NOTE: Please check out the experience related below by a fellow P3toLifer (not discussed in the video) that's connected with trigger foods and lies we tell ourselves- a firsthand experience outside of myself.

Learning to point out the lies you tell yourself and call yourself out on them.

Do you see that top ensemble? It's super pretty and cute right? It's yet another item I bought despite knowing about myself, that I never end up wearing frilly/uncomfortable/too fancy looking outfits. The IDEA of them is great to me.

I see that top on other people and think how attractive it is, but the reality is EVERY single time I buy something like that and tell myself maybe I'll wear it this time, I don't. It gets worn once or twice and then disappears in my overstuffed closet, never to be seen again.

I get tempted into telling myself that I'm going to behave differently than I ALWAYS have because of how pretty it is - and because of the look I'd love to have, but the reality is it's just not me. I like to be comfortable and I like ethnic stuff, as long as it's comfortable. Anything beyond that is too much work for me to bother with.

That's the precedent that has proved itself over and over. And when I find myself in that situation, faced with yet another super cool outfit, I start contemplating again that maybe I should start getting more dolled up more often...even though I never have before. When I'm strong I say, "NO, you know you never do, just think of those past instances", and I put the item back on the rack. But other times, I'm feeling weak and I let that tricky little convincing heart-strings talk me into it.

In this case, it's not always a big deal, I fall for it and might be out $50 or $100 bucks. It's not great, but I can recover. When it comes to doing this with our bodies however, it can be hard to come out of falling for this reasoning over and over.

So have you seen, or possibly, even made this type of social media post yourself? You post all these messages about making that big change, really doing it this time, no excuses, and then that VERY SPECIAL, VERY IMPORTANT TIME OF YEAR arrives. And suddenly, we start seeing social media posts that say,

"You only live once"

"I'm planning to cheat"

"I'm just going to have fun, I'll fix it later."

"It's good to have a cheat day once in awhile."

Now I'm not saying you should never eat something that you want or enjoy. But I TOTALLY used to rationalize to myself, I'd believe myself, and then go ahead and give in to the lie and later be like, hey that really wasn't true. It WASN'T worth it. It DIDN'T make my long term life better.

How I learned to stop bingeing is to recognize that there is never a "reason" to go completely all out the way I used to.

I try to pick or choose indulgences and make other trade offs to balance things out and anything that's a TRIGGER FOOD is always a no-go for me, no matter what the event is.

The problem is with the number of holidays and events that people in many countries often celebrate with high calorie eating, it's going to be hard to maintain weight loss because there is always a new thing coming up that will throw you off if you let it and recovering from something is harder to do from a will-power standpoint than to continue maintaining what you have already made a habit.

Analyze your life and write down the pitfalls that throw you off the most frequently.

For instance, I find that even if there's healthy food available at a social gathering, for me, I tend to just really OVEREAT in a social setting very easily AND because I'm half distracted by my actual interactions with the people I'm with, I miss out on a lot of the physiological satisfaction that I would have had if I had eaten by myself.

So it might sound extreme but in general, I don't eat at social gatherings. I take photos instead and focus on my conversations with others. And I look forward to my health treats like p3 smoothies when I get home.

You will have to make your own decision about this - for me the cold truth is, if I were still making every social gathering "worth" totally overdoing and eating a bunch of stuff I don't usually eat, I would have been attempting multiple HCG rounds over the last several years due to weight gain. That might be you. There is a way to stop it, but it involves being completely honest with yourself and learning to call yourself out when you know you're just trying to deceive yourself.