Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thoughts on The Pleasure Trap


Many, many weeks ago, the fine people over at Happy Herbivore were doing a book club. The selection was The Pleasure Trap by Doug Lisle, Phd and Alan Goldhamer, D.C. This book happened to have been on my radar for quite some time, and I was inspired to finally read it. I promised that I would share my thoughts as I made my way through the book.

Well, that didn't quite work out. But I bring up The Pleasure Trap again because it is an extremely important book, one that every single reader of HGK should get their hands on.

The basic premise of the book is that humans operate under a basic motivational triad: the pursuit of pleasure, the avoidance of pain, and the conservation energy. There's A LOT more to the book than that, but for our purposes, I want to focus on that.

Here's how that motivational triad operates in our lives: let's say you get home from work, tired and very hungry (sound familiar?). Why is it so hard to start making a healthy dinner, and not start snacking, at that point in the day? Why is it almost impossible to eat celery sticks while you are ravenously hungry? Why do you want to grab something tasty and high in calories (maybe your kids' dinner food or other less desirable food that you have around) as you are getting your dinner together?

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