The following was inspired from group last night. Many people in recovery from an eating disorder (or two) struggle with the years of dieting messages ingrained in their thinking. One such example has been the long-established and lusciously embraced “Points” system one commercial diet program touts. I thought that if clients love such a simple and rigid system to identify how to care for themselves with food and exercise, then I’ll jump on that band wagon and see where it takes us. The goal of this points program is to go to sleep with the largest number you can vs. ending your day with nothing. More, not less; imagine that.
The New Points Program
+10 pts. Eating food when you’re physically hungry
+12 pts. Talking nicely to yourself; unconditionally
+08 pts. Eating the food you really want
+04 pts. Throwing out food or discontinue eating something you realize isn’t tasty to you
+11 pts. Eating food until you are satisfied (vs. full, stuffed or the package is done)
+10 pts. Breaking a sweat moving in a way that is fun and rewarding
+11 pts. Setting and maintaining a boundary around your needs/wants
+11 pts. Paying close attention to what you’re eating without dissociating with distractions
+12 pts. Self care around feelings (venting, taking action, journaling, talking, labeling etc.)
+10 pts. Willingness to displease someone in order to respect yourself
+08 pts. Remembering and focusing on all the benefits of movement, without focusing on weight loss
+12 pts. Taking care of your health in ways other than weight-loss focused behaviors
+12 pts. Buying and wearing clothes that fit you and help you feel good/better in them
+08 pts. Challenging the “thin fantasy” by doing something now you have been denying yourself (because you don’t see yourself as acceptable in your current body)
+09 pts. Using assertiveness skills to push back when someone uses fat bias and prejudice
+10 pts. Recognizing anger and using it for self-care assertively
+08 pts. Educating your physician about risks of weight-loss focus for you and your desire to focus on health in other ways, including not being weighed for the office visit and being treated like someone of any size
+50 pts. When you are able to “hit the spot” with how you are eating, moving and/or doing self-care
+80 pts. Willingness to identify, address and resolve the bigger underlying issues vs. focus on food/body
-02 pts. Engaging in talk, researching, fantasizing about, partaking in contests around dieting
-01 pts. Having a restrictive thought or behavior about food, exercise and/or life
-02 pts. Wearing clothes that bind, pinch or push (punish)
-04 pts. Negative body messages
-03 pts. Pressuring yourself to exercise with amounts, frequencies, types, places, duration and intensity
-02 pts. Restricting food based on fear and lack of trusting your body
-03 pts. Comparing your body with others and forgetting that we are made to be different shapes/sizes
-02 pts. “Shoulding” on yourself for not measuring up to somehow
-04 pts. Eating or exercising to please someone else and gain unsatisfying Conditional Acceptance
-02 pts. Not feeding yourself when you are hungry
-02 pts. Swallowing your voice when it needed to be heard (+100 pts. if you say it later)
-02 pts. Eating with the TV on, reading or otherwise occupied to avoid yourself
-04 pts. Disconnect from yourself for a day or more with an ism or obsession; abandoning yourself
-03 pts. When you restrict good in life because you believe you are undeserving or not good enough
-04 pts. Having weight bias/prejudice thoughts (+04 for recognizing it)
-10 pts. Ignoring, minimizing, denying or otherwise discounting your feelings/needs
Grand Total:________________
Please share your totals in the comments section as well as any opinions on The New Points Program.
