Valerie Evans
No Weigh Founder
Valerie A. Evans, Ph.D. is a licensed and board certified behavior analyst and small business owner. Valerie worked as a behavior analyst in school and home settings and also as a consultant. In addition to her clinical experience, Valerie worked in research labs as a student and also held a position as Research Associate for the School District of Philadelphia.
Eating habits are among the behaviors of daily life that require some degree of maintenance to ensure they are helpful and not causing problems. Behavior analysis has several tools for recognizing problem habits, understanding the role they play in our daily lives, and identifying strategies to change eating habits that are no longer useful.
Now, just because you engage in a food-related habit, does not mean it is a problem. For example, drinking soda is not a problem if it is only occasionally. Consider your weight loss goals and also how the habit behavior makes you feel. For example, if someone eats a roll of mints because he’s upset, it is likely not going to interfere with his weight loss goals. However, using food like this when someone feels upset can make the situation more upsetting for that person.
Rather than squashing habits, it is more natural to transform them. If you have not already seen it, the post called Behavior is a Tool describes in more detail how behaviors serve a purpose. Rather than demanding that you stop, it is more effective to recognize that the unhelpful habit plays an important role in your life. How does this habit help me in my daily life? When you can answer that question, the replacement behavior will reveal itself. Here are some applied examples:
When deciding to modify a habit behavior, it is very useful to change something about the context as well. This might be something to remind you that you intended to do it differently this time. For example, No Weigh users are encouraged to brush their teeth after eating when they intend not to snack between meals, or in the evening. A clean mouth is a new context that also comes with a rule we already follow—avoid eating when your teeth have just been brushed.
Recovering diet app users might come to the conclusion that their diets apps failed them with all-or-nothing thinking. The freedom of behavior analysis is that it is built on acceptance. If you can clearly see reality and all its connections to context and learning history, then the solution shows itself (and the solution is never to will yourself to stop in your tracks).
Are you ready for something different?
Valerie Evans
No Weigh Founder
Valerie A. Evans, Ph.D. is a licensed and board certified behavior analyst and small business owner. Valerie worked as a behavior analyst in school and home settings and also as a consultant. In addition to her clinical experience, Valerie worked in research labs as a student and also held a position as Research Associate for the School District of Philadelphia.
Experience the power of reflection and a sample of behavioral self-awareness with our free four-day email series!
Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter to be connected to No Weigh developments!