I'm a big proponent of AVRT
in dealing with staying OP and my food addiction, in general.
OK, Linda, what the HECK are you talking about?
What IS AVRT?
...LOL...well, AVRT stands for Addictive Voice Recognition Technique. And it's something I learned from Jack Trimpey's "Rational Recovery"....a book, by the way, that I recommend so highly, that it's the basis of my thinking when dealing with my weight...and it's how I got to goal!
(Well, the THOUGHT process, anyway. The MF meals were the actual 'tool', of course).
The weird thing is, Rational Recovery isn't even ABOUT overeating!
It's not even a "diet book". It's about alcoholism!
But the similarities....the process our BRAINS go through...are so identical that you literally can substitute 'food' for 'drink' in his book and immediately see the benefit of it.
So what IS AVRT?
Well, first of all, it's recognizing and realizing that we all are of 'two minds'.
We have an intellectual side, the 'higher level' of our brain, the human side that wants to get healthy, wants to lose the weight, and is SICK AND TIRED of being overweight.
She (for lack of a better pronoun, guys, this isn't a denigration...just bear with me) just wants to be slim and 'normal'. She wants to lose this weight once and for all. She wants CONTROL over her eating. She knows if she keeps down this path she'll wind up with more health problems...if she doesn't have them already...such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, pain in the knees and feet from supporting all that weight, all the associated horrible diseases that can occur when you're overweight.
BUT...we also have ANOTHER side. And this other side is what I call 'Fat Brain'....but she isn't something I made up, she's a very REAL part of us, she's the lower level of our brains, our 'animal nature', left over from thousands of years of evolution. She is the part of your brain that is resisting your efforts to lose weight.
WHY? Because the way you ate before is EASIER.
And she likes the easy way. She WANTS the easy way.
She is so primitive that she doesn't care about the difficulties involved in being fat, her job is to keep you ALIVE.
So, to her, that means 'EAT'. She's gone haywire, of course, because she wants to eat TOO much, but in the final analysis that's all she is, is a lower part of our brain that doesn't know any better.
How she got that way? Well you can go krazy trying to figure that out. Don't bother, because what's the use? You can't go back in time and undo it. The past is the past.
You learned, somewhere along the way, whether it was from your parents giving you a cookie to 'feel better' (or when you were good to 'reward' you), whether you discovered on your own that you loved "X" junk food and loved the feeling you got from stuffing yourself with it, whatever.
The bottom line is, we eat for PLEASURE. Call it what you will, an escape, boredom, loneliness, depression, anxiety, anger, whatever...we eat because we LIKE it.
And for a little while, we can sink into a 'food trance' and ESCAPE from our troubles. Just like an alcoholic uses drink or a drug addict uses drugs, we use food.
Don't believe me?
Take a look at this list of things Jack has in his book about 'WHY WE DRINK':
- To RELAX after a HARD DAY
- To FIT IN with the CROWD
- Because life has so few simple pleasures, so little meaning, so few opportunities
- Because I don't have the money or right job or education to afford the big luxuries, so this is all I have
- To ENJOY certain activities
- Because there's nothing else to do/BOREDOM
- To Help me Concentrate
- To cope with LONELINESS
- To relieve DEPRESSION
- To "mellow out" when I'm UPSET or ANGRY
- To Cope with Tragedy
- Because I 'crave' it
- To prove I can handle it
- Because I love the taste
Did you find any of YOUR excuses on this list? Believe it or not, all these were listed as reasons people kept drinking!
So....when you look at it that way, you can see that you are 'using' food just the way an alcoholic 'uses' booze or a drug addict 'uses' dope.
So then you have to ask yourself, WHY can't I stop?
You can't stop because you're LISTENING to Fat Brain....that lower part of your brain. She is sly, she is sneaky, she can twist your logic around in your head, and before you know it you swear you NEED this. You HAVE to have 'X' or 'Y'. You MUST go off plan because ....(whatever reason Fat Brain provided). And trust me, she's got a lot of them!
So how do you counter her? You learn to LISTEN for her. That's where AVRT comes in.
When you practice ADDICTIVE VOICE RECOGNITION TECHNIQUES, you can identify "Fat Brain" as soon as she whispers in your ear. You realize where it's coming from....and you know that's not really YOU, the intellectual YOU, the YOU that 'drives the bus', that guides your life. You do NOT have to be ruled by Fat Brain!
Just stop listening to her! (5 words....do them, follow the program, and you'll be at GOAL)
So why is it so HARD?
