build a tolerance for a particular food. The amount you need increases and the usage becomes more frequent. As you begin to lose weight, the portion-size of food and frequency-of-usage diminish in size, and number of hits.

Diminish Number of Times Each Day

The most frequently chosen items are bread, beverage, dessert, and alcohol. Some items may tally anywhere from zero to 15 and even 20, each week, or, anywhere from one to four times each day. If, for example, you choose any one item four times a day, cut it to three, then to two, then to once a day.

One of Four Or None

Strive to achieve having either Bread or Beverage or Dessert or Alcohol, picking only one of four or none per meal. If you are trying to eat a wide variety of foods, much of this will happen naturally.

Mental Repatterning

Talking to yourself is helpful as you choose each item less and less frequently. Think: "instead of another piece of bread, I’ll have a vegetable." Or, "Instead of another cup of coffee, this time I’ll have a cup of hot water." Remind yourself, hourly if necessary, "I want to weigh __________ pounds." Remember some of the action steps you can take to help you get there. The moments do pass. A helpful goal: Be pro-active rather than re-active. If you weren’t thinking of an item two minutes before seeing it, you’re responding to a visual stimulus rather than an actual physical hunger.

Portion Size

Get rid of that oversized mug and pour your coffee into a regular-sized cup. Perhaps you’ll feel fine with a few segments of grapefruit; a few bites of coleslaw. As you lose weight and your stomach shrinks, you should be filling up sooner and will require less of everything than you did when you were a bigger person.

Pick One No-Coffee Day