Feedback on The Pleasure Trap

[Silvafox]

So, Steve got me thinking about the messages in The Pleasure Trap DVD. I've watched it four times and still have not come away with the message that I think Dr. Lisle wanted me to get. Mostly now I understand why I want the quickest, most direct route to pleasure, the fastest and most direct route away from pain and I can explain why I no longer want to mow the yard when the temps are in the 90's....energy conservation...NONE of this has motivated me to do better. The end message I heard from the DVD was to get stubborn and "just do it".....but that flies in the face of the elements of The Pleasure Trap". I know I'm missing something here.

I would LOVE to learn how this book or DVD has helped you in improved McDougalling!

Teach me? I am oh, so willing to learn....

PS You all fill my heart with hope and joy and encouragement....thank you.

[SactoBob]

For me, it was the promise that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I did not have to deprive myself of pleasure from food for the rest of my life, as it seems during transition. In a short time, my body would adjust to the new foods and I would get just as much pleasure from food as I did on the SAD.

During transition, I might have watched that DVD, or a portion of it, every day. There is definitely some suffering involved as you adjust to lower calorie density. However, it works just as Dr. Lisle stated. Within about 30 days, you will have adjusted and the new foods will taste just about as good as the old, but you will have all the spectacular benefits of a healthy diet.

The DVD also steeled me to not have even a taste of the old SAD foods. That way, you would not get through transition and would not extinguish the cravings for those old foods. I see quite a few people here with that problem.

I don't think anybody is strong enough to indulge with tastes of the very high calorie density foods in the long run without needing more. But most people can get stubborn for 30 days or so if they are determined and know that there is suffering when the reward is so great.

[lamazemama]

I have not read that book but I did read a little book called, "French Women Don't Get Fat" which focuses on pleasure and food.

It actually makes a lot of sense to me. I am not overweight, though, and don't struggle with overeating.

However, she discusses how to get the most pleasure from your food and relates it to French women (she is French). A nice, fun read with some good points!

[TominTN]

Ideas I found motivating in The Pleasure Trap:

The pain will end. If I stay off the "drugs" of fat, salt, sugar, etc., I will start feeling better and enjoying simple foods again.

The more I can do to streamline my life and make healthy eating convenient for myself, the more likely I'll be to do it. Get the unacceptable foods out of the house. Formulate a set of meals I can enjoy over and over and over and over, figure out what groceries I need to buy regularly, and write up a grocery list I can use each week for the next fifty years. Make sure there are always healthy snacks on hand and ready to eat. Never leave home without a healthy snack.

I don't know that it's in The Pleasure Trap beyond the idea of "getting stubborn", but I have found that restaurant food, goodies people bring to work, and eating things prepared by my extended family don't work for me. I still go out with co-workers for lunch sometimes -- I take my lunch with me. Usually I'll pay for a glass of iced tea. I've never had a problem with anyone objecting to my eating my own food while my co-workers chowed down on cheeseburgers or whatever. When we visit family, I take my own meal with me. When I'm at work, my policy is that I don't eat anything I didn't bring with me.

All this has simplified my life in ways I like. I guess that's part of the motivation for me. Also I find feeling better and being thinner motivating.

[Steve]

There were so many great learning moments for me on the DVD. It is hard to pick one to expand upon. I guess the one jumps out at me right now, is Dr. Lisle's explanation of why my trying to stick to the McDougall program was threatening to others. The story of Dr. Lisles' brother in law, Big D, brought this home in a big way. Also the two types of folks, those who do not have a clue what I am doing and those who know exactly what I am doing and how to handle each both types of acquaintances. My experience is that using the techniques given worked very well for me. The temperature lowered about the whole thing with everyone. I am just now starting a new job and I am trying to use the guidance provided in the best way. I already negotiated my first pot luck, which was held in my honor. This aspect of the Pleasure Trap was worth the cost of the DVD right there. As I have posted before, if I had this knowledge some 16 or 17 years ago, it could have saved my friends, family, coworkers and most importantly, me, a lot of trouble.

