The first part of today’s training is to use the book’s Discomfort Scale chart or your journal to think of times you’ve experienced every level of comfort/discomfort. The left-hand column represents your discomfort level on a scale of 0 – 10, where 0 = no discomfort and 10 = the worst discomfort you’ve ever had. Now in the right-hand column, write down a number of situations which correspond with the discomfort levels. For one client, 0 = relaxing in front of the TV after dinner, 3 = a job interview, 5 = waiting for a medical test, 8 = root canal surgery and 10 = broken leg.
This exercise will help you prepare for and withstand the next exercise, where you deliberately experience hunger. On this day (it could be today or another that works better, like when you’ll be very busy), eat breakfast, then nothing else until 6 p.m. Dr. Beck cautions you not to do this exercise if you have certain medical conditions.
You’ll also use a Hunger Discomfort Chart to monitor your hunger/discomfort levels. Starting at noon, write both your current discomfort level and range of discomfort in the last hour. Repeat this process every hour until 6 p.m.
At the end of the exercise, many people were pleasantly surprised to find that the hunger was not as bad as they thought it would be, that they were able to tolerate it and that hunger ranks far behind plenty of other uncomfortable things in life. Doing this exercise gives you a powerful tool to add to your arsenal in your weight loss quest. The skill you learn here could even be akin to a super-power. The foe of hunger, once so intimidating and insurmountable, is cut down to size and we see it’s not big and bad after all.
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