Currently I am building a memory palace with all my favourite unhealthy foods. The idea is to use NLP and change the sub-modalities of each food item and thereby change my automatic attitude towards them.
For example, in my mind’s eye I see peppermint ice cream as a bright, clear, close image and I hear myself saying, “mmmm.” Whenever that image comes into my mind I automatically want to eat it! So the technique is to make the image, dark, far, vague, and to associate ice cream with pain, sickness, and other negativity.
I’ve used this approach before and it has worked but after a while it has worn off. The difference with my current approach is using a memory palace. Everyday I will look at and reinforce the new perception of ice cream and other foods until they sink into my subconscious mind.
I’ve built this memory palace in a public toilet, just to compound the gross associations. I will also build a good food memory palace because I am always forgetting the healthy, delicious alternatives that are available.
I don't say, "I can't eat that kind of food." -- I say "I don't eat that kind of food." I turn it into a statement of personal identity rather than permission.
I think about many modern foods as recreational drugs. I tell myself that, "I don't eat ice cream (no real benefit to my life other than satiating addiction) for exactly the same reasons that I don't smoke cigarettes."
I cut out all sugars, sweeteners, dairy, meat, and all refined grains. (I still eat small amounts of fish, but otherwise vegan. I don't eat much grain of any type.) They are addictive, so I know that eating a small amount will make it more difficult to resist larger amounts.
I try to cook everything from scratch -- mostly vegetables, fruit, and soups.
Good points. Allan Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking has been massively successful and it works on a similar change of identity. I think religious conversion often work this way too - you get a new identity.
My food palace hasn’t been working well because I haven’t been working it. And it’s only a part of the equation. Nutrition is a big factor. I’ve been vegetarian since 1995 but I recently realised that I have a northern European body and almost certainly none of my ancestors were vegetarian. So I’m starting to eat meat again.
Are there any pages on this site about dealing with bad memories?
