Despite numerous setbacks, however, individuals trying to lose weight maintain their hope and belief that body change is possible with enough time and effort. Fortunately, advances in cognitive-behavioral therapy have provided specific techniques which have proven helpful for weight management. These techniques emphasize specific behavioral strategies, as well as strategic changes in one's thinking and self-talk. This is far from easy. Recent psychological studies overwhelmingly demonstrate the answer is yes.
Eating is no different.
As we shall see, dysfunctional thinking helps to maintain dysfunctional eating behaviors. That is why it's important to get in touch with what you are telling yourself immediately preceding your eating. Unfortunately, many people strongly believe they aren't really thinking about much of anything when they eat, and therefore they don't bother to analyze their thoughts. Irrational thoughts therefore go unchallenged and poor eating habits continue. In the next section, we shall review the common irrational thoughts which interfere with long-term weight management.