Few, and even unsuccessfully, could argue that any action and any project does not require the investment of energy in some form. The truth is that the production of a certain project requires a certain percentage of energy that will be “mutated” into the final project.

The same happens with the process of psychotherapy. Things that stress us, thoughts that scare us, feelings that bother us and reflexive behaviors that, without us knowing it, maintain our problems (if not strengthen them), must be explored, analyzed and modeled into more useful and adaptive thoughts and new behaviors.

For this change, the therapist but much more the patient, must invest a part of his energy in order to produce the long-awaited work of changing himself in a way that will make him rejoice in the gift of life by facing the problems of everyday life as welcome challenges instead of insurmountable difficulties.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is essentially an educational process. What makes it stand out from others is that it deals with the management of intense emotional states and the change of learned dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors to more functional and useful thoughts and behaviors in the personal, professional and social life of the client.

In other words, it is a long-term project that requires the client to consciously engage with themselves: to observe, identify problematic points, plan possible actions to solve them, test them and, through constant repetition, to transform (“shaping”) themselves step by step into a new, more desirable self that is capable of setting and achieving life goals.

Project production also occurs when someone decides to go on a diet to lose 10-15 or more kilos.

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Many people set a goal to lose 10 kilos in 15 days... In my opinion, such an expectation could be considered another symptom. "I want this and I want it as soon as possible"... Similar expectations are also held by some who, under the pressure of situations on a personal, professional and social level, decide to enter psychotherapy for any reason (the management of their anxiety, their phobia, their interpersonal relationships, etc.)... But in vain they expect in 5-6 sessions to solve the problems they have been facing for almost a lifetime, and...poof, the "magician" they have in front of them makes them disappear. Such an attitude is wrong, not functional or useful to the one who carries it, and this is because, in life, all good things are achieved through a persistent and arduous path with a plan, a beginning, a middle, and an end.

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Continuing, our working hypothesis is that obesity has a psychogenic etiology (aided by a tendency of our body to accumulate excess weight) while the prediction is that the “worst case scenario” has the greatest probability: that you abandon a new diet attempt halfway through, now having a more intense dose of pessimism and critical attitude towards yourself.

Because I am almost certain that most of you will have tried it before, managed to lose a lot of weight and eventually gained it back in a relatively short period of time, hence the feelings of inadequacy, weakness and helplessness that you experience when you think “I have to start a diet”.

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Working psychotherapeutically with a Cognitive-Behavioral therapist, it is very important to learn that it is not your fault, you simply were not taught the skills that would allow you to do so. For example, what many people often do, namely starting diets from one moment to the next, subjecting themselves to a strict diet, drastically reducing the calories in their diet, is wrong because then their metabolism slows down since it thinks it is in real starvation conditions and activates its defense mechanisms in order to survive. This is why losing weight becomes an even more difficult process. Dieting as a task that must be achieved, requires a plan, preparation, and a program. If you want to draw a useful conclusion from previous attempts to reduce your weight, you would probably come to the conclusion that whatever diet you choose is essentially the one you will need to follow for the rest of your life.

Therefore, a preparation together with your dietitian and your therapist would be to try to understand what kind of diet plan you would like to follow according to your temperamental characteristics and personal preferences.

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Also, within the framework of diet management, you should, through a problem-solving skill, learn and be prepared in how to stick to your plan, determine alternative actions when you feel cravings, but also how you will return to your diet if you "go astray" (which, in my opinion, is inevitable at some point).

It would also be very useful to explore what a good diet day and a bad day are like for you, so that you can identify your problem areas that you should work on with your therapist.

Finding motivation and constantly reminding yourself of it are among the first things you should do as part of the preparation before embarking on a diet.

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However, it is of paramount importance to work on negative thoughts and dysfunctional patterns, cognitions, beliefs and automatic behaviors that you should readjust so that they function as an aid in the production of the work you have chosen.

Without this important prerequisite, any new skill you learn may not prove sufficient to reduce and maintain your weight, improve your mood and the quality of your life in general.

Finally, it is also important to learn to love yourself so that you can be kind to yourself when you make mistakes. With your therapist, you will find those rewards that will maintain motivation and will offer you joy and satisfaction with the achievement of each small goal you conquer, e.g. buying a new outfit.

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Behind the establishment of rewards, there is a whole science, with documented results that began in 1905 with the experiments of the Nobel Prize-winning Russian scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov for the demonstration of classical conditioned learning.

As such, it is not a simple process, but your psychologist will be by your side with his knowledge, skills, experience and the continuous study of modern research studies at your service, a trusted assistant and animator in your difficult task, that of changing yourself towards the best version of yourself, what you yourself desire.