Five Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Diet (with words)

How do you talk to yourself?  Do you say mean things that you’d never say to a friend, partner, spouse or child?  If so, it’s affecting how you feel – and how you eat.

In this episode, Dr. Nina reveals five ways you’re sabotaging your diet – all having to do with the way you talk to yourself.

She illustrates how the way you talk to yourself impacts your mood, which can lead to overeating or bingeing.

She describes five specific ways in which negative self-talk affects the way you feel and makes you vulnerable to overeating.

Dr. Nina offers detailed strategies on how to identify, challenge and change this pattern.

As she puts it, “Words are powerful.  The way you talk to yourself affects every aspect of your life.”  She explains that many people are hard on themselves or self-critical, which makes them upset, depressed or angry, and then they eat to distract from those painful or upsetting states.  Overeating leads to more negative self-talk (“how could I have eaten that?”) and the cycle continues.

Dr. Nina says, “You stop the cycle by learning to soothe yourself with words instead of food.”  When you’re a friend to yourself, instead of an enemy, you can comfort yourself with positive self-talk instead of with food.  And then, as she puts it, “Cake will just be… cake.”

Listen to the full episode for more on this topic!