Well, the problem is, because Fat Brain is a PART of you, she knows you very, very well. And she has all your logic....she knows it inside and out...she's also quite clever and can twist your own words around to suit her purposes.
She's also IN YOUR HEAD....so right from the start you're thinking it's 'YOU' talking....but it isn't....not really! Separate her out! She's not your 'intuition' or your 'instinct' or your 'urge' or your 'craving' or your 'need'....she's just...what she is...the animal part of your brain wanting you to do what you ALWAYS did. Get some pleasure. Give it up and EAT already.
The tricky part is....Fat Brain can be so seductive, so tricky, that she will disguise herself. She will tell you she's just telling you this "for your own good". She can and will justify ANYTHING she says. If you screwed up and ate a cookie, for example, she will swear you 'blew it' and therefore should go on an all-out binge the rest of the day because you 'blew it anyway'. If you do well, let's say 95% well while going out to dinner and really did the best you could, she will tell you you didn't do well enough so you're 'hopeless' and should just 'give up'.
When you're tired she'll tell you food is a great pick-me-up.
When you're lonely she'll tell you food is comforting. She'll REMIND you about your favorite junk food....she will plan a binge...she will tell you it's SO doable, no one's around to see, what's the big deal you can go back OP tomorrow morning, right?
She can justify ANYTHING.
But you can listen for her...and you can STOP her mid-sentence with a simple strong 'NO' and that's that! Because remember, YOU are in charge. She isn't. She's just a leftover piece of your brain, that's all. Left over from the caveman days, where getting enough to eat was literally a matter of life and death.
But it's not that way anymore! You're NOT in danger of starving. None of us is. There are places to get food every 50 feet in this country. And the junkier the food, the easier it is to come by! (ever wonder why that is? MONEY!!! Junk food costs little and makes a LOT).
This is a process called 'Aggressive Listening'. You LISTEN for your 'beast'...your Fat Brain...and when you hear her, you ARGUE RIGHT BACK. You pull the rug out from under her, logic-wise and COUNTER her stupidity. Because let's face it, some of the stuff she comes up with is so ridiculous it borders on SILLY.
For example....standing at my counter making dinner for some reason is a 'physical trigger' for me, because that's when I would start shoving extra food in my mouth when I was heavy. So now, every time I stand at that counter to make lunch or dinner or whatever, Fat Brain may say something like, 'Just have a little more tonight...you deserve it'. And I'll say
"WHY? What in the WORLD did I do today to justify overeating?" I know I'm taking the 'wind out of her sails'. (NOTE: if I worked out hard? I'll have extra protein...but that's ALL. That's enough! I don't need to STUFF myself, under ANY circumstances!)
Or she'll tell me "One won't hurt" (oh the famous one won't hurt line! LOL)....and I'll be like, "YES, IT WILL!" because I KNOW BETTER!
How many eating binges started with "One won't hurt"?
Or there's the ever-popular "I don't FEEL like making a salad...just do something quick instead". This implies I'm not WORTH it, I'm not GOOD enough to spend 10 additional minutes to prepare a decent, healthy meal? No way! I AM worth it! So I don't 'feel like it'. I'll be grateful I took the time now and made myself a GOOD meal!
There are a million things Fat Brain can come up with...check out my blog on Fat Brain from a couple days ago for more!
....and I bet you can think of many of your own.
WHENEVER you hear a voice inside telling you to go offplan, it's time to practice AVRT and 'Recognize' your 'Addictive Voice' and DEAL with her.
Here's another way to deal with her. Jack calls it 'attacking' the Beast. It's important to learn how to do this! Here's where that comes in....Fat Brain will tell you the world is going to end soon...(if you watch the news you can really start to urge the fear on, right? Sure....."Hey, what if those terrorists got ahold of a nuclear bomb! We could all be DEAD tomorrow! So I might as well ENJOY MYSELF TONIGHT, right?")But you need to ATTACK this logic right back! Say something like "OK, first of all, realistically what are the odds that will REALLY happen? ... and secondly, what is my overeating going to do to prevent that?" In fact you could be so fixated on a binge...or so overstuffed...that you won't be able to take care of your family in a situation like that! So you are ATTACKING your beast right back.SANothSo youSo situy in Still another technique involves 'shifting' back and forth between Fat Brain's logic and your own. Look at the food you can't have -- say the bread basket at a restaurant. And hear Fat Brain tell you 'one little piece of bread won't hurt'....and FEEL the way Fat Brain feels...all hungry all of a sudden, salivating, etc....Now "SHIFT" into your HUMAN INTELLECTUAL side....and ARGUE with that logic. Tell yourself "I know better....one piece WILL hurt, it may throw me out of ketosis...but more importantly it will OPEN THE FLOODGATES and I'll go nuts. I know that about myself because it's happened, over and over again! So NO I do NOT need that piece of bread...in fact that bread is POISON to me!" Now you're picturing the bread as poison to your body....as just a bunch of flour and fat and empty carbs that will do NOTHING for you nutritionally. Suddenly the bread doesn't look so tasty, does it? What'< /font>What's cool about this is you can 'switch' back and forth between Fat Brain and your REAL brain and therefore see how EASY it can be to SHUT FAT BRAIN OFF!!!!
