| Today you’re at a friend’s house. There are about 10 or 15 people there. It’s a neighborhood kind of gathering for dinner. You know everyone there. Before dinner everyone is having a drink before dinner and there are peanuts and cheese dips and crackers for appetizers. You automatically reach for a handful of peanuts. It’s what you’re used to eating at these gatherings. You like peanuts and cheese dips. They taste good. You’ve been to lots of dinner parties and everyone always serves some kind of appetizers before dinner. Everybody has some. You always eat some. You’ve never really thought of passing them up. But you weigh 30 pounds more than you want to weigh. Why do you want to eat those foods? You know they have lots of calories - just what you say you don’t want. Why then are you reaching for them? Why do you want to put them in your mouth and your system? What do you think would happen to you if you didn’t eat any peanuts or cheese dip? Is it a social necessity that you eat them? Would you be embarrassed if you didn’t have any? Would you feel funny? Would you embarrass the hostess? Or does you automatically eating appetizers have nothing to do with any social protocol? If you don’t want the calories in your system why do you want the appetizers in your mouth? Is that why you find yourself reaching for the appetizers? To put them in your mouth? If you were at home you wouldn’t even think of eating peanuts or cheese dip. But you’re at a dinner party and they are on the table in front of you. Now that you stop and think about it, why are you even considering putting the appetizers in your mouth? Today, let’s do something different. Don’t have any appetizers. Yes, you’re just going to pass them up. You’re going to make it all the way to dinner without any appetizers. See how you feel while you’re not putting them in your mouth (Never forget that is what eating is). Did you have withdrawal symptoms? Were you nervous? Did you feel uncomfortable? Did you experience any other negative emotional reaction? Anyway, you made it to dinner without them. Now that you’ve done that, look back on that simple experience and see how you feel. Was passing up the appetizers a bad or good emotional experience? Do you think you could do it again without any negative emotional reaction? No matter how you feel, pass up appetizers at the next dinner you’re at and see how you feel. Do you think you are getting a better grasp on why you eat as you do and why you weigh what you do? You are. |
