Colliecole
2007-10-18, 04:24 PM
Bear with me for a minute…
People often eat because their mind was programmed to receive relaxation and pleasure when something is put into their mouth.
It all started when you were an infant. You got cranky; your mother put a bottle into your mouth. You got distracted by the bottle, became more relaxed, and probably fell asleep.
Now, as an adult, when you feel tense or nervous, you put excessive amounts of food and drink into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure.
Eating is a conditioned response.
Remember Pavlov? He rang a bell every time that he fed his dogs. After a few repetitions, he could just ring the bell, and the dogs would salivate.
If a person eats and simultaneously watches television, the mind takes a picture of the food in the hand, and connects it to the television. Thereafter, every time the person looks at the television, the mind fills in the missing part of the picture. It flashes an image of the food in the hand, and the person feels a compulsion to eat.
The mental picture of the food may only be at the subconscious level, in other words, the person may not be consciously aware of it. But the image is there, creating a craving for food and a compulsion to eat.
The same thing happens if you eat and drive; or read listen to music, in bed, at the work desk, etc. Pretty soon almost everything causes you to subconsciously see food, and those subconscious images cause you to feel a compulsion to eat.
I took this info from the handbook of a weightloss program that I am on. It’s called Neuro-Vision and it’s a hypnosis program. The guy who created it has been in business since 1978 so its pretty credit worthy, and had a lot of testimonials, so I bought it last week. I got it in the mail two days ago, and so far I like it a lot. It’s brought up some issues that I never really considered to be the root of my weight problems. The stuff above pretty much sums it up, but the thing that put it into perspective is when I was listening to one of the hypnosis tapes and he discussed “anchoring”. Anchoring is when you go through something (first kiss, hearing bad news, a party etc) and your brain takes note of your surroundings. From that point on your mind automatically connects certain things from that event (smells, objects, people etc) to trigger however you were feeling at the time. For instance, have you ever had a song play during a memorable time, good or bad, and from that point on whenever you heard that song it made you feel how you were feeling in that memory? This is anchoring.
So pretty much, when it comes to food our minds have the ability to do the same thing. Whenever you watch TV, read, eat at work or while driving etc, that activity becomes an anchor for hunger, and every time you do that activity, you automatically want to eat.
This made so much sense to me when I heard it. And for the last two days on this program, I have only eaten at the dinner table. Not in bed, in the living room in front of TV, at work, driving etc. By doing this, I’m conditioning my body to only want to eat when I’m at dinner table, and not 24 hours a day during every activity, making it damn near impossible to loose weight. I’m not on to the hypnosis part of the program yet, the first few days is the learning stuff, but just by limiting myself to only eat at the table, I’m ALREADY eating a lot less. This is so crazy and I’m really exited. Eating less has never been this effortless. Even though I wasn’t aware of it, I now know that I’ve brainwashed myself by eating all over the place. I’m the type of person who can’t go to the movies without eating popcorn, and I know that’s a shame. Seriously, how can I expect me self to permanently loose weight with this problem? That’s like listening to that “anchor” song, and expecting not to feel what it’s reminding you of. And I’ve lost weight temporarily on stuff, but always gained it back because I was fight myself the whole time, and when I got off the program, in came the old bad habits. America is fatter than ever, and there is more TV, drive throughs, commercials, and ways to make eating easier than ever. Every time I turn around a new “easier to eat in the car” meal. Pretty soon we’ll be eating in the bathtub. :offrant:
So…. I started thinking that this could be a good challenge...Any takers?
I’ve never started a challenge before, but I guess the rules would be:
1. Eat pretty much what you want (be sensible)
2. ONLY at the table, or a designated eating area
3. This means all snacks too
4. No eating at work desk, in the living room, in front of TV, while listening to music, while reading, while on the phone,..the only thing you should be doing while eating is EATING!
If you think this problem is contributing to your struggle with getting to your goals, then come join me!!!! I’m going to do this for myself, but It would be nice to have some company.
