Working With Your Inner Critic To Build Healthy Habits

Episode 84. Karen was spiraling. She had been doing so well. She was eating well, walking daily and feeling great. But for some reason today she felt off. She ate more than usual at lunch, maybe because she was scrolling mindlessly on her phone and saw a few upsetting posts about someone she went to high school with who is battling cancer. She kept scrolling, and before she knew it, she had eaten too much. She felt stuffed. Not super stuffed, but enough to feel uncomfortable. She got mildly frustrated with herself after this, but doesn't totally spiral out... yet. She told herself, (somewhat subconsciously), "it's fine, it's one meal, you can get back on track immediately. Relax." But she moves on with her day and doesn't acknowledge the actual thoughts that were going through her mind in the moment. Partly, because she's ashamed of them. She shouldn't feel so self-critical and she knows it isn't helpful. She needs to be kinder to herself, she knows this. She just tries to think of something else instead. If she were really honest with herself, that simple act of eating more at lunch and feeling overfull triggered thoughts like: "I can't believe you did that, you feel sick now, that's what you get." "You were feeling so good, and now you're going to fall back in old habits." And if we dig to the core thought, it was: "You're going to fail again." She continued to feel off all day, and before she knew it she had an extra snack in the afternoon even though she definitely wasn't hungry. By the time dinner came, she felt tired (physically and emotionally), mad at herself, and it was all she could do to heat up leftovers and have dinner in front of the TV. And why not pull out the ice cream, she clearly blew it for the day. All because she didn't fully address what we really bothering her. That hidden sentence that popped up right after she ate a bit extra at lunch. Ready to Stop Going it Alone? One of my biggest regrets in life is not seeking good therapy sooner. You deserve