Ep #232: Experiencing Pleasure Without Eating Food

Hi! What are you doing today that’s pleasurable?

Have you done something already? Do you have something planned for later?

If not, make it happen and not just today but everyday.

Us humans, we are pleasure seekers.

We want pleasure, we crave pleasure, and if you don’t intentionally experience pleasure, chances are you’re going to impulsive experience it.

What I mean by that is if you aren’t experiencing enough pleasure and aren’t deliberately choosing how you experience pleasure by planning for it and aren’t purposefully deciding what pleasures you are going to engage in, you’re likely going to feel an urge for it and then urgently try to find something, anything that’s easy pleasure to get, and that just might be eating a lot of food if eating a lot of food is something you’ve habitually done for pleasure.

This is something that happens a lot for people who binge when they get bored.

Boredom is one of the most common feelings that gets the ball rolling for a binge for many people.

They’re bored so they eat and they keep eating because it’s pleasurable and they think they have nothing else, or nothing better to do and maybe they’ve also been lacking pleasure so they go all in on getting as much as they can now by eating all that food.

But there is something else and something better to do and ways to experience more pleasure every day.

I don’t care where you are or what time it is, there is something else for you to do other than eating food that will be pleasurable.

And here’s why that’s true.

Pleasure doesn’t actually come from what you’re doing, it comes from what you’re thinking about what you’re doing.

Now, when you’re consuming food, brain chemicals will have an effect but what effects pleasure levels more is your thoughts.

Have you ever eaten a food and experienced so much pleasure and another time ate the same food and felt little to no pleasure?

What about touch? Have you ever been touched by someone on a certain part of your body and experienced a ton of pleasure and another time been touched by the same person on the same body part and felt little to no pleasure? Maybe even annoyed?

I know I have, for both food and touch.

Or even have engaged in an activity and got so much pleasure from doing it and another time didn’t?

This is all because your mind, your thoughts, play a huge role in pleasure.

If you’re eating a food that you like mindfully, are paying full attention to a food, and are savoring it, you are going to get way more pleasure than you would if you were thinking about something else and especially if you are stressing or worrying about something else.

And for the other examples, maybe you’re not in the right mental space to be touched or to do the activity, or maybe you’re in the mood for something else, or maybe you’re focused on something else and that’s why the pleasure isn’t there.

So what this means is that there is something else besides eating food that can be pleasurable because the pleasure will be found in your mind, not in what you do.

If you want to experience pleasure, you don’t have to leave your home, do anything strenuous, or involve anyone else.

You can find pleasure in anything you enjoy if your thoughts are aligned with experiencing pleasure.

I can literally lay on the floor with my eyes closed and experience pleasure.

I do this sometimes when I’m a bit drained and want to recharge myself.

I’m not actively doing anything, except maybe I’m moving my legs. I’ll sometimes put my legs up against the wall so my body is in an L shape and sometimes I’ll bend my knees so I’m in child’s pose on my back.

I might also be listening to music.

But other than that, I’m not actively doing anything.

And the reason why I’m finding it to be pleasurable is because I’m thinking pleasurably about it.

I’m enjoying doing nothing, I’m enjoying relaxing my body and mind, I’m enjoying how my body feels, I’m enjoying being still, and maybe I’m enjoying the music if I’m listening to some.

But here’s the thing, if I’m stressed about something and can’t get it off my mind, the experience wouldn’t be the same.

Or if I have a lot of energy, it probably wouldn’t be the same either.

Now, it could be if I worked on my thoughts. I could do thought work to get myself in the headspace to enjoy that stillness or, I can do something that is more aligned with what I’m craving or how I’m feeling.

So maybe dancing, or doing a fun workout on YouTube would be better, or playing the piano, or maybe it would be better if I took some time to self-coach myself on what I’m stressed about so I can work through it and set myself up to more easily experience pleasure in any way available to me.

But the main point here is that pleasure is available to you, even if you’re telling yourself there’s nothing pleasurable to do, there is.

You just need to open yourself up to the possibility that pleasure will originate in your mind and even the simplest things can be pleasurable if you allow for them to be, if you enjoy them, and are present with them.

What’s great about this is that it means you don’t have to get super creative in order to experience pleasure.

You can experience a lot of pleasure just from watching a tv show if it’s something you enjoy, if you’re in the mood for that particular show, and if you’re engaged with it.

Whatever it is, be present with it and intentionally enjoy it.

Now, this is all important because as I said, we are pleasure seekers and too often people don’t experience enough pleasure they enjoy or aren’t being present with the pleasure they’ve chosen.

And when they’re not getting enough, they’ll crave it more and urge for it and then try to get it in the easiest way possible.

That’s when the idea to eat food can come in. It’s easy and pleasurable.

So to help you to not get to that point, be more intentional about creating pleasure in your life and not just when you have vacation time, or on the weekends, but every single day.

Every day do something that’s pleasurable.

If you think you don’t have time, make time. It doesn’t have to be a ton of time but make even a little bit of time because it’s important. It’s an innate human desire. Fulfill it daily.

And if you think you don’t have anything to do that’s pleasure, think about and remember what I just talked about.

What you do isn’t as important as what you think while you’re doing it.

Find something simple that you like doing and enjoy it on purpose.

And the more pleasure you experience outside of eating, the easier it will be for you to not eat for pleasure as often as you may have.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with eating for pleasure. I do it, most people do it, it’s not a problem.

But if you want to stop binge eating and eating is your number one, or only source of pleasure, there’s gotta be more.

And I do want to make sure you know that having something else to do for pleasure isn’t the magic solution for stopping binge eating.

It for sure can be helpful but most likely, you’ll still have to incorporate stopping overly restricting your eating and feeling feelings as well if you’re not doing those.

I had someone write in the wins section of my program not long ago that they would obsess over their hobbies and activities thinking that they would be the missing piece and whenever they felt an urge to binge they’d just do one of their things. But that didn’t work because what they also needed to do was allow themselves to feel through the urge.

This was a great realization for them because then they were able to stop putting pressure on these activities to fix them and instead, truly enjoy them and let them be what they are.

Pleasurable activities.

We don’t have to expect anything out of them, just enjoy them.

Same thing with food, we don’t have to expect food to make us feel a certain way, we can just enjoy it.

And when you take off that pressure, it’s easier to enjoy them.

And the byproduct of that enjoyment can be a result of less urges to binge, again, especially if your binges stem from an urge for enjoyment and pleasure.

So instead of impulsively finding pleasure in eating food after not experience enough, be intentional about experiencing it, every day, even if just for a little while.

Find something simple that you like doing and enjoy the crap out of it. Be present with it, focus on what you like about it, and enjoy it on purpose.

Eating isn’t the only pleasurable thing.

There’s so much more if you open yourself to the possibilities, and listen to what it is that you’re really wanting.

Start coming up with ideas for yourself now, plan for more pleasure, easy things, simple things, and even things that take more effort. Give yourself options and create a more pleasurable life for yourself.

Alright, that’s all for today, bye bye.