One person's structure of food cravings

Sometimes I meet a client who has cravings for certain foods, and doesn’t wish to have them erased from his or her menu of “likeables” – which is what would happen if we mapped across submodalities using Like to Dislike technique. It’s quite for ok for us to enjoy chocolates, biscuits, crisps etc once in a while – and to choose to do so on our own well balanced terms!
One particular lady had occasional cravings for a range of foods – generally sweet things – so we examined the structure of how the whole process was working for her. It went like this.....



She was really keen to be able to deal with her cravings as they arose, and not be in the position of powerless “victim”. Another issue was that often she would choose a more appropriate food and would find that, once the process had almost run its course, she would go back to a craved food rather than exit the process. And on this second or subsequent run of the loop she was rarely able to make a more appropriate food choice.
Once plotted in visible form it was easy to notice that with “bad/naughty” foods she got a taste and a picture representation of it before going to get it – whilst with the “more appropriate” foods she just went straight to the ‘GO GET’ action.
We discussed this finding and I invited her to take time and (initially) make a conscious effort, and allow the more appropriate choice food to be run through the TASTE—PICTURE sequence also. It is quite likely that the TASTE—PICTURE sequence is adding a level of pleasure (albeit anticipatory) to the cravings and reinforcing the desire to “go there again” once eating has taken place. By putting the appropriate choice food into this bit of the loop as well, there will (a) be more pleasure from that choice, (b) further eating of that choice on second + running of the process if not full and (c) a probable reprogramming of the craving tendency in its entirety in the fullness of time. Currently she had “will power” to make better choices, but the sequential structure of her process was eroding the real benefit of that will power. Now, with an understanding of what was happening for her during process she is definitely destined for a better outcome.
This, we decided, would be her “homework” project, and she left feeling really empowered and eager to start putting new habits into place!