You're listening to the Stop Binge Eating podcast with Kirsten Sarty, episode number 379.

Hello, today I'm talking with you about setting goals and what's probably the number one mistake that I see people make when doing it.

Stopping binge eating in itself is a goal, but in order to achieve that goal you're going to have

to achieve other smaller goals that will get you there and the biggest mistake i see people make

when setting these goals is that they try to do too much too soon they try to make big changes

and because it's too big of a change for them, they're not able to

sustain it. So here's an example. Say someone is on average eating five joy foods a day,

both during and outside of binges. They don't want to be eating that many, so they decide that

they're going to set a goal to eat only one a day.

Now, how long do you think they'll be able to eat just one a day?

My guess is not very long.

To go from five a day every day to just one a day is a big change.

For most people, it's too big of a change. Our brains love

habits and routine. They like to do things the same as they have been. And if you're going to

make a big change, it's going to take a lot of effort, intention, thought, management,

and focus. It's also likely going to create a lot

of discomfort. If you're trying to do that every day, it can get exhausting. It can also be hard because

you have other things going on in your life, decisions to make, problems that arise that need

to be taking care of, stressors,

so many things that also require your attention. So to try to take on all that life is already

presenting to you, plus making a big change to a habit is probably too much. This is a big reason

why people do well for a few days and then stop. They can't sustain

...