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                                 Explore Your Circles of Interactions: How Do They Affect You?

                            Use the "scalpel of attention" to reveal how patterns pervade your life.

Current Patterns

What I do now

What Influences You?

Time, location, alone or with others, activities, not paying attention, injuries, other crisis, thoughts & feelings, foods, outside pressures?

Behavioral Substitution (s)

What might work?

How's It Going?

What worked and what didn't? Why?

Current Patterns

What I do now

What Influences You?

Time, location, alone or with others, activities, not paying attention, injuries, other crisis, thoughts & feelings, foods, outside pressures?

Behavioral

Substitution (s)

What might work?

How's It Going?

What worked and what

didn't? Why?

1. I re-injured my knee by walking up too many stairs. It's sore and swollen.
2. I'm emotionally bummed out and discouraged. It's summer time and I wanted to go hiking and backpacking in nature.

1. Get my ice pack and apply it to the knee.
2. Get my knee exercises out and practice them again.
3. Modify my exercise routines until my knee gets better.
4. Get my bicycle flat fixed so I can ride again. Gentle bicycling helps with knee healing.
5. Acknowledge my pain and practice positive self-talk.
6. Explore: How Does Bob Keep Going When Injured?, Exercising with Health and Physical Challenges, and Managing Emotional Pain of Chronic Illness

1. The ice helped out!
2. After the swelling went down, the exercises strengthened the knee muscles.
3. I focused on the abled part. I did what I could do, with what I had.
4. Getting the flat fixed and using the bicycle was FUN! I used it mainly on level ground.
5. Reviewing the information about injuries and how to manage the emotional pain really helped out.
6. Wow! After three weeks my knee is much better.
7. I can see the value of just re-applying the tools and information that helped me before when I relapse into inactivity.

Snack at 10:00 during the News on the couch.

1. Gee, it's late and I'm hungry.
2. I didn't take time to plan a snack and don't have any healthy options available.

1.  Drink Water

2.  Exercise

3.  Knit

4.  Choose a healthy snack

Drinking water alone did not work.  Drink water then knit.  If I’m still hungry. I make sure to eat a healthy snack I prepared earlier.

Binge at 2;30 p.m. at my desk on whatever is present (vending machines)

1. I'm stressed out because I work too long and don't take breaks.
2. I don't bring foods for lunch and raid the snack machines.

1.    Eat a well rounded lunch at 12:30

2.    Take a walk

3.     Healthy options in my desk

Eating lunch at 12:30 really works!  Often a walk is not feasible at 2:30, so having healthy food options do work.  I also walk at 12:30 and try to snack on healthy choices all day.

Binge on snack foods from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. every night regardless of where I am.

1. I'm lonely and crave friendship in the evenings.
2. I have lots of junk foods around.
3. I get overly hungry every night around 8 p.m.

1.  Call a friend to meet emotional need.

2.    Exercise at this time while watching my favorite show

3.   Walk my dog during good weather

Calling friends and walking my dog is working better than just the treadmill.  Still binge on poor choices for time to time.  Trying to come up with some snacks I really like to eat during this time of the day.

Bob’s example:

At a week-long retreat—challenges from the past. It took several times of going to the same retreat center before I noticed all of my obstacles, and came up with a plan to be successful:

1. At breakfast, have eaten too much granola or different cereals
2. Snacks: Eat too many peanut butter and jam sandwiches, not enough veggies. I LOVE peanut butter, and can easily eat too much of it!!!
3. Soup dinners with TOO much homemade breads—2 or more slices!
4. Don’t get enough exercise

1. Lots of delicious FREE food, all I want. It is easy to overeat and experience "mouth lust!"
2. Meal times are different than at home. It is more difficult to eat "when I want to eat."
3. The food environment provides foods that I normally don't have around.
4. We sit for long periods of time with limited times for physical activity.
5. People bring along lots of high sugar and fat snacks and share them on the snack table.

My Plan:

1. Bring along Fiber One Bran Cereal to eat instead of granola. They have yogurt and fruits to eat. Bring along Splenda, instead of sugar.

2. Snacks: bring along a 2-cup plastic container with lid to get extra yogurt at breakfast; mix with fruits and save for morning and afternoon snacks. I also brought along a variety of snacks from home. Nutritious and Yummy Snacks
3. Dinners: Bring along baby carrots (keep in refrigerator) to eat along with ONE piece of bread and soup
4. They had yoga every morning for ½ hour; I went on a morning and afternoon walk for 60 minutes every day. I also took an afternoon nap! Ah.

How it went:

WOW! Every part of the plan worked out well.  I lost 2 pounds.

I asked them if I could keep my extra foods in a refrigerator and they said OK.

The Fiber One Cereal worked well, instead of granola or other cereals. I added it to the yogurt and fruit that I sweetened with Splenda. Yum!

Having the yogurt and fruit made up for snacks saved me from going to the snack table and making sandwiches (like everyone else was doing!). I did have some salted peanuts that I brought from home, and had small amounts of them, along with some of my other snacks.

Having the carrots at dinner worked really well for feeling full without eating too much bread and also it increased my fiber intake (they had many cooked foods and I like more RAW foods).