Take a psychological approach to your weight loss. Reaching your goals requires you to focus more on behavioral patterns and less on diet and exercise alone. Behavioral and/or cognitive therapy can be used as part of a program of lifestyle modification with diet and exercise. Classical and operant conditioning are the two traditional behavioral therapy models. In classical conditioning, eating behaviors are associated with other activities. The behaviors become conditioned to occur together, as when a person eats nachos while watching the evening news. If these two behaviors are paired repeatedly, they become so strongly associated with one another that turning on the news alone triggers a craving for nachos. Behavioral intervention involves identifying and extinguishing the inappropriate psychological or environmental triggers and cues. Operant conditioning uses reinforcement and consequences. A person who uses food as a reward or to temporarily attenuate stress will associate food with a more pleasurable state, which makes it more likely to to become a repeated behavior. More recently cognitive therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have become an important aspect of the treatment of obesity. Cognitions influence both feelings and behaviors, and they cannot be ignored when treating obesity. CBT is utilized in the treatment of obesity as a way to help individuals change their negative eating behaviors and incorporate healthy lifestyle changes. These CBT interventions are self-monitoring techniques (e.g. food and exercise journals), stress management, stimulus control (e.g. eating only at the kitchen table), social support, problem solving, and cognitive restructuring (e.g. helping clients have more realistic weight loss goals.)
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 23:48:09 +0000
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