EAT LIKE AN ADULT

In his book Reframe Your Brain, Scott Adams talks about how it is often possible to change your actions and habits simply by reframing your reality.

For example, he speaks of giving up alcohol by moving from the familiar frame of "Alcohol is a beverage to enjoy" to a new frame of "Alcohol is poison". 

Over time, by identifying alcohol in his own mind with something as negative as poison, Adams simply lost interest in drinking. 

Throughout the book, he suggests various reframes to combat common life challenges, but he says the real power is in finding your own. They can pop up at any time and, if they are "sticky" for you, they can shape your focus and your habits.

I am beginning to test one that I hope will help me eat healthier on a daily basis (and stop putting on extra pounds). 

My usual frame has been: I am trying to eat healthy.

My new frame is: I am going to eat like an adult.

The truth of the matter is that although my diet IS probably healthier than the average American's, I eat ice cream almost daily and I snack on way too much candy. 

Since I haven't been able to kick my ice cream and candy habits by telling myself these things are "unhealthy", I will be curious to see if reframing them as "childish" might help. 

I am just getting started, but "childish" does seem sticky to me and somehow I feel my desire to "be a grown up" might prove stronger than my desire to be healthy.

Not sure why! But Adams says that reframes don't have to make sense or even be true to work. They just have to redirect your thinking.