What a revelation!
Last but not least, you can 'talk' to your future self. What IF you were to jump ahead in time, say 20 years, and see yourself? What would you look like? If you continue to go down the road you're going if you're struggling, you may look EXACTLY THE SAME ...or maybe even heavier! But if you stay OP, you may look wonderful! Look how slim your stomach is....how long your legs look....how FIT you look! Wow you look HAPPY!
Now go backwards in time...talk to yourself 10 years ago. What would you have told yourself regarding your weight loss struggle?
I think this is a good exercise because it provides some PERSPECTIVE on our situations. And we can 'see' how our actions will define WHO WE WILL BECOME in the future!
Listen, AVRT isn't just a weird technical term. We are ALL practicing it every day when we 'talk back' to that part of ourselves that doesn't want to stay OP. We all have our tough times...how you REASON with yourself....how much 'credit' you give to that 'impulse' ....is what makes the difference between success and failure.
You need to SEPARATE OUT the two voices....and REMEMBER that YOU are in charge.
YOU can choose to 'only' listen to your HUMAN, INTELLECTUAL side.
YOU can be ever-alert for Fat Brain's games. And believe me, she can do so many games you wouldn't believe it! They are all EXCUSES. That's all!
In reality, staying OP is EASY when you stop listening to the b.s.
YOU CAN DO IT!
For more info check out the book here:
Rational Recovery
Keep on keepin' on...and don't CAVE to the CRAVING!
OK, Linda, what the HECK are you talking about?
What IS AVRT?
...LOL...well, AVRT stands for Addictive Voice Recognition Technique. And it's something I learned from Jack Trimpey's "Rational Recovery"....a book, by the way, that I recommend so highly, that it's the basis of my thinking when dealing with my weight...and it's how I got to goal!
(Well, the THOUGHT process, anyway. The MF meals were the actual 'tool', of course).
The weird thing is, Rational Recovery isn't even ABOUT overeating!
It's not even a "diet book". It's about alcoholism!
But the similarities....the process our BRAINS go through...are so identical that you literally can substitute 'food' for 'drink' in his book and immediately see the benefit of it.
So what IS AVRT?
Well, first of all, it's recognizing and realizing that we all are of 'two minds'.
We have an intellectual side, the 'higher level' of our brain, the human side that wants to get healthy, wants to lose the weight, and is SICK AND TIRED of being overweight.
She (for lack of a better pronoun, guys, this isn't a denigration...just bear with me) just wants to be slim and 'normal'. She wants to lose this weight once and for all. She wants CONTROL over her eating. She knows if she keeps down this path she'll wind up with more health problems...if she doesn't have them already...such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, pain in the knees and feet from supporting all that weight, all the associated horrible diseases that can occur when you're overweight.
BUT...we also have ANOTHER side. And this other side is what I call 'Fat Brain'....but she isn't something I made up, she's a very REAL part of us, she's the lower level of our brains, our 'animal nature', left over from thousands of years of evolution. She is the part of your brain that is resisting your efforts to lose weight.
WHY? Because the way you ate before is EASIER.
And she likes the easy way. She WANTS the easy way.
She is so primitive that she doesn't care about the difficulties involved in being fat, her job is to keep you ALIVE.
So, to her, that means 'EAT'. She's gone haywire, of course, because she wants to eat TOO much, but in the final analysis that's all she is, is a lower part of our brain that doesn't know any better.
How she got that way? Well you can go krazy trying to figure that out. Don't bother, because what's the use? You can't go back in time and undo it. The past is the past.
