Welcome to the continuing diary series "Let's Read a WHEE Book Together!" This week, we're continuing with David Kessler's The End of Overeating, Chapter 39. If you're just discovering this diary series, you will find links to the previous installments at the bottom of this diary.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
The End of Overeating, by David Kessler, M.D.
Chapter 39: Emotional Learning
Chapter 39 is the last chapter of Part Four of the book: The Theory of Treatment. In this chapter, Kessler addresses the strategies of developing new behaviors, new responses in the face of highly desirable food.
Behavioral change happens when one is in pursuit of a new, desirable goal, or when one is moving away from an undesirable state. Or, ideally, doing both at once - moving away from the undesirable and toward the desirable.
For Kessler, the process of moving away from undesirable behavior around food involves first becoming aware of the full ramifications of eating hyperpalatable foods. Typically, when someone is about to indulge in fattening food, he or she is aware of only a subset of the consequences of that action. For example, contemplating a piece of pie, the compulsive overeater thinks of the delicious taste of the pie and the way that sweet treat will make him/her feel, at least in the short term. The emotional overeater may also be aware that the treat will help alleviate stress. However, the full ramifications of eating fattening food include gaining weight, including all the health risks associated with overweight and obesity. Another possible consequence could be looking bad in the eyes of friends, acquaintances, or even strangers.
Kessler compares the process of avoiding hyperpalatable foods to that of quitting smoking. He relates the story of a colleague who kept a jar of cigarette butts handy - whenever he felt the desire to smoke a cigarette, he would place his nose in the jar and inhale as an aid to help maintain his resolve.
Psychologist Arnold Washton describes another approach to developing an aversive stimulus - a purely mental approach, instead of a jar full of cigarette butts:
We talk to patients about playing the tape until the end...in your mind, you play the scenario out to the end and you say, "This is what's going to happen. I'll feel good for two minutes, and then I'll feel horrible."
Returning to the idea of moving toward a goal while simultaneously avoiding undesirable behavior that opened the chapter, Kessler says:
At the same time, new behavior must come to have an emotional value that carries its own rewards. "Unless a person makes the cognitive shift, where it's more reinforcing to have a life without the substances than it is to have a life with them, recovery is not obtainable," said Washton.
However, in chapter 39, Kessler does not say how one comes to find these new behaviors more reinforcing in themselves. In this chapter, at least, the emphasis is all on negative reinforcement.
And the ideal is total abstinence from pleasurable foods, as in the highlighted words from Arnold Washton above. Another psychologist says, "The dieter who is successful eventually manages to have negativity automatically activated in response to the presence of a chocolate cake." The goal is not to develop strategies to enjoy fattening foods in moderation. In fact, toward the end of the chapter, Kessler calls out "I'll only have a small piece" as a "less-than-useful" rationalization. Is it possible to find positive reinforcement in moderation, rather than total avoidance? Not for Kessler, or at least not in chapter 39.
Then again, perhaps Kessler is not the complete food puritan one might think. When describing his own mental states and strategies, he says
...for my part, very large portions now strike me as genuinely disgusting...for me, it was about altering my perceptions of large portions.
So perhaps it IS possible to enjoy good things in moderation - even for Kessler.
Previous chapters from The End of Overeating:
Part 4: The Theory of Treatment
Chapter 38: Rules of Disengagement (reviewed by Clio2)
Chapter 37: Reversing the Habit (reviewed by me)
Chapter 36: Invitations to the Brain (reviewed by Clio2)
Part 3: Conditioned Hypereating Emerges
Chapter 35: The Culture of Overeating (reviewed by me)
(there are links to Chapters 27 through 34 in my Chapter 35 review)
Part 2: The Food Industry
Chapter 26: Purple Cows (reviewed by Clio2)
Chapter 25: The Science of Selling (there are links to Chapters 14 through 24 in my Chapter 25 review)
Part 1: Sugar, Fat, and Salt
Chapter 13: Eating Behavior Becomes a Habit (reviewed by me)
(there are links to Chapters 1 through 12 in my Chapter 13 review)
Scheduled WHEE diaries:
January 10
Sun AM - debbieleft
Sun PM - ???
January 11
Mon AM- NC Dem- Chest exercises
Mon PM ???
January 12
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 40)
January 13
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock
January 14
Thurs AM - ???
Thurs PM - ???
January 15
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - ???
January 16
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 41)