July 6
Our brain makes these sort of desktop shortcuts of associations, especially with smells and foods. We now know that you actually develop physical brain pathways that cement these new associations. So when I am establishing a new restaurant option, it is an opportunity to program that place as a safe place for me…or not. If I don’t want to overeat there, or even to struggle there, I would really help myself if I never create any associations there that I then have to try to override. I can make it a lot easier on myself if I protect the restaurants I want to be sure I will eat well in by creating a consistent healthy history there. I can designate however many unhealthy restaurant alternatives as I want, but if I don’t want to contaminate the places I want to count on myself to be reasonable in, then I need to stay the course every time I am there and create a sort of autopilot response.
Case in point: A client of mine took her kids into Time Square for the first time a year ago as part of their furst cultural visit to NYC. Along the way, they made a big production of going to the M&M store. I’m sure you can guess what happened; the pounds of M&M’s that came home with them (the very same M&M’s by the way, that they can buy any day of the week, 24 hours a day 5 minutes from home). More importantly though, when they did another NYC trip with the kids this year, guess what was the first and only place that the kids wanted to go?
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