Don’t Get Hoodwinked
Becoming more aware of the hoodwinking messages of the midbrain requires not only a true commitment, but also an intense focus, complete perseverance and a bull-headed stubbornness!! Think of it like anything else you have developed expertise in…usually there is some reading and writing involved, and over time you get better and better at whatever it is. The following paragraphs walk through a binge scenario and a framework with which to analyze, understand and change it. You will be asked to journal your own binge experiences, analyze them and re-write them with an ending where you are in control, not your midbrain.
If you will recall your last food binge, you will notice that your only recollection of thinking during the entire binge, which my have lasted for hours, is after you started to become tired of the taste, or full. Until that moment you were acting as if under a spell, as if you weren’t really thinking at all. You may vaguely remember going through the motions of preparing the food, but you have great difficulty remembering anything as you gorged on the food of your choice.
When you came to your senses it was already too late, and you were left to sit in stuffed misery. This part is always easy to remember—the self-berating, the hopelessness and despair, the frustration and sadness, even self-hatred. “How could I have done that?” you can vividly remember thinking. “I feel so fat. I can’t stand this.”
Fatness is a feeling, a reaction, you have about your being overweight, your overeating, your body, and food itself. It is practicing a philosophy that causes emotional distress over one=s body and perpetuates the symptoms of overweight ness, compulsive overeating, bulimia, anorexia and weight gain relapse cycle. Recovery from fatness is a process of learning to think rationally about yourself, about your body, about cravings and appetites, and about some broader issues in life, so that you can then become in control of what you put in your mouth and make intelligent choices.
Remember, people have been overcoming patterns of self-defeating behaviors for thousands of years!! When one is finally unwilling to accept the painful consequences of his or her habitual behavior, use of the binge voice as an entity to be conquered really works. You are not incompetent, incapable or genetically doomed to take charge of your thinking and attitudes that are at the basis of healthy, appropriate eating.
The framework for analysis comes from the work of psychologist, Dr. Albert Ellis. It is mnemonic in nature with each step going from A to E.
The “A” is the activating event, what triggers the binge: it could be a snide comment, getting stuck in traffic, being disappointed by a loved one, feeling sad about things not going right.
The “B” is your belief system, which, until now, has been unconsciously driven by your midbrain: “I’ve got to have something to eat, I feel miserable. Just a little something, a couple of Utz BBQ potato chips to gnaw on maybe.”
The “C” is the consequence: “I cannot believe I ate that whole super size bag of chips, what is my problem?”
New “A” Activating event: “I ate the whole bag of chips.”
New “B” Belief: “Oh well, I may as well go for the Ben & Jerry’s now that I’ve blown it. What an idiot I am, I’ll never be any different.”
New “C” Consequence: “I feel really fat and gross now, this is hopeless…”
***NOW LET’S MOVE ON TO THE “D’s” and “E’s”…THE MOST CRITICAL ELEMENT**
“D” stands for Dispute. Going back to the first belief: “I’ve got to have something to eat, I feel miserable, just something…chips maybe.” Your “D,” dispute, or counterattack to this belief is:
“If I’m feeling lousy by whatever circumstances, does that mean I NEED to eat something? Must I eat right now, really? Of course I do not absolutely have to eat right now. I wouldn’t die for over a month if I started a total fast right now. In fact hunger in between meals is a good thing for me, it means I’m using up my reserves, my stored fat, for energy.”
“E” stands for Expertise: You must develop an expertise in how to dispute the binge voice. That’s right, you must become an expert, a black belt, at overthrowing the tyrant and its con game.
Let’s dispute the second belief of “Oh well, I may as well go for the Ben & Jerry’s now that I’ve blown it….” Your “D” or counterattack to this belief is: I haven’t blown it at all, if I kick in some damage control and have a light dinner—salad with some tuna, I’ll be fine. There is no evidence that I cannot get this under control. I’ve learned how to do many things in my life, and this is just one more challenge that I will meet. I’ve never tried to change my eating in THIS way, and now that I’m practicing, my brain is re-wiring already. Now I have tools and expertise to take back my health, my looks and my life.”