Do It for Yourself Now! - Attention to Sensations

Written by Ilan Shalif, Ph.D.

Third step

In addition to focusing on the preliminary sensations of the previous step, start to pay a lot of attention to the sensations related to eating that occur during the meals: attend to those of smell, taste, touch, and the physical resistance of the food materials to chewing. Pay attention to those of the softening of the food, while mixing with the saliva and the combined excitation of the various receptors dispersed in the mouth. Pay special attention to the pleasant feelings of swallowing and the downward movement of the food through the Esophagus. Pay also special attention to the sensations of the stomach as it gradually begins to fill.

Usually, the above feelings and sensations are messages sent to the ad hoc activation programs that regulate the amount of food intake each meal. When the amount of attention allocated to them is too small, the amount of food devoured tends to increase over and above the needs of the body. When too much attention is focused on them, the intake of food tends to drop, even to a lower level than the one needed to keep the body weight from decreasing.

Execute the second and the third steps for a week or two before
advancing to the other steps. During these steps,
keep measuring your body weight after the
daily emptying, and if possible
after meals too.

As it is with smoking, so it is with eating, the mere focusing on the appetite, the hunger and the eating, increases the pleasure derived from the food and decreases the amount consumed. The first signs of the slight decrease in the body weight, resulting from the above two steps are an external feedback. However, this is an important addition to the natural biofeedback inputted to the trash-programs, and it too, contributes to their improvement. (Just as the decrease in the speed with which the package of cigarettes is emptied during the focusing on smoking contributes to that project.)

After the habit (the group of activation programs) of focusing on the eating processes is settled - during the first week or two - you can start using them in order to achieve a more substantial decrease in the body weight.

Fourth step

In parallel to the two previous steps, as an addition to them, decrease or even stop the intake of tasty items that are filled with calories. Sometimes overcoming the tendency to consume foods with plenty of calories can be quickened if you swap or eliminate the most nourishing ingredient from a meal or a beverage. For instance, add milk to the coffee, instead of cream or sugar.

This step can be of short or long duration: according to the level of proficiency you acquired with the six steps of focusing for the beginners
according to the effort invested in the previous two steps; and, especially, according to the importance of the project to you.

Pay close attention to the changes in your body weight. When you see
the beginnings of the loss of body weight (or at least its
stabilization) it is time for the next step.

Fifth step

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Decide on a certain amount of calories in your daily and weekly food consumption. This amount is supposed to be about 5% below the intake needed for the activity you are used to, and for maintaining the regular processes of your body. Be sure that you have a balanced diet that is not too different from the one you are used to. Strive to achieve a diet that is tasty, easy to prepare, and satisfying (as much as possible). The bulkier the food and the more chewing work needed, the better. (Get the help of a professional dietician if available when needed.)

It is recommended that you shift or concentrate most of the instances of your food intake so that they happen during your relatively free time. Thus you will be able to dedicate more attention on the focusing (as mentioned in the previous steps).

It is not a good tactic to concentrate all or most of the food eaten at a fixed time schedule, fixed content or fixed meals.

If you do this, you diminish the effect of the focusing on the hunger pangs, on the mending and updating of the trash-programs which are involved with overeating. From the same point of view it is not a good tactic to have a strict composition of ingredients. With a laxer regime you can always exploit opportunities, leave something unconsumed or swap it for something lower in calories.

It is most recommended to include in the daily diet components that are suitable for an emergency, like fruit or crumbs of the crust of black bread. It is good to have them on hand when "dreams about the poor" send you to the kitchen at night.

Continue with this step till it becomes a habit,
before starting the next one.

If and how much you succeed during this step, depends on the effort you have made while training for the first six steps of the beginners, and how much effort you have dedicated to integrating them with previous steps of this mission.

Sixth step

Once you have observed that most of the time the focusing has enabled you to succeed in restraining your overeating sprees, and you see that your new eating habits are already consolidated, it is time to enter the decisive step. In this step, you start exploiting every opportunity to change the ingredients of your menu to other equivalents that have less calories. At this stage, whenever you feel the craving to supplement your menu with high calorie ingredients, eruptions of appetite, or the urge to snatch something to eat between meals, try to focus on them until you have killed these desires (or until you have lost).