Wow! Let the Big Plans rock and roll!
MB,
In "Rational Recovery, The New Cure for Substance Addiction" at the bottom of p. 138 there is a paragraph that best describes for me what I think you mean by that "bulb moment".
"Attempting your first dive off a high-dive board will produce anxiety because your beast brain (it) knows that the neocortex (you) is preparing to do something that apparently threatens its survival. It doesn't trust the neocortex, no matter how intelligent and reasonable it is to jump headfirst into ten feet of water for the fun of it. It is scared of death, and you may stand on the end of the board, one day at a time, for the rest of your life, waiting for the anxiety to subside and for the fear to go away. But if you decide to do the fearsome thing and then do it, it is done. The fear will rapidly diminish over the next few jumps and soon be forgotten. Diving then becomes effortless and the anxiety a curious memory." (Rational Recovery, RR:TNC, 1996)
What
is done is the Big Plan. Like the giant machine face says at the end of the Matrix Trilogy -
"It is done!"
I can't un-dive that dive, and I can't ever dive for the first time again. If I dive some more or recall the dive, it's simply like remembering "Yep, I made that Big Plan." This doesn't mean the AV will go away. But it does mean that I have broken ITs spinal "connection" to my voluntary muscles forever. While IT has always been a quadraplegic, AVRT will now allow me to let it whither and die.
Regarding the A of TAPS - Amount of food. A Big Plan along those lines might seem, at first, to be hard to keep; eating up to a certain point. I believe it can be done quite successfully as I reflect on my settling into a life without sweets. An important factor is that there is no grossly mind-altering process going on with basic eating. We still have our better judgement as we reach the maximum for the Amount.
A Big Plan to not voluntarily purge is pretty clear.
About my wondering about quitting processed foods, my wife says I'll have to learn to do more cooking. Hmmm. If I get hungry, not