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To lose weight you may need to control your inner brat and learn to say no. Not every time but often enough to prove to yourself that you are in control.

The other day I was working with a client who wants to lose a few kgs before a special birthday. She’s perfectly healthy, and happy and looks great as she is now but she’d feel and look better if she could shift those pesky blobs of body fat.

In her words, “I just need to control my inner brat”.

It made me laugh and it made me think. A child only becomes a brat when his demands are always met, and he or she has never heard the word no.

When you think about food and eating when you are an adult, only you can say no to yourself.

It’s tricky when the adult oversees the brat inside yourself, particularly when, in the case of my client, there is no urgent compelling reason to control the eating behaviour. An extra handful of nuts won’t have a detrimental effect on the health, nor will a biscuit, or a glass of wine but it does make it harder to lose body fat. As we discussed every 15 g of walnuts is an extra 100 calories, which soon adds up when you grab a few small handfuls throughout the day. There’s nothing wrong with nuts but the calorie intake still must be lower than the calorie output to lose weight.

Controlling the brat inside you requires you to say no to it.

It requires you to:

STOP at the point when your inner brat wants a piece of cake, or biscuit, or chips, or chocolate, or whatever else.

PAUSE while you take a few breaths and give yourself time to weigh up the consequences of your choice. Question the merit of instant gratification against your long-term desired outcome. Are you just being a brat wanting something that you really don’t need, won’t particularly enjoy, and could happily go without, OR will a small piece of any of the aforementioned lift your adult spirits and help you through the rest of the day with no more bratty outbursts? In psychology, it is called The Choice Point. 

ACT Enjoy it or walk away in full control of your decision.

Judy Davie is available for one-on-one coaching. For more information or to book a session CLICK HERE 

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