I like Bob's point about viewing some of the DVD almost daily for a while. There is so much in it.

Steve

[vgpedlr]

The main message that I got from The Pleasure Trap is that it's not your fault. Our food environment is so twisted because we have, in a way, outsmarted nature. We have designed hyperpalatable foods that never occur in nature and made them omnipresent in our lives. So there is little use beating yourself up about mistakes you have made. The deck is really stacked against us. Once you have that information, then you can devise a strategy to outwit the food industry, and the way to do that is to totally control your food environment. Refuse to play their game. In doing this, as others noted, you can recalibrate your tastes and pleasures, and appreciate healthy food. It takes work and effort, because of many forces we can't control. So we have to focus carefully on what we can control. I do agree that more how-to information and techniques of people who have successfully accomplished this lifestyle would help, but the overall message is hopeful and makes so many things clear.

[Silvafox]

Wow! I'd completely missed that concept/view. Thanks a lot...that does help me a lot.

d

[GeoffreyLevens]

Vgpedlr nailed it I think. And the first step in that, once you get "an attitude" going, is to "get stubborn and just do it!" It gets easier over time, much easier eventually. It is also true that we may well be "at war" with our culture over this for many years to come.

[afreespirit]

More on the "hyperpalatable foods" theme that Vgpedlr so eloquently brought up---just as technology has allowed us to refine and concentrate drugs like cocaine from the relatively innocuous coca leaves, so too do we now refine and concentrate fats, sugars, et al in foods, til they are nothing like what is found in nature. In both cases the refined product delivers a "hit" of pleasure straight to the brain, to which we quickly become addicted.

To this day, native peoples chew the raw coca leaves with relatively few harmful effects, just like they eat their unprocessed potatoes and corn. (Wikipedia says: "Addiction or other deleterious effects from the consumption of the leaf in its natural form have not been documented").

The refined and concentrated drug or druglike food is a whole other story. The industry "party line" is that it is our fault for eating too much of their wares ("moderation", etc.) In truth, for many or most of us, abstention is the only cure.

[GeoffreyLevens]

The industry "party line" is that it is our fault for eating too much of their wares ("moderation", etc.) In truth, for many or most of us, abstention is the only cure.

Isn't that what the drug cartels say about their products as well?

[afreespirit]

The industry "party line" is that it is our fault for eating too much of their wares ("moderation", etc.) In truth, for many or most of us, abstention is the only cure.

Isn't that what the drug cartels say about their products as well?

Yes--an apt analogy.

"Why am I in this handcart, and where is it going?"

[landog]

In a short time, my body would adjust to the new foods and I would get just as much pleasure from food as I did on the SAD.

After resetting your dopamine receptors so that you are not hitting them with sledgehammers of fat, sugar and salt, a plain ear of corn will give you as much, or more, satisfaction as a buttered and salted ear of corn used to.

-dog

[Steve]

In a short time, my body would adjust to the new foods and I would get just as much pleasure from food as I did on the SAD.

After resetting your dopamine receptors so that you are not hitting them with sledgehammers of fat, sugar and salt, a plain ear of corn will give you as much, or more, satisfaction as a buttered and salted ear of corn used to.

-dog

Great point Dog. Although we do not count calories, essentially weight loss or gain is a matter of calories. I will just add the obvious. Without the sugar and fat, that ear of corn is less calories and no cholesterol. So the weight is coming off. Without the salt, you may not even feel the need for the second ear of corn. Therefore even less calories. Eating less while be satisfied is the way to go.

Steve

[Gypsy]

I just started reading the Pleasure Trap and this thread has been so helpful. Thanks Would you recommend that I also get the DVD?

[f1jim]

Doug is an excellent speaker and for me too, it's all about knowing why this is all so hard and why is my body fighting me even when I know what I need to do. That is enough information for me to process and make the changes that will result in a better life for me. So far it has been more than worth that struggle. In fact, I am almost embarrassed by how little I had to struggle to make this work. I just wish I had the smarts to do this decades ago!
f1jim