Eating Disorders and The Self-Hypnosis Exercise
by Herbert & David Spiegel
Notes for Discussion with Clients
Basic Principles Concerning Eating and Dieting:
1). Choose a Varied Diet. There are many good ones (Paleo, 21-Day Fix, Weight Watchers, etc.) Feel free to shift from one diet to another…depending on the day or your mood. As you choose this freedom…it becomes your commitment. No longer are you forced to blindly follow someone else’s diet plan. The major issue is the total number of calories that you take in relation to your physical activity.
2). Change Your Relationship to Your Body. As important as calories are…fighting calories is too narrow a focus. It’s too hard to pay attention to it around the clock. You need to change your philosophy of life. You need to change your point of view toward your body and eating behavior.
3). Accept Responsibility for Your Eating Behavior. Don’t blame your eating behavior on parents…stress…boredom…etc. Of all the things that occur in your life, there is nothing in which you are more clearly 100% responsible for than your eating behavior.
4). Prepare for Normal Weight. While you are slimming down…it is mandatory that you learn to reacquaint yourself with your body, so that you prepare yourself to meet your body at your normal weight. It will be like meeting a long-lost friend and, having prepared yourself for the meeting, you will be in a position to hold on to that friendship indefinitely. If you don’t…when you get your weight down you will have an eerie feeling of being like a stranger in your own body…and you will go right back up. You must prepare for this!
Self-Hypnosis Exercise Directions:
Sit in a comfortable chair…preferably a straight chair. Just don’t recline. Without tilting your head…look up and find a spot on the ceiling to stare at. Take a nice deep breath through your nose…expanding your belly and chest. Hold that breath a second or two…and then slowly exhale through slightly parted lips. Make sure you breathe out all the air. Take a second deep breath and do the same. Finally…take a third deep breath…and hold that breath a second or two. Then close your eyes and sleep now. Imagine your body floating…like a helium balloon rising in the sky. As you’re floating…imagine these 3 critical points:
1). For your body…overeating is in effect poison. Like with water…you need water to live…but too much water will drown you. Likewise… you need food to live…but too much of this very same food in effect becomes poison.”
2). You cannot live without your body. Your body is the precious physical plant through which you experience life.”
3). To the extent that you want to live your life to its fullest…you owe your body this commitment to respect it and protect it. This is your way of acknowledging the fragile precious nature of your body…and at the same time it is your way of seeing yourself as our body’s keeper. You are in truth…your body’s keeper. When you make this commitment to respect your body…you have within you the power to so radically change your eating and drinking behavior that each eating experience becomes for you an exercise in disciplined respect for your body integrity. Lock this concept in mind so it becomes a posthypnotic signal that you give to yourself.
Then bring yourself out of the state of mediation this way:
Three, get ready
Two, with your eyelids closed, roll up your eyes
And One, let your eyelids open slowly.
Four major ways in which “slender eating” differs from “obese eating:”
1). A slender person looks at food as fuel…like filling up a gas tank and driving off. An obese person fills up the gas tank but then he sees additional fuel in the pump and he reasons like this: ‘Well, since it is there, I might as well take more.’ But since the vehicle tank is full, he fills up gas can after gas can. Perhaps he feels a little silly and rationalizes by saying, ‘You never know…I might run out of gas down the road and really need the extra fuel.’ That’s not only silly, but it is mischievous. You are a slender person. To you…food is fuel.”
2). Secondly, no matter how delicious the food is…once his appetite is satisfied…a slender person regards that extra food on the plate as belonging either in the refrigerator or in the garbage can. The obese person, without admitting it to himself, reasons like this: ‘It’s a shame to put it into that garbage can: I might as well put it into this garbage can.’ At that point, the obese person is abandoning respect for his body integrity without admitting it to himself.
3). Thirdly, there are two major kinds of ceremonies regarding eating: mundane and social. If mealtime comes around…a slender person eats if he is hungry. If not, he will skip it. If an obese person is not hungry when mealtime comes, he or she reasons like this: ‘Well, I guess I don’t feel hungry, but I may get hungry, therefore I had better eat.’ This involves denying the signal from the body that it doesn’t need food.
On social occasions…a slender person eats if he is hungry; if not, he will take a token bite to socialize. An obese person reasons like this: ‘I don’t want to embarrass the host and hostess,’ or ‘I don’t want to appear out of place…so I’ll just eat like everyone else.’ Again…he denies the message from the body that it doesn’t need food.
