Better Decisions

In this article I'd like to ask you to change the way you think about certain items of food. Let's say that you eat lots of cake, begin to notice how you think about that. Not what you think about it but how you think about cake.
Some people think about the cake and see it up really close and big. For others it will be further away. When you think of that food, like the cake that has a high level of attraction for you, where is it?

• Is it close to you or far away?
• Is it bright or dull?
• How big is the picture?
• Is it three-dimensional or flat?
• Is it framed or panoramic?
• Are you part of the picture?

Now think about something else that you are equally attracted to. This time it might be chocolate, and ask yourself the same questions as above.

The chances are your visualization of these things will be very similar.

Now, think of food that you can take or leave. You don't feel a strong attraction to it either way. You don't have to have it. Let's say that's apples. Ask yourself the questions from the list above. Chances are you won't see it in the same way.

How we feel about something is very much denoted about how we visualize it.

Now what we can do, is switch the visualization between the thing you like and the thing you feel neutral about. We can take the representation of the food you love and recode it with the food you don't like as much.

So take the food you really like and move it to where the food you can take or leave is, make it the same size, brightness, dimensions etc.

As an exercise keep doing this with the food you like and repeat the exercise quicker and quicker. Do this three or four times in rapid succession.

There's a common NLP pattern that when we go from like to dislike. We recode something we like with something we don't like.

This will help you to remove some of the compulsion and impulsive element to the thing itself when you move it to something that has more choice attached to it.

Here's the thing. You're surrounded by food all the time. So this will help you think and begin to make better food choices. This allows you to take charge of what you think should go into your body. This way you also won't rely on an external event. You'll be able to go to a function where there's food you want to eat and make thought out choices about which to eat and which to forgo.

It will be very hard for you if you want everyone around you to remove temptation rather than your taking responsibility for it. This requires an active participation on your part.

Start to become an observer of how you think about certain foods. Remember, because they're your thoughts, you can change them. Think about foods that have a compulsion element for you and begin to think about them like foods where you have more choices and therefor are able to make better decisions. ...