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When Mark sat down in my office this week, he said, "Before we start, can I just tell you how relieved I feel?" When I said, "Of course," Mark told me:
"I finally get it. I do. Cravings go away. I don't have to eat to make them go away. When I'm tempted, the more I say, ‘Don't worry, you're going to eat again at ______ o'clock, the easier and easier it gets.' "
I asked Mark to give me an example.
"It happened again late yesterday afternoon. A vendor brought some cookies-really big ones-to the office. I really started craving one but I said to myself, ‘No, you've already had your snack and you're going to have dinner at 6:30. So no choice. Get back to work.' I had to make a phone call and by the time it was over, the craving was gone. It was like, "Well, it'd be nice to have a cookie but I know I'm not going to have it." I can't tell you what a relief it is to know that I can make a craving go away, that I don't have to give in to it. I know, I know, you've been telling me this all along but somehow it really clicked yesterday."
I asked Mark if we should write something about this on a Response Card that he could read regularly to really cement the idea in his mind. This is what he wrote:
Cravings really do go away. I don't have to be at their mercy any more. Remember the March 30th cookie situation. When I finished the phone call, the craving had gone away.
Mark is typical of the dieters with whom I work. It makes sense to them intellectually that cravings go away, especially when they turn their attention to something else, but they don't really believe it in their gut-not until they've had repeated experiences of finding this out for themselves. And when they do, like Mark, they tend to experience a profound sense of relief.
