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"  Replace &amp;quot;I cheated&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;I chose.&amp;quot;  The word &amp;quot;cheating&amp;quot; implies that you&amp;#039;re an untrustworthy person who&amp;#039;s broken a potentially unrealistic diet rule (such as, &amp;quot;No dessert until I&amp;#039;ve lost 20 pounds&amp;quot;). Instead, take responsibility for your behavior -- say, &amp;quot;I chose to eat that piece of cake.&amp;quot; Doing so puts you back in the driver&amp;#039;s seat and empowers you to make decisions in the future based on what makes sense for you in the moment -- not on what some too-strict diet dictates.  Replace &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t lose weight&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;I can lose 3 pounds.&amp;quot;  The first statement simply isn&amp;#039;t true: Most people can lose weight. But saying you can&amp;#039;t mentally closes the door on the possibility. Instead, set a realistic goal that you know you can reach, even if it&amp;#039;s losing just 1 pound. Then, when you hit your mark (and you will), you&amp;#039;ll trust in your own abilities -- and you&amp;#039;ll feel excited about setting more goals.  Replace &amp;quot;I was bad&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m proud of myself.&amp;quot; Judging your behavior as &amp;quot;bad&amp;quot; only reinforces that behavior. For instance, if you&amp;#039;re bad, and bad people eat cookies, then you might as well have another cookie. A better bet: Honestly assess what you ate throughout the day, then focus on one of your more healthful decisions, such as opting for a salad over fries at dinner. Recalling a choice you&amp;#039;re proud of will remind you that you&amp;#039;re not totally off track -- so why veer off any farther?  Replace &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t eat that&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;I can eat that.&amp;quot;  Focus on all of the delicious foods you can enjoy when you&amp;#039;re eating healthfully. As long as you keep an eye on portion sizes, nothing is off-limits -- even the occasional slice of cheesecake! Remember, completely depriving yourself of any food will only make you crave it more -- and up the odds of a bingefest later. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/body/mental-health/how-to/a1671/nix-negative-self-talk/>