If you find yourself mindlessly going to the fridge and grazing when you’re not hungry, the first thing to do is gain awareness. What kinds of things are happening immediately before you decide to eat? Look for patterns; then set up ways to interrupt that pattern. If you get the mail, see the bills and then head for the potato chips, then you know what the trigger is. Now you need to consciously change your response. Decide in advance that the next time you get the bills you will immediately do something constructive after reading it. Go for a walk, do some sit ups, check Facebook, or call a friend to say hi.

This will eliminate the behavior, but changing the way you feel in response to seeing the mail is the bigger solution. We’ll talk about that in a future blog.

How does you make them important? Begin by raising your standards. Become intolerant of any condition you want to change. For just about everything in your life, you have a set level of tolerance. You will accept a neighbor’s dog barking at three in the afternoon, but not likely at three in the morning. At a restaurant, you expect a certain level of service and quality, or you won’t return. If your car broke down every 100 miles, you’d probably get rid of it.

It’s the same thing with your body. Do you want to lose weight? The DECIDE you will not tolerate anything more than a given number when you step on the scale. Start with an increment that you believe is achievable and watch what happens. Refuse to do anything to your body that does not direct you toward that goal, and once you reach it, reset your tolerance. There is no reason to concern yourself with how you will do this. Once you have set your tolerance level, your brain will assist you in figuring out the how.