People often eat because their mind was programmed to receive relaxation and pleasure when something is put into their mouth.
It all started when you were an infant. You got cranky; your mother put a bottle into your mouth. You got distracted by the bottle, became more relaxed, and probably fell asleep.
Now, as an adult, when you feel tense or nervous, you put excessive amounts of food and drink into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure.
Eating is a conditioned response.
Remember Pavlov? He rang a bell every time that he fed his dogs. After a few repetitions, he could just ring the bell, and the dogs would salivate.
If a person eats and simultaneously watches television, the mind takes a picture of the food in the hand, and connects it to the television. Thereafter, every time the person looks at the television, the mind fills in the missing part of the picture. It flashes an image of the food in the hand, and the person feels a compulsion to eat.
The mental picture of the food may only be at the subconscious level, in other words, the person may not be consciously aware of it. But the image is there, creating a craving for food and a compulsion to eat.
The same thing happens if you eat and drive; or read listen to music, in bed, at the work desk, etc. Pretty soon almost everything causes you to subconsciously see food, and those subconscious images cause you to feel a compulsion to eat.
I took this info from the handbook of a weightloss program that I am on. It’s called Neuro-Vision and it’s a hypnosis program. The guy who created it has been in business since 1978 so its pretty credit worthy, and had a lot of testimonials, so I bought it last week. I got it in the mail two days ago, and so far I like it a lot. It’s brought up some issues that I never really considered to be the root of my weight problems. The stuff above pretty much sums it up, but the thing that put it into perspective is when I was listening to one of the hypnosis tapes and he discussed “anchoring”. Anchoring is when you go through something (first kiss, hearing bad news, a party etc) and your brain takes note of your surroundings. From that point on your mind automatically connects certain things from that event (smells, objects, people etc) to trigger however you were feeling at the time. For instance, have you ever had a song play during a memorable time, good or bad, and from that point on whenever you heard that song it made you feel how you were feeling in that memory? This is anchoring.
So pretty much, when it comes to food our minds have the ability to do the same thing. Whenever you watch TV, read, eat at work or while driving etc, that activity becomes an anchor for hunger, and every time you do that activity, you automatically want to eat.
This made so much sense to me when I heard it. And for the last two days on this program, I have only eaten at the dinner table. Not in bed, in the living room in front of TV, at work, driving etc. By doing this, I’m conditioning my body to only want to eat when I’m at dinner table, and not 24 hours a day during every activity, making it damn near impossible to loose weight. I’m not on to the hypnosis part of the program yet, the first few days is the learning stuff, but just by limiting myself to only eat at the table, I’m ALREADY eating a lot less. This is so crazy and I’m really exited. Eating less has never been this effortless. Even though I wasn’t aware of it, I now know that I’ve brainwashed myself by eating all over the place. I’m the type of person who can’t go to the movies without eating popcorn, and I know that’s a shame. Seriously, how can I expect me self to permanently loose weight with this problem? That’s like listening to that “anchor” song, and expecting not to feel what it’s reminding you of. And I’ve lost weight temporarily on stuff, but always gained it back because I was fight myself the whole time, and when I got off the program, in came the old bad habits. America is fatter than ever, and there is more TV, drive throughs, commercials, and ways to make eating easier than ever. Every time I turn around a new “easier to eat in the car” meal. Pretty soon we’ll be eating in the bathtub. :offrant:
So…. I started thinking that this could be a good challenge...Any takers?
I’ve never started a challenge before, but I guess the rules would be:
1. Eat pretty much what you want (be sensible)
2. ONLY at the table, or a designated eating area
3. This means all snacks too
4. No eating at work desk, in the living room, in front of TV, while listening to music, while reading, while on the phone,..the only thing you should be doing while eating is EATING!
If you think this problem is contributing to your struggle with getting to your goals, then come join me!!!! I’m going to do this for myself, but It would be nice to have some company.