#120 | Recover from Holiday Food Madness | Glenn Livingston, PhD

Dec 26, 2023

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It’s that time of year when my carefully manicured and effortless diet of healthy foods with just the right amount of calories is destroyed in an orgy of holiday indulgence. But that’s okay, the trick is to get back on track quickly.

To help me I thought I would talk with an absolute expert, a true genius in helping to build a solid defense against the relentless whisperings of my more primal self…the emotional brain that worries about impending famine and the need for deep fat stores to survive the winter.

Today in episode 120 I talk with Dr Glenn Livingston, the author of Defeat Your Cravings, who has developed a program that gives us control while not making us feel deprived. It’s not a weigh loss program; it’s a how to stick with your plan program.

So, enjoy your holiday celebrations, but be sure to listen in to make your New Year’s resolutions easier to keep.

Defeat Your Cravings....one-liners:

Have a plan (or you are a part of someone else’s plan)
Character beats willpower
If you can form a craving, you can extinguish a craving; you are not powerless
Feeling aren’t facts
Don’t try to put out the fire, build a fireplace around the fire
Move your difficult food decisions from your impulses to your intellect
Add "crunch to your lunch"
"Hand over the chocolate and no one gets hurt"
"When you’re in a hole, stop digging". Always use the present moment to be healthy
Aim with perfection (don't just try...do your best with every shot)
Teach your brain that you are willing to endure any suffering in order to follow your own rules
Overeating and addiction are biological errors. Teach the brain where to get enough healthy food
Attitude, Judgement and Responses. These are the only things completely under your control. Embrace them. Use them.

The Process...a summary:

Start with a simple rule. Don’t worry about losing weight at first
Raising the bar slowly but surely
Pry yourself away from the inner craving at the moment of temptation. Use 7-11 breathing. Use your words. Count to ten
Disempower the justifications of the inner craving to make the right decisions. Write them down; write down why it doesn’t make sense. Wait 24 hours before implementing a change to the food plan.
Don’t believe that your happiness in life from eating your favorite indulgences will be lost forever. It isn’t true. Reset your response to super stimuli
Other: stop eating highly processed foods (HPF), do food prep, create signals for ending eating at night

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