4). The fourth difference is a more subtle one, and that is the way we use our symbols or metaphors, especially our body metaphors. We all live our lives using metaphors at various times. For example…if you believe that a piece of chocolate will take your mood from a bored…stressed…or unhappy one, you may want it so much that you formulate it privately in terms of having a hunger or thirst for it. But the desire can get so vivid that you feel if you eat that chocolate or other craved food you are actually going to satisfy your desire. And that is where the deception takes place. This is the error of confusing the menu with the meal.
In order to bring all of this into focus…there are two guidelines that can help keep a sense of balance between these extremes. The first guideline is this: always, always eat with respect…with respect for your body. Because if you respect your body…you are never likely to regard it as a garbage can. The more important part of that perspective is that you avoid the biggest trap of all, which is to tell yourself, ‘Don’t eat that.’ Once you get caught in that trap…you are losing. It is like telling yourself, ‘Don’t have an itch on your nose.’ Do you feel it? Or, ‘Try to think about not swallowing.’ Free people don’t like to be told ‘don’t.’ When God said to Adam and Eve, ‘Don’t eat the apple,’ that was the end of Paradise. This is a basic observation about the human condition. Why not use this knowledge if you want to devise a strategy that can work? You can use it this way: turn it around and you have an immediate conclusion…which is that a far more effective way to change behavior is to do it on the basis of something you are for. So if you approach it is way, you will respect and protect your body. In the course of protecting your body from overeating you can radically change your behavior, but you feel it as ‘Yes, I respect my body’ instead of ‘Don’t eat that.’
The second of these two guidelines is Learn to eat like a gourmet. Why a gourmet? Because a gourmet pays full attention to every swallow. Every swallow is a total encounter with food. He is aware of the touch, the taste, the smell, the temperature, the texture of the food, and with such total involvement that it is incredible how much fulfillment and enjoyment he gets out of each swallow. In fact, this whole process not only helps you to radically change your eating behavior…but it brings joy back to eating again. The gourmet does not make the mistake of saying, ‘Oh I swallowed that food, but I don’t remember what it tastes like. I had better take another bite.’ The reason a gourmet does not make that mistake is because each swallow is such a total involvement that the memory of it stays with him. He doesn’t have to keep getting reinforcements of new food because he knows fully what the experience was. The stereotype that gourmets are overweight is just not true. Most of the great gourmets of the world are either of normal weight or are underweight.
Now…let’s pull all of this together. You have the recurrent urge to eat and drink, and the urge to respect your body, which you reinforce by doing this exercise every one to two hours. Lock these two urges together until you form a psychological filter and then ask yourself the question, ‘Does this intended food reflect respect for my body?’ If it conforms to the program that you have committed yourself to for that day and the answer is yes, eat it and enjoy every swallow. But if the answer is ‘No, it does not conform to my program for the day,’ then, instead of fighting food, by emphasizing this respect for your body you are ignoring the urge to eat rather than fighting it. See the difference?
“Now with that in mind…let’s go back to the exercise. Without tilting your head…look up and find a spot on the ceiling to stare at. Take a nice deep breath through your nose…expanding your belly and chest. Hold that breath a second or two…and then slowly exhale through slightly parted lips. Make sure you breathe out all the air. Take a second deep breath and do the same. Finally…take a third deep breath…and hold that breath a second or two. Then close your eyes and sleep now. Imagine your body floating…like a helium balloon rising in the sky. As you’re floating…imagine these 3 critical points:
“For my body, overeating is a poison.”
“I need my body to live.”
“I owe my body this respect and protection.”
Then bring yourself out of the state of mediation:
Three, get ready
Two, with your eyelids closed, roll up your eyes
And One, let your eyelids open slowly.
The temptation to fight food is there…but it is deceiving. On the surface you have the illusion of feeling virtuous, ‘I’m fighting it.’ But beneath the surface, you are making it worse because you are fighting it.
One thing obvious is that your body is innocent. Your body does not know how to deal with your metaphors and desires. You know how, but your body doesn’t. When you realize that your body has this trusting innocence and depends upon your judgment, it sharpens your sense of responsibility. For example…when you cross a street, you take certain precautions. Have you noticed how much more careful you are if you are supervising a child crossing the street? You see how natural it is to respond to the trusting, innocent living creature that depends upon your judgment; you see how natural it can be to take this position of respect and protection toward your body. What you are doing is so radically changing your philosophy of living that you are taking a new point of view toward your body. You are viewing it as this trusting creature that counts on your judgment, and as a consequence of that…you are changing your eating behavior rather than fighting calories.
by Herbert & David Spiegel
Notes for Discussion with Clients
Basic Principles Concerning Eating and Dieting:
1). Choose a Varied Diet. There are many good ones (Paleo, 21-Day Fix, Weight Watchers, etc.) Feel free to shift from one diet to another…depending on the day or your mood. As you choose this freedom…it becomes your commitment. No longer are you forced to blindly follow someone else’s diet plan. The major issue is the total number of calories that you take in relation to your physical activity.
