The Health Jumble
A Distraction Strategy
Dr. John H. Sklare
I have a great suggestion to offer you today that will help those of you who struggle
with Mindless Emotional Eating
(MEE). I call that the MEE syndrome and I’m sure that many of you can identify with
this behavior. Mindless Emotional Eating is the cornerstone of weight gain. The
key to solving this problem is to become more mindful
and less mindless about the health choices that you make.
With that in mind, here is an idea that can help make that happen.
I received a plea from a desperate woman the other day. She was frustrated over
her inability to stop eating candy bars. Snickers candy bars to be specific. She
ended her message with the following request. She said, “Dr. Sklare, can you please
show me a way to shift gears when that Snickers candy bar is calling my name?”
Well, never fear - Dr. Sklare is here!
The core of her difficulty is that she is fixating on the very thing she is trying
to avoid. And, as research and experience has taught us, the more you focus on something,
the more mind consuming it becomes. What she really needs is a distraction strategy
that will help shift her attention away from eating that candy bar and interrupt
her temporary mental obsession. Her situation brought to mind a creative exercise
I wrote about some time ago. I offer it again for your consideration.
It is said that, if you can distract yourself for as little as a few minutes, your
craving for food will pass. Activities that divert your attention away from food
are what are called distraction strategies. Reading a book, taking a walk
and listening to music are typical distraction strategies that many people employ.
Along those lines, I have an idea for a distraction strategy that will divert your
attention, disconnect you from that burning desire of the moment and help you to
focus on healthier thinking. You’ll need a pen and a piece of paper for this. I
call it The Health Jumble. Here’s how it works.
Let's say, as in the case of the woman above, it's a Snickers candy bar that is
calling your name. Write the word "Snickers candy bar" on a piece of paper
and then see how many other words you can create with those letters. For example
there's: rice, nice, niece, I, cab, can, earn, be, break and skinny to name just
a few. Just approach this exercise as you would the jumble in your local newspaper
and see how many new words you can create out of all of those letters.
Then, after you have written as many words as possible, see how many "healthy sentences"
or "positive statements" you can make by combining those words. For example, four
of the words that I created above combine to create the sentence, “I can
be skinny”!
The idea here is threefold: 1) this activity allows you to face and confront your
temptation; 2) it provides you with a way to engage that temptation in a safe, healthy
and positive way; and 3) by creating the words and developing the sentence, you
manipulate, defuse and totally reframe that temptation.
Repetition gives birth to habit. This activity is intended to interrupt that habitual
and repetitive cycle of Mindless Emotional
Eating. The bottom line is this. To successfully manage your weight
you must address more than just your body. You must also address your mind.
The Health Jumble will provide you with a distraction strategy
that will change the way you respond to temptation by helping you to become more
mindful and less mindless about the health choices that you make.
Wishing You Great Health,
Dr. John H. Sklare
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