Becoming Paleo, Part 6: Implementing the Transformation

By John Michael

Although a whiff of chocolate inhaled while passing the candy aisle in my local grocery store would still tempt me to buy a treat, I came to see that the desire excited in me by these industrial sweets was hollow, and a relic of the conditioning that the projections of anxiety had subjected me to.Understanding how the health instinct worked was a major step in the right direction, but it alone was not enough to alter my poor-eating habits. In order to become Paleo, and so leave behind the industrial foods of the Standard American Diet (SAD), I had to implement this transformation by actually changing the projections of anxiety back to the original health instinct. It was not enough just to understand the mechanics of this transformation; step-by-step, I had to alter my eating habits so that they reflected this understanding.

Perhaps the first, and, without a doubt in my mind, the most important step, was learning how to recognize the health instinct upon its first manifestation in my consciousness, before I repressed it and caused it to animate the projections of anxiety. Upon setting myself to do this, what I found was that the health instinct, in its first appearance, was cooperative, instead of coercive, like the projections of anxiety. For example, the brief and innocuous image of an orange would appear in my mind, and, because my health instinct lacked the compelling power of anxiety, it was easy for me to ignore this suggestion, especially if I found the pursuit and consumption of an orange inconvenient at that moment. But if I ignored the suggestion for too long, this was tantamount to repression, and the energy that had animated the image of the orange would come to animate the projections of anxiety.

Once I learned how to recognize this mechanism, I discovered that I could deactivate the projections of anxiety by remembering the earlier suggestions of the health instinct, and then working to follow those suggestions. For example, if the suggestion of consuming a banana came to my mind, but I decided to delay the eating of one, then the instinct would return, sometimes in a few minutes, and other times after seconds only, as a projection of anxiety, with a glass of water turning into a chocolate bar, and pears turning into doughnuts. But, by drinking the glass of water, or by eating a pear, I found myself set free from the compelling images of chocolate and doughnuts. It was only because I was committed to embracing the logic of my health instinct that reversing the projections of anxiety in this manner was so easy to accomplish.

Another step in this transformation was learning how to recognize food temptations that were the result of my being conditioned by the projections of anxiety. For instance, I would walk by a bakery, and, upon catching sight of the pastries on display through its windows, I would feel a momentary desire to purchase something, like a chocolate-covered croissant. But, as there was no projection associated with this desire, I was not compelled to stop and buy anything. I realized that because I associated relief and comfort with the foods that I had eaten under the influence of the projections of anxiety, I had become reflexively attracted to these sweet industrial treats. In order to overcome this conditioned temptation, I had to alter the knowledge that I associated with these sweets, by shifting my associations from those of relief and comfort, which had become attached to these foods in my mind, to associations that were reflective of the foods’ new reality – that they were unhealthy and unnecessary treats, which ended up disfiguring my physique, and doubtlessly jeopardizing my health in other less immediately noticeable ways.

With these two steps, I had begun to shift my perspective regarding industrial foods, and with this shift in perspective came a shift in reality with regards to my diet. When I would eat a cookie, I would pay close attention to the flavors that composed it. The first thing that I noticed when doing this was that these flavors were not as pleasurable as I had imagined them to be before, when I was under the influence of the projections of anxiety. With my newly refined attention, I found that this was the case with all of my treat foods. This change in personal taste might have been due to the absence of the projections’ compelling influence, or perhaps it was due to my new associations, which identified these foods as unhealthy on sight. I didn’t concern myself too much with discerning which was the case; it was enough for me that I had changed my old eating habits.

Slowly, I came to see that this shift in perspective regarding my diet was part of a larger mental transformation, of a movement from misery to joy. As long as I ignored my responsibility to listen to my instincts and to act on their suggestions, then I would be a victim to these instincts automatized in their negative aspects, and so I would live in misery. But once I accepted my responsibility to cooperate with these instincts, then I would have a say in my choices, and, free from the compelling power of these instincts’ negative aspects, I would experience joy. 

Stay tuned for Becoming Paleo, Part 7: Switching to the Paleo Diet.