2). Change Your Relationship to Your Body. As important as calories are…fighting calories is too narrow a focus. It’s too hard to pay attention to it around the clock. You need to change your philosophy of life. You need to change your point of view toward your body and eating behavior.
3). Accept Responsibility for Your Eating Behavior. Don’t blame your eating behavior on parents…stress…boredom…etc. Of all the things that occur in your life, there is nothing in which you are more clearly 100% responsible for than your eating behavior.
4). Prepare for Normal Weight. While you are slimming down…it is mandatory that you learn to reacquaint yourself with your body, so that you prepare yourself to meet your body at your normal weight. It will be like meeting a long-lost friend and, having prepared yourself for the meeting, you will be in a position to hold on to that friendship indefinitely. If you don’t…when you get your weight down you will have an eerie feeling of being like a stranger in your own body…and you will go right back up. You must prepare for this!
Self-Hypnosis Exercise Directions:
Sit in a comfortable chair…preferably a straight chair. Just don’t recline. Without tilting your head…look up and find a spot on the ceiling to stare at. Take a nice deep breath through your nose…expanding your belly and chest. Hold that breath a second or two…and then slowly exhale through slightly parted lips. Make sure you breathe out all the air. Take a second deep breath and do the same. Finally…take a third deep breath…and hold that breath a second or two. Then close your eyes and sleep now. Imagine your body floating…like a helium balloon rising in the sky. As you’re floating…imagine these 3 critical points:
1). For your body…overeating is in effect poison. Like with water…you need water to live…but too much water will drown you. Likewise… you need food to live…but too much of this very same food in effect becomes poison.”
2). You cannot live without your body. Your body is the precious physical plant through which you experience life.”
3). To the extent that you want to live your life to its fullest…you owe your body this commitment to respect it and protect it. This is your way of acknowledging the fragile precious nature of your body…and at the same time it is your way of seeing yourself as our body’s keeper. You are in truth…your body’s keeper. When you make this commitment to respect your body…you have within you the power to so radically change your eating and drinking behavior that each eating experience becomes for you an exercise in disciplined respect for your body integrity. Lock this concept in mind so it becomes a posthypnotic signal that you give to yourself.
Then bring yourself out of the state of mediation this way:
Three, get ready
Two, with your eyelids closed, roll up your eyes
And One, let your eyelids open slowly.
Four major ways in which “slender eating” differs from “obese eating:”
1). A slender person looks at food as fuel…like filling up a gas tank and driving off. An obese person fills up the gas tank but then he sees additional fuel in the pump and he reasons like this: ‘Well, since it is there, I might as well take more.’ But since the vehicle tank is full, he fills up gas can after gas can. Perhaps he feels a little silly and rationalizes by saying, ‘You never know…I might run out of gas down the road and really need the extra fuel.’ That’s not only silly, but it is mischievous. You are a slender person. To you…food is fuel.”
2). Secondly, no matter how delicious the food is…once his appetite is satisfied…a slender person regards that extra food on the plate as belonging either in the refrigerator or in the garbage can. The obese person, without admitting it to himself, reasons like this: ‘It’s a shame to put it into that garbage can: I might as well put it into this garbage can.’ At that point, the obese person is abandoning respect for his body integrity without admitting it to himself.
3). Thirdly, there are two major kinds of ceremonies regarding eating: mundane and social. If mealtime comes around…a slender person eats if he is hungry. If not, he will skip it. If an obese person is not hungry when mealtime comes, he or she reasons like this: ‘Well, I guess I don’t feel hungry, but I may get hungry, therefore I had better eat.’ This involves denying the signal from the body that it doesn’t need food.
On social occasions…a slender person eats if he is hungry; if not, he will take a token bite to socialize. An obese person reasons like this: ‘I don’t want to embarrass the host and hostess,’ or ‘I don’t want to appear out of place…so I’ll just eat like everyone else.’ Again…he denies the message from the body that it doesn’t need food.
