You're minding your business when suddenly a delicious looking cake, muffins, or some other yummy treat appears. You weren't hungry but now that you've seen food you're suddenly ravenous. You jump up and rush to get some before it's all gone. A few minutes go by and then visions of muffins start dancing in your head. Your stomach is complaining, you're checking the time, "Isn't it lunch yet?" You see muffins, you want muffins. The see food eat food cycle begins:

"I want another muffin." "No, I shouldn't, everyone will think I'm a pig." "But I really want one, they tasted great. No one will notice if I visit the lunchroom on my way to the copier. I better hurry or they'll be gone."

"What about my diet?"

"I don't care. I'm getting another muffin, I'll start my diet tomorrow." And off you go. Frustrating, yet so familiar. Since you know this is going to happen from time to time it's best to have a plan. The cycle begins when you see food, want it, eat it, then become angry with yourself for eating it, so you want something to make yourself feel better, and you see food, you want it ... and so it goes, round and round. Wouldn't you like to stop this cycle? You can. Read on ...

Stop the Compulsive Eating Cycle

The following approach works in forestalling the immediate see food/want food response when you jump up and rush to get some, before it's too late. It's something else to do just long enough to give a moment to think, then decide. Realizing you want a treat is okay, deciding to have a treat is fine, but if you want to lose a few pounds, stopping the "I see food, I must eat food" pattern is a good first step.

Changing the See Food/Eat Food Response

When the urge to eat first hits, do a quick round of EFT (see resource box below to learn EFT). Use the desire itself, "I want to eat" or the specific food, "I want chocolate" to form your statement. Keep in mind, the words you use don't matter, so don't get hung up on needing to say the right words. Think of the problem, and the EFT will do it's magic.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started. State first the issue, "Even though ..., and end with a positive such as "I deeply and completely accept myself."

Even though seeing those muffins made me hungry, I deeply and completely accept myself." OR "Even though I'm suddenly starving, ..."

"Even though I want some ________ (fill in the blank), ..." "Even though I know once I start eating I'll never stop eating, ..." "Even though that muffin is going to taste great, ..." "Even though I'll wreck my diet by eating that cake, ..." EFT is not Positive Affirmations

Before you decide EFT is not for you because this seems to fly in the face of all the positive affirmations you've been doing, stop worrying. EFT is not positive affirmations and has nothing whatsoever to do with affirming your desire for a goal. EFT is different than any other approach you may have tried. It is something to address the electrical impulses firing in your brain when you think a thought. Thought impulses can be changed easily with EFT.

Use this technique directly on whatever it is that's first and foremost on your mind which means your desire to eat the cookies, or whatever it is you are wanting. Focus on what you want, make it as big as possible. Bring it to an even higher level of desire, if possible. Think of how great it's going to taste, how much you want it, how smooth it'll be, crunchy ,whatever. EFT will address and change that desire if you really think about it while you do the EFT exercise.

When you think of how much you want the cookies, your brain is linking up all the other times you enjoyed cookies, all the good feelings, memories, it's all linked up. That's how the brain works; it makes connections and associations. So while you think about your issue, the EFT process is simply knocking the signal off it's familiar path, effectively changing it.

Analysis Paralysis or Just Drive

I don't know how my car's engine works, but I can drive. I get where I want to go, and I don't need to analyze how that happens. Do the same thing with EFT. You don't have to understand or analyze every nuance of EFT or why it works. Just use it and see if it's helpful for you. (For info on learning EFT see resource box).

After one round, think again about what you wanted to eat and see whether your desire is the same. Is it higher, lower? Don't try to make the desire different, just figure out whether you think it has changed. If it has lessened, but not by much, then do a second round, stating "Even though I still want to eat ..., I deeply and completely accept myself." EFT only takes a moment to do, so do it as often as you need, until you get that desire reduced.

Sometimes it happens so quickly people can't believe it was the EFT. "I just changed my mind," they'll say. "I didn't really want the cookies after all." We tend to need to rationalize everything that happens, and it's no different with EFT. When something works so easily to simply change your desire from wanting something very much to suddenly not wanting it at all, there's no way you aren't going to try to from some reasonable explanation. Go ahead and decide that it wasn't the EFT, but because you said you didn't want to eat the cookies. Then just smile and know you can have the cookies later, if you want, but for now, you just don't want them.