| You’ve just finished dinner. It was a wonderful meal and you had enough to eat. Now you are going to watch television. One of your favorite programs is on. It’s an hour long. You’re looking around for something to eat. Maybe some candy or something sweet. You weigh 30 pounds more than you want to weigh. Why do you want something to eat? You’ve just eaten dinner and you’re not hungry. Why do you almost instinctively want to put something else in your mouth? Tonight you’re not going to put any more food in your mouth. You’re going to watch television without any food. Does that thought make you nervous or anxious? Do you think you can really do it? What are you feeling after you tell yourself that you’re going to watch television without any food? Now do it. Watch your favorite program without eating anything. How do you feel? Do you miss the snacks? What do you miss the most? Is it having something in your mouth, or is it the taste or is it chewing the food? Go without eating any snacks as long as you can. Remember, the purpose of this experience is not to see how long you can go without snacks. The purpose is to experience your emotional reaction when you don’t put snacks in your mouth when you feel you need them. Therefore, you must continually ask yourself how you are feeling without the snacks. This will tell you why you feel you need to eat snacks after dinner when you know that the snacks help guarantee that you will continue to weigh 30 pounds more than you want to. After you’ve gone as long as you can, eat the snacks that you usually eat. Now, how do you feel? Do you feel better? Less anxious? More content? Happier? Is that why you eat the snacks? To feel less anxious? More content? Is that what you use the snacks for? Does food do those things for you? What do you think would happen to you if you didn’t eat snacks? Try this experience for a few nights and see how feel. Did you need the snacks as much on the second and third nights as you did the first time you did this? Once you appreciate the emotional reasons why you have been eating snacks you may find that they are not as essential as you once thought they were. |
