The Craving Buster!

Last week I talked about NLP and mentioned a famous NLP technique called Anchoring. In Paul McKenna's book  I Can Make You Thin he suggests a way of adapting the anchoring technique to help you avoid eating a food that you are tempted to eat but which you don't really want to eat for health reasons - for example chocolate or cakes or biscuits. He calls the technique a Craving Buster.  In summary the technique involves:

1. Thinking of something that you would hate to eat - the example he gives is a plate of human hair!

2. Imagine as vividly as possible that you are smelling then eating that hated food and as you imagine this, squeeze toegether the thumb and little forefinger of either of your hands (this is the 'anchor'). As you do so, imagine the repulsive taste of the hated food until you are feeling a bit nauseous, then stop and relax your fingers.

3. Next, think of the food that you want to stop eating, e.g. chocolate.

4. Imagine a plate of that food (chocolate or whatever) getting bigger and brighter until it is huge, bigger than you are and even bigger. Continue making it larger and bringing it closer to you and then imagine it passing through you and out the other side of you, like a ghost.

5. Then squeeze your thumb and finger together just as in 2. As you do this remember the taste of the food you hate (the plate of hair, say) while at the same time you imagine that you are eating some of the food you like (the chocolate). Then imagine the two foods mixed in together and that you are eating both. In your imagination, keep eating them both on a big plate and swallow them down as you squeeze thumb and finger together. In your imagination eat more and more and more until you can't eat any more. Then stop.

6. Now think about the food that you used to like (chocolate, say). Notice how different it feels now!

Repeat this exercise as often as you like until you have removed your desire for the tempting food (Another thing you can do, is that when you actually see the tempting food or are tempted to go and get some, squeeze your thumb and finger together... the idea is that you will then be reminded of the horrible imaginary experience you have just gone through and will not be quite so keen on eating the food!).

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