You learned, somewhere along the way, whether it was from your parents giving you a cookie to 'feel better' (or when you were good to 'reward' you), whether you discovered on your own that you loved "X" junk food and loved the feeling you got from stuffing yourself with it, whatever.
The bottom line is, we eat for PLEASURE. Call it what you will, an escape, boredom, loneliness, depression, anxiety, anger, whatever...we eat because we LIKE it.
And for a little while, we can sink into a 'food trance' and ESCAPE from our troubles. Just like an alcoholic uses drink or a drug addict uses drugs, we use food.
Don't believe me?
Take a look at this list of things Jack has in his book about 'WHY WE DRINK':
- To RELAX after a HARD DAY
- To FIT IN with the CROWD
- Because life has so few simple pleasures, so little meaning, so few opportunities
- Because I don't have the money or right job or education to afford the big luxuries, so this is all I have
- To ENJOY certain activities
- Because there's nothing else to do/BOREDOM
- To Help me Concentrate
- To cope with LONELINESS
- To relieve DEPRESSION
- To "mellow out" when I'm UPSET or ANGRY
- To Cope with Tragedy
- Because I 'crave' it
- To prove I can handle it
- Because I love the taste
Did you find any of YOUR excuses on this list? Believe it or not, all these were listed as reasons people kept drinking!
So....when you look at it that way, you can see that you are 'using' food just the way an alcoholic 'uses' booze or a drug addict 'uses' dope.
So then you have to ask yourself, WHY can't I stop?
You can't stop because you're LISTENING to Fat Brain....that lower part of your brain. She is sly, she is sneaky, she can twist your logic around in your head, and before you know it you swear you NEED this. You HAVE to have 'X' or 'Y'. You MUST go off plan because ....(whatever reason Fat Brain provided). And trust me, she's got a lot of them!
So how do you counter her? You learn to LISTEN for her. That's where AVRT comes in.
When you practice ADDICTIVE VOICE RECOGNITION TECHNIQUES, you can identify "Fat Brain" as soon as she whispers in your ear. You realize where it's coming from....and you know that's not really YOU, the intellectual YOU, the YOU that 'drives the bus', that guides your life. You do NOT have to be ruled by Fat Brain!
Just stop listening to her! (5 words....do them, follow the program, and you'll be at GOAL)
So why is it so HARD?
Well, the problem is, because Fat Brain is a PART of you, she knows you very, very well. And she has all your logic....she knows it inside and out...she's also quite clever and can twist your own words around to suit her purposes.
She's also IN YOUR HEAD....so right from the start you're thinking it's 'YOU' talking....but it isn't....not really! Separate her out! She's not your 'intuition' or your 'instinct' or your 'urge' or your 'craving' or your 'need'....she's just...what she is...the animal part of your brain wanting you to do what you ALWAYS did. Get some pleasure. Give it up and EAT already.
The tricky part is....Fat Brain can be so seductive, so tricky, that she will disguise herself. She will tell you she's just telling you this "for your own good". She can and will justify ANYTHING she says. If you screwed up and ate a cookie, for example, she will swear you 'blew it' and therefore should go on an all-out binge the rest of the day because you 'blew it anyway'. If you do well, let's say 95% well while going out to dinner and really did the best you could, she will tell you you didn't do well enough so you're 'hopeless' and should just 'give up'.
When you're tired she'll tell you food is a great pick-me-up.
When you're lonely she'll tell you food is comforting. She'll REMIND you about your favorite junk food....she will plan a binge...she will tell you it's SO doable, no one's around to see, what's the big deal you can go back OP tomorrow morning, right?
She can justify ANYTHING.
But you can listen for her...and you can STOP her mid-sentence with a simple strong 'NO' and that's that! Because remember, YOU are in charge. She isn't. She's just a leftover piece of your brain, that's all. Left over from the caveman days, where getting enough to eat was literally a matter of life and death.
But it's not that way anymore! You're NOT in danger of starving. None of us is. There are places to get food every 50 feet in this country. And the junkier the food, the easier it is to come by! (ever wonder why that is? MONEY!!! Junk food costs little and makes a LOT).
This is a process called 'Aggressive Listening'. You LISTEN for your 'beast'...your Fat Brain...and when you hear her, you ARGUE RIGHT BACK. You pull the rug out from under her, logic-wise and COUNTER her stupidity. Because let's face it, some of the stuff she comes up with is so ridiculous it borders on SILLY.
For example....standing at my counter making dinner for some reason is a 'physical trigger' for me, because that's when I would start shoving extra food in my mouth when I was heavy. So now, every time I stand at that counter to make lunch or dinner or whatever, Fat Brain may say something like, 'Just have a little more tonight...you deserve it'. And I'll say
"WHY? What in the WORLD did I do today to justify overeating?" I know I'm taking the 'wind out of her sails'. (NOTE: if I worked out hard? I'll have extra protein...but that's ALL. That's enough! I don't need to STUFF myself, under ANY circumstances!)
Or she'll tell me "One won't hurt" (oh the famous one won't hurt line! LOL)....and I'll be like, "YES, IT WILL!" because I KNOW BETTER!
How many eating binges started with "One won't hurt"?
Or there's the ever-popular "I don't FEEL like making a salad...just do something quick instead". This implies I'm not WORTH it, I'm not GOOD enough to spend 10 additional minutes to prepare a decent, healthy meal? No way! I AM worth it! So I don't 'feel like it'. I'll be grateful I took the time now and made myself a GOOD meal!
There are a million things Fat Brain can come up with...check out my blog on Fat Brain from a couple days ago for more!
....and I bet you can think of many of your own.
WHENEVER you hear a voice inside telling you to go offplan, it's time to practice AVRT and 'Recognize' your 'Addictive Voice' and DEAL with her.
Here's another way to deal with her. Jack calls it 'attacking' the Beast. It's important to learn how to do this! Here's where that comes in....Fat Brain will tell you the world is going to end soon...(if you watch the news you can really start to urge the fear on, right? Sure....."Hey, what if those terrorists got ahold of a nuclear bomb! We could all be DEAD tomorrow! So I might as well ENJOY MYSELF TONIGHT, right?")But you need to ATTACK this logic right back! Say something like "OK, first of all, realistically what are the odds that will REALLY happen? ... and secondly, what is my overeating going to do to prevent that?" In fact you could be so fixated on a binge...or so overstuffed...that you won't be able to take care of your family in a situation like that! So you are ATTACKING your beast right back.SANothSo youSo situy in Still another technique involves 'shifting' back and forth between Fat Brain's logic and your own. Look at the food you can't have -- say the bread basket at a restaurant. And hear Fat Brain tell you 'one little piece of bread won't hurt'....and FEEL the way Fat Brain feels...all hungry all of a sudden, salivating, etc....Now "SHIFT" into your HUMAN INTELLECTUAL side....and ARGUE with that logic. Tell yourself "I know better....one piece WILL hurt, it may throw me out of ketosis...but more importantly it will OPEN THE FLOODGATES and I'll go nuts. I know that about myself because it's happened, over and over again! So NO I do NOT need that piece of bread...in fact that bread is POISON to me!" Now you're picturing the bread as poison to your body....as just a bunch of flour and fat and empty carbs that will do NOTHING for you nutritionally. Suddenly the bread doesn't look so tasty, does it? What'< /font>What's cool about this is you can 'switch' back and forth between Fat Brain and your REAL brain and therefore see how EASY it can be to SHUT FAT BRAIN OFF!!!!
What a revelation!
Last but not least, you can 'talk' to your future self. What IF you were to jump ahead in time, say 20 years, and see yourself? What would you look like? If you continue to go down the road you're going if you're struggling, you may look EXACTLY THE SAME ...or maybe even heavier! But if you stay OP, you may look wonderful! Look how slim your stomach is....how long your legs look....how FIT you look! Wow you look HAPPY!
Now go backwards in time...talk to yourself 10 years ago. What would you have told yourself regarding your weight loss struggle?
I think this is a good exercise because it provides some PERSPECTIVE on our situations. And we can 'see' how our actions will define WHO WE WILL BECOME in the future!
Listen, AVRT isn't just a weird technical term. We are ALL practicing it every day when we 'talk back' to that part of ourselves that doesn't want to stay OP. We all have our tough times...how you REASON with yourself....how much 'credit' you give to that 'impulse' ....is what makes the difference between success and failure.
You need to SEPARATE OUT the two voices....and REMEMBER that YOU are in charge.
YOU can choose to 'only' listen to your HUMAN, INTELLECTUAL side.
YOU can be ever-alert for Fat Brain's games. And believe me, she can do so many games you wouldn't believe it! They are all EXCUSES. That's all!
In reality, staying OP is EASY when you stop listening to the b.s.
YOU CAN DO IT!
For more info check out the book here:
Rational Recovery
Keep on keepin' on...and don't CAVE to the CRAVING!
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