| Tonight is going to be a great night. You and your family are going to one of your favorite restaurants. You love the place. Not only is the food delicious, but they also serve the biggest portions. You can hardly wait to sink your teeth into their food and eat lots of it. You were almost counting the hours. Your family feels the same way. All week long you’ve been “good” so you could “splurge” tonight. You were kind of saving all your calories so you could enjoy tonight. You are counting on eating one of their giant desserts. It’s called “Death by Chocolate” or something equally enticing. Hey, you weigh 30 pounds too much. You hate what you weigh. Why are you salivating at the mere thought of increasing your problem? Why are you even thinking of doing this. After dinner you know that you will complain about all the food you ate and you will kind of waddle into the house. You know you will hate yourself tomorrow. You complain about your weight all the time but, when push comes to shove, there you are ready to stuff food in your mouth. You know you’re hurting yourself. Not tonight. Tonight you’re going to do something different. You’re going to go into that restaurant and order food, and an amount of food, that won’t cause you to weigh more. You’re going to bite your tongue and pass up the foods, and the amount of food, that you would normally gorge yourself with. No, you’re not going to starve. No, you’re not going on a diet. You’re not trying to eat less. Tonight, you’re going to find out why you eat all the food you do and why you weigh what you do. Here’s what you’re going to do. When you watch everyone eat all the food you would normally eat and you are eating different, and less, food you are going to watch your emotional reactions to not eating all that food. How do you feel without all that food? Do you feel deprived? Are you angry? Do you want to just take someone else’s food and shove it in your mouth? Would that make you happy? Why do you think it would? What emotional difference does it make if you put all that food in your mouth? Why do you have an emotional reaction to not having food? After all, it’s only food. It’s very important to feel your emotional reactions. This is not an intellectual exercise. Once you begin to feel your emotional reactions to not having the food you feel you need you will understand why you have been eating the way you do and why you weigh what you do. |