4). The fourth difference is a more subtle one, and that is the way we use our symbols or metaphors, especially our body metaphors. We all live our lives using metaphors at various times. For example…if you believe that a piece of chocolate will take your mood from a bored…stressed…or unhappy one, you may want it so much that you formulate it privately in terms of having a hunger or thirst for it. But the desire can get so vivid that you feel if you eat that chocolate or other craved food you are actually going to satisfy your desire. And that is where the deception takes place. This is the error of confusing the menu with the meal.
In order to bring all of this into focus…there are two guidelines that can help keep a sense of balance between these extremes. The first guideline is this: always, always eat with respect…with respect for your body. Because if you respect your body…you are never likely to regard it as a garbage can. The more important part of that perspective is that you avoid the biggest trap of all, which is to tell yourself, ‘Don’t eat that.’ Once you get caught in that trap…you are losing. It is like telling yourself, ‘Don’t have an itch on your nose.’ Do you feel it? Or, ‘Try to think about not swallowing.’ Free people don’t like to be told ‘don’t.’ When God said to Adam and Eve, ‘Don’t eat the apple,’ that was the end of Paradise. This is a basic observation about the human condition. Why not use this knowledge if you want to devise a strategy that can work? You can use it this way: turn it around and you have an immediate conclusion…which is that a far more effective way to change behavior is to do it on the basis of something you are for. So if you approach it is way, you will respect and protect your body. In the course of protecting your body from overeating you can radically change your behavior, but you feel it as ‘Yes, I respect my body’ instead of ‘Don’t eat that.’
The second of these two guidelines is Learn to eat like a gourmet. Why a gourmet? Because a gourmet pays full attention to every swallow. Every swallow is a total encounter with food. He is aware of the touch, the taste, the smell, the temperature, the texture of the food, and with such total involvement that it is incredible how much fulfillment and enjoyment he gets out of each swallow. In fact, this whole process not only helps you to radically change your eating behavior…but it brings joy back to eating again. The gourmet does not make the mistake of saying, ‘Oh I swallowed that food, but I don’t remember what it tastes like. I had better take another bite.’ The reason a gourmet does not make that mistake is because each swallow is such a total involvement that the memory of it stays with him. He doesn’t have to keep getting reinforcements of new food because he knows fully what the experience was. The stereotype that gourmets are overweight is just not true. Most of the great gourmets of the world are either of normal weight or are underweight.
Now…let’s pull all of this together. You have the recurrent urge to eat and drink, and the urge to respect your body, which you reinforce by doing this exercise every one to two hours. Lock these two urges together until you form a psychological filter and then ask yourself the question, ‘Does this intended food reflect respect for my body?’ If it conforms to the program that you have committed yourself to for that day and the answer is yes, eat it and enjoy every swallow. But if the answer is ‘No, it does not conform to my program for the day,’ then, instead of fighting food, by emphasizing this respect for your body you are ignoring the urge to eat rather than fighting it. See the difference?
“Now with that in mind…let’s go back to the exercise. Without tilting your head…look up and find a spot on the ceiling to stare at. Take a nice deep breath through your nose…expanding your belly and chest. Hold that breath a second or two…and then slowly exhale through slightly parted lips. Make sure you breathe out all the air. Take a second deep breath and do the same. Finally…take a third deep breath…and hold that breath a second or two. Then close your eyes and sleep now. Imagine your body floating…like a helium balloon rising in the sky. As you’re floating…imagine these 3 critical points:
“For my body, overeating is a poison.”
“I need my body to live.”
“I owe my body this respect and protection.”
Then bring yourself out of the state of mediation:
Three, get ready
Two, with your eyelids closed, roll up your eyes
And One, let your eyelids open slowly.
The temptation to fight food is there…but it is deceiving. On the surface you have the illusion of feeling virtuous, ‘I’m fighting it.’ But beneath the surface, you are making it worse because you are fighting it.
One thing obvious is that your body is innocent. Your body does not know how to deal with your metaphors and desires. You know how, but your body doesn’t. When you realize that your body has this trusting innocence and depends upon your judgment, it sharpens your sense of responsibility. For example…when you cross a street, you take certain precautions. Have you noticed how much more careful you are if you are supervising a child crossing the street? You see how natural it is to respond to the trusting, innocent living creature that depends upon your judgment; you see how natural it can be to take this position of respect and protection toward your body. What you are doing is so radically changing your philosophy of living that you are taking a new point of view toward your body. You are viewing it as this trusting creature that counts on your judgment, and as a consequence of that…you are changing your eating behavior rather than fighting calories.
