Part One
I hear voices. All the time. They call to me. They are not my friends, but they pretend to be. I am told that many of you do not hear voices like these. I can't imagine your life, any more than you can imagine mine. If you don't, go back to what you were doing. This is not for you.
A few months ago, our little community of Saturday morning Weight Watchers engaged in a discussion of holiday traditions, ideals, and stress. So many (of all three) center on food. Then, a few days later, my buddy Sharon recommended The End of Overeating by David Kessler. After a quick "hold" request to the library, it showed up in my reading pile a few weeks later.
Kessler does a masterful job of describing both the science and the personal anguish of eating out-of- control. He hears those voices as well. Leftover pizza in the frig. Candy jar on a desk down the hall. Ice cream and giant pretzels at the Mall. Their voices are beautiful, and they seduce us. But they are not our friends. They override our rational minds and sabotage our best interests. Learning to tune out the voices (or at least reduce the volume) is a life-long project. Kessler tells us why. He also tells us how.
"Conditioned hyper-eating" is a technical term for our urge to obey those voices. It arises in the complex circuitry of the brain-where stimuli have been paired, by evolution and experience, with euphoric reward. The two are linked directly, stimulus and response, without passing through the filter of reasoned choice. The more it is used, the stronger the connection grows. And grows. And grows. With disuse, the connection weakens (gradually). It never breaks completely.
Understanding brain biology motivates me to curb unwanted eating. I don't like obeying orders from the "reptilian brain" while my human frontal lobes stand by, helplessly looking on. However, while awareness may lead to frustration, it does not automatically lead to change. For change, we must meet the brain on its own terms. True, we are subject to its conditioned reflex of hyper-eating. It is also true that we can engage the power of reason and choice to build alternative conditioning, one step at a time.
Click here for the rest of the story.
