Enneagram Type 8 Diet Strengths:
Aggressive Types – attack issues directly and avoid procrastination
Power Skills (1st Step) for Type 8: Assertiveness, Channel Your Anger Positively, Gamify Your Weight
ASSERTIVENESS:
Your health and fitness destiny pivots on learning to say no to unhealthy food. Though you are probably quite assertive in your work life, food and self nurturing may be your soft-spot. You may find your health being manipulated by others’ bad habits, or by friends and family pushing unhealthy food on you. Remember people cannot read your mind. Be firm and tell others directly what your needs are. Do this by thinking of the letter “I”:
A. I FEEL — let people know how you feel.
B. IRRITATION — describe the problematic behavior or situation.
C. INSTEAD or IDEALLY — describe and ask for a constructive change.
(These examples are adapted from PsychologyToday.com)
I feel A (feeling) when B (irritating action). I’d feel better if C (instead/request a change).
Example: I feel tempted to come off my diet when you offer me treats. I’d feel better if you would encourage me to eat healthy foods.
Or,
I feel tempted to eat sweets when people offer them to me. It would be easier for me to lose weight if people did not offer me unhealthy foods.
If you have trouble saying “no” during food situations then you may rehearse or write down what you will say.
Example statements include:
“I feel like a salad today.”
“I am in the mood for something healthier.”
“I need your help to stay on my diet so please don’t offer me high calorie food.”
Remember that ASSERTIVENESS carries into asking for what you want in life. Can you charm your favorite restaurant into serving you healthy food by cutting portions in half, cooking without fat, or having your plate cleared promptly so you don’t overeat? Can you negotiate with your grocer to provide fresh food, and tell them you will spread the word to others? Or, challenge your friends to a low-fat cook-off and by doing so bring healthy eating to others? (Wiatt 1996)
CHANNEL YOUR ANGER POSITIVELY (ANGER OUTLET)
Do you eat when you’re angry? If so, try to think of anger as electricity. When not harnessed, it can shock you. When directed properly, it can be used to get things moving.
Channel your anger to work in your favor. Turn it into the positive energy that brings about real change in your life. Attack your problem directly and not in a small way, but with all your might. Bring on some “Shock and Awe.” It’s time you have laser-like focus on your mission, and turn your life into a Rocky Balboa training montage.
Use all your resources:
- Talk to knowledgeable people to help you along the way.
- Find products or tricks that will give you an edge.
- Reinforce success: if something is working then pour more energy in that direction.
GAMIFY YOUR WEIGHT
Oftentimes people will say that losing weight is simple — just eat less and move more. In fact, there are many factors that contribute to weight gain in the western world: convenient high-calorie processed foods, sedentary jobs, long commutes, time constraints, etc.
One way to not feel overwhelmed by these factors is to look at weight loss as a game. In this game your health is at stake and the enemies are the Food Pushers: fast food restaurants, tempting advertisements, friends who lure you to eat poorly and our own addictive cravings.The score in the game is the number of pounds you lose. Making healthy living a game makes it way more fun and it will make you want to stick to your diet plan.
Tips and Tricks for gamifying your weight loss:
1. Measure — in order to turn anything into a game you only need to measure it! Pick the target that you want to change and start tracking. Examples include your weight, waistline, body fat percentage, or number of days exercised. These measurements help you to track your progress, keep you motivated and are useful if your workout or diet is ineffective. Visually enhance your achievements with a graph or progress chart. Also give yourself some bragging rights and share your achievements with others.
2. Challenge — Create a reasonable fitness challenge. Sign up for a race, compete with friends in weight training, or enter a competition. You’ll push yourself harder if you compete with someone else, but you can also challenge yourself. Be sure to make it more fun with a little healthy taunting and crap talking.
You can also add a small amount of danger or bravery to a challenge to increase excitement (For an extreme challenge try a Tough Mudder event.) Or create a transformation story on sites like BodySpace.com. Challenges will keep you motivated to eat right and exercise: “I train to beat out the competition…the better I eat, the better I perform!” (Wiatt 1996)
3. Master — Learning a new skill is best done through a mentor or a trainer. Your mentor can give you the knowledge you need to be become a master yourself. As you progress level by level and increase your status you will receive recognition. This could be at the gym, the office, or an online leaderboard.
4. Charity – As you progress you will learn techniques and tips that you can share with others. You can challenge others and bring them into the journey. Or you can pass along encouragement and optimism. Helping others will keep you motivated, especially as you build a following of people who look up to you as a role model for health. Remember to give back the efforts and benefits that were given to you by your mentors. This giving environment helps everyone and will build your legacy.
Tips for Enneagram Type 8
Assertiveness: I enjoy strength training. It makes me feel stronger and more in control.
Assertiveness: I dont just tell people how I feel and why I feel that way, I tell them what I expect from them. People can’t read my mind.
Assertiveness: I negotiate with restaurant staff to help me be healthy. An example is cutting portions in half or cooking a low fat options.
Assertiveness: I tell my family and friends what to do to help me lose weight.
Channel Your Anger: I let temptations to binge be a signal of my anger. What am I angry about. How am I being controlled.
Gamify Your Weight: The better I eat, the better I perform. I stay enrolled in exercise challenges to stay focused on winning.
Gamify Your Weight: I measure myself (weight, waist, speed, days exercised ect.) so that I can compare and compete with others.
Gamify Your Weight: I enlist partners and competitors in my weight loss journey.
Gamify Your Weight: I actively pursue competition regarding my fitness and my weight loss to help me prioritize my health.
Gamify Your Weight: I look for ways I can challenge my friends in healthy ways such as a healthy cook off, or enrollment in a 5K run for charity.
Gamify Your Weight: Weight loss is a skill I must master.
Gamify Your Weight: I have a weight loss mentor and role model.
Gamify Your Weight: I mentor others in what I have learned.
References:
Wiatt, C. L. (1996) Eating By Design. New York, NY: Atria.
Action Skills (2nd Step): See Type Five’s DIET Strengths and Skills
Maintenance Skills (3rd Step): See Type Two’s DIET Strengths and Skills
Thank you for reading Enneagram Type 8 Diet Strengths! Learn more about Power, Action and Maintenance Skills…here
Written by Scott Harrington D.O. and edited by Christine Adkins
