Session 14: Making Social Cues Work for You

Hello there my darlings. How are you making out? Hopefully, you're doing much better than I am. What am I saying? Of course, I'm losing weight, but I have a confession to make at the end of this course. I'm not giving up though; we still have two sessions to go. That's two whole weeks. And I'm staying away from buffets, I promise.

Did you record your food and drink, fat grams intake, weight and the number of minutes of exercise? Well, let's therefore get down to the business of Session 14 when we will learn how we can make the social cues to work for us. What are these social cues?

I don't know about you but when I see people eating, I want to eat too. Isn't that bad? And it gets worse when they offer me food to taste. How can one resist that especially if it's Lindy’s Cheesecake? There must be a way to eat good Diabetes Food. Then there are some when you’re getting ready to walk will entice you to go to the movies instead.

Now these are cues that we should know how to handle. They are such problematic cues we should try to stay away from them. Maybe we can change the problematic social cues to helpful ones. Do you think we can do this? Of course we can.

Let’s look at the people eating healthy instead. And when you’re offered healthy food, accept a small apple or something. So what to do is to stay away from social cues that will tempt you away from your new lifestyle. Know the people around you who give positive social cues.

Yes, go with people who encourage you to eat healthy. That’s easier said than done especially if it’s your husband who is steering you to the buffets. Could this be a ground for divorce? Well, anyway, let’s not go there. Let’s just do our best.

Also, go with people who are physically active. Join them in their walks. What works for me is planning ahead for parties, vacations and such. We went on a cruise one time and didn’t gain weight. Isn’t that grand? To think that the estimate for the daily weight gain on a cruise is at least one pound.

For homework, think of problematic social cues and turn them into helpful ones. Tell us the plan that helped you turn that around. Then write down every day your weight, food, drink, and fat grams intake, calories and exercise minutes. You thought you got away from that, didn’t you? Not a chance, sorry. See you next week.