1
The Leader’s Story
How learning the science impacted the ability to get abstinent and stay abstinent.
Reflection Questions
- Do you carry any shame about being a compulsive overeater/food addict? Do you know where you got it?
- How does shame affect your ability to stay abstinent? Your ability to recover?
- Do you think you are a weak person because you have a food addiction?
- Are you still operating under the Energy Balance Model? Do you still believe this model is true for you?
- How many times have you tried pills, shots, or surgery? How well did it work?
- What do you honestly believe causes your food addiction/overeating?
- Do you truly believe your food addiction is caused by powerlessness?
2
Physical Allergy — Part 1
How insulin resistance and leptin resistance drive us to eat despite our desperate desire to be abstinent.
Reflection Questions
- What are you demanding your body and brain do? Are you making demands that are against the laws your body and brain work by?
- Where are you putting your willpower right now? Is it working for you?
- Where is the physical hunger sensation coming from? Am I believing these dysregulated and dysfunctional signals?
3
Physical Allergy — Part 2
The starvation response and how it leads us back into relapse.
Reflection Questions
- How does the starvation response show up in you?
- What is the story your starvation response is telling you? Do you believe it?
- What are some ways you can combat the starvation response? What has worked and what hasn’t?
- What can your Enneagram type tell you about how to care for yourself during the starvation response?
Use Your Enneagram Type to Combat the Starvation Response:
How to cope with discomfort — All nine types. Click here
4
Mental Obsession — Part 1
How dopamine and the reward system cause our “effect” — and the science behind the strange mental blank spot.
Reflection Questions
- What is your emotional reaction to this information? Do you believe it? How has it operated in your life?
- What does this mean regarding powerlessness and free will around food?
- What does it mean regarding your personal responsibility in managing your disease? Are you starting to see what “setting yourself up for success” really means?
- How do step work, meetings, fellowship, and Surrender School fit into what you’ve learned? Can you see how they help with these unconscious forces?
5
Mental Obsession — Part 2
The effects of stress and cortisol on both our physical allergy and mental obsession.
Reflection Questions
- When you look back at your eating history, can you see the effects of stress on your bingeing and weight?
- How do you tend to perceive stress? Do you feel you have some control — or do you feel victimized? Is there any way to shift from helplessness toward agency?
- Has trauma had any impact on your food addiction? What are some things you can do to mitigate these effects?
6
Self-Care
The science of sleep and epigenetics as tools to mitigate the effects of our physical allergy and mental obsession.
Reflection Questions
- What is the quality of your sleep like, and what can you do to improve it?
- Have you been able to connect your sleep patterns to your eating patterns?
- Do you understand how epigenetics can help or hurt your recovery?
- What epigenetic techniques do you currently use? What do you want to try?
- Can you tell the difference in your energy levels between bingeing on your alcoholic foods versus eating a healthy, nutrient-rich diet?
- Can you see how physical self-care influences mitochondrial health — and leads to better energy and better fat loss?
7
Conclusions
Lessons learned over a 5-year journey investigating the science of our disease — and ways to apply them to your own program.
Reflection Questions
- Right now, when I think of food addiction I feel…
- My body’s response to the thought of my favorite alcoholic food is…
- The word that comes to mind when I think of my “effect” (the chemical reward I get from food) is…
- In this moment, I need…
- I am avoiding…
Bibliography
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