tridean
Jedi Master
Hi All,
This could really be put in other areas, but I thought diet and health would serve best because I noticed quite a lot of parallels with people having to give up certain foods and what I understood from a book I recently read.
OK, disclaimer first: This book in question is about quitting smoking, but that is where it ends. I know many of those here smoke, I used to smoke only when I drank, haven't smoked in 5 years or so, and I read this book only earlier this year, and read it simply because I was curious as to his methods, nothing more.
The basic premise of the book is that we are led to believe that the reason smoking is hard to quit is because of the addiction to nicotine, the social aspect of it, and the behaviour patterns associated with it. The author then turns all of this upside down, says the nicotine patch and gum industry is basically a scam, and so forth, but he say the main reason people can no quit is because :DEEP DOWN THEY BELIEVE BY QUITTING THEY ARE MAKING TOO BIG A SACRIFICE.
He used to smoke 100 a day and then one day stopped after he had this insight, and as such wrote the book, but he had tried many times before, so it wasn't until he realized it was the sacrifices attached that make quitting so hard.
I only starting drawing parallels between this book and a lot of the issue we have with diet, notably, one post where someone dearly wanted to find an alternative to cheese. I have also seen it recently in a post to one of my threads, someones deep love for their morning coffee...this obviously suggesting a sacrifice was being made to stop drinking coffee.
I had this same issue when I stopped gluten. I felt inside that I wasn't willing to sacrifice my pizza and pasta and automatically sought out alternatives, only to get frustrated and angry when the dough didn't act like normal dough, the taste was different, and as such my mood towards the whole ideal got black, my wife being the one to highlight it to me.
So, I first tackled gluten another way, I decided that I would slowly ween off gluten, and increase (substantially I might add, my my i was not eating enough F&V) my F&V intake and look to create more meals this way. Sure, I would miss the pizza and pasta, but my feelings of sacrifice was going to be stunted by the simple act of remembering what other great meals I used to have as a child that involved good old Veggies and meat!
But next, was coffee and I initially thought this would be harder, but in fact it has not. I simply stopped having coffee and refused to listen to any thoughts of sacrifice or the like. Whatever it was that coffee gave me in the morning I simply chose not to acknowledge any more. This was over three weeks ago and I do not crave it. I actually tested myself after one week, had a coffee and didn't even enjoy it!
Anyway, this is the link to the book if anyone is interested but I think we all know in a way, that the idea of sacrifice is a strong deterrent in one giving up something
_http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Way-Stop-Smoking-Non-Smokers/dp/1402718616
This could really be put in other areas, but I thought diet and health would serve best because I noticed quite a lot of parallels with people having to give up certain foods and what I understood from a book I recently read.
OK, disclaimer first: This book in question is about quitting smoking, but that is where it ends. I know many of those here smoke, I used to smoke only when I drank, haven't smoked in 5 years or so, and I read this book only earlier this year, and read it simply because I was curious as to his methods, nothing more.
The basic premise of the book is that we are led to believe that the reason smoking is hard to quit is because of the addiction to nicotine, the social aspect of it, and the behaviour patterns associated with it. The author then turns all of this upside down, says the nicotine patch and gum industry is basically a scam, and so forth, but he say the main reason people can no quit is because :DEEP DOWN THEY BELIEVE BY QUITTING THEY ARE MAKING TOO BIG A SACRIFICE.
He used to smoke 100 a day and then one day stopped after he had this insight, and as such wrote the book, but he had tried many times before, so it wasn't until he realized it was the sacrifices attached that make quitting so hard.
I only starting drawing parallels between this book and a lot of the issue we have with diet, notably, one post where someone dearly wanted to find an alternative to cheese. I have also seen it recently in a post to one of my threads, someones deep love for their morning coffee...this obviously suggesting a sacrifice was being made to stop drinking coffee.
I had this same issue when I stopped gluten. I felt inside that I wasn't willing to sacrifice my pizza and pasta and automatically sought out alternatives, only to get frustrated and angry when the dough didn't act like normal dough, the taste was different, and as such my mood towards the whole ideal got black, my wife being the one to highlight it to me.
So, I first tackled gluten another way, I decided that I would slowly ween off gluten, and increase (substantially I might add, my my i was not eating enough F&V) my F&V intake and look to create more meals this way. Sure, I would miss the pizza and pasta, but my feelings of sacrifice was going to be stunted by the simple act of remembering what other great meals I used to have as a child that involved good old Veggies and meat!
But next, was coffee and I initially thought this would be harder, but in fact it has not. I simply stopped having coffee and refused to listen to any thoughts of sacrifice or the like. Whatever it was that coffee gave me in the morning I simply chose not to acknowledge any more. This was over three weeks ago and I do not crave it. I actually tested myself after one week, had a coffee and didn't even enjoy it!
Anyway, this is the link to the book if anyone is interested but I think we all know in a way, that the idea of sacrifice is a strong deterrent in one giving up something
_http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Way-Stop-Smoking-Non-Smokers/dp/1402718616
