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How often are you seduced by your thoughts to overeat? You’ve gone ahead and made the commitment to have weight loss surgery; you are not physically hungry, so why are you still eating? The simple answer is that your thoughts create feelings that drive your unconscious behaviors.


Many of us have thoughts that seduce us into doing things that are not in line with our goals. At the onset of a craving, the thoughts of seduction are telling you, “You deserve it. You’re special. You've been good all week. Go ahead and eat whatever you want. You are going to be strict tomorrow. Eat all the foods you love because you will never be able to eat them again.” How many of you remember that last thought before you had surgery? How many of you are now eating those exact foods those thoughts told you that you would never eat again? Take a moment to reflect on this next question, as it is imperative that you become aware of your internal dialogue. What seducing thoughts are currently controlling you?
The conscious decision to have surgery and achieve and maintain a healthy weight is just that: a conscious decision. Where many of us lack awareness is the understanding that the subconscious part of the brain is controlling and ruling our behaviors 70 percent or more of the time. So, that leaves you with the question of how do you get your subconscious on board with your conscious decision to reach and maintain a healthy weight?
What is the secret to working with the subconscious mind, the boss of decision making? Drum roll, please! The secret is meditation and guided imagery; you communicate and work with the subconscious through images and visuals. Below, I will walk you through a meditation that I do when I am craving certain foods and I am not physically hungry.
Craving Meditation
Read through the meditation a few times before actually going through the process. Before you begin the meditation, think about the food(s) you are craving and rate the intensity of the feeling on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being low and 10 being high.
1. Close your eyes. Imagine a large auditorium.
2. Silently ask your inner voices of seduction to enter the stadium.
3. Take a moment to listen to what they have to say.
4. Take a microphone and acknowledge that you have heard what they have said.
5. Then, tell the voices that you do not need them anymore as you are taking charge.
6. Open the doors and have all the voices in the stadium leave. Bolt and lock the doors after they leave.
7. Now, imagine those same foods you were craving and notice the difference in the intensity of the feeling and the mind chatter you had about the foods.
The next time you are experiencing a craving, a thought-feeling state, take a moment to do this meditation. This is a wonderful technique for creating new responses to your desires. I would love to hear from you. What did you notice after doing the meditation? If you have a technique that has helped you work through your cravings, please, pay it forward and share!

Self-pity is a popular commodity in the WLS community. I often say things like, “You want my pity? Sorry, you can’t have it. I’m saving all of mine for a truly deserving person – like me.” Let’s see how Jema and her dog deal with self-pity in today’s Jema & Alice cartoon, Come to My Pity Party!

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Admit it. You know what self-pity is, at least well enough to know it at a glance as you trudge on and on towards your weight goal. So take a look at this cartoon and see if you recognize anything about it.
In today’s episode of the WLS adventures of Jema and her faithful dog, dark clouds hang over their heads and rain a deluge of self-pity onto Jema’s life. What climate condition started that rain? The cause is an emotional meteorological phenomenon commonly known as envy. Jema has been comparing her WLS journey to everyone else’s and comes out crying because they’re all so successful that she’s a failure in comparison. Or so she believes….
I understand how Jema feels because if I let them, envy and self-pity walk hand in hand through my life. They trample right over the good stuff and cultivate the bad stuff. The kind of stuff that gets me nowhere near my goals.
Jema’s problem today is that she attended a support group meeting and left it thinking evil thoughts about another bandster who’d reported a 50-pound weight loss already. Jema had "only" lost 35 pounds. What was wrong with her? Why was Debbie Doolittle but not Jema blessed with superior band success? Jema’s been a good girl too, in fact, a very hard-working and deserving girl. As our heroine wails in today’s cartoon, “It just isn't fair!” So she throws herself a pity party while Alice plays the violin. And then?
And then, she dries her eyes and moves on. She decides to use her rival’s weight loss success as inspiration instead of punishment, Debbie Doolittle might even have some tips to share at the next support group meeting. Somehow, some way, Jema’s going to find the silver lining in her dark cloud.
OK, party’s over. Back to work!
Click here to see today's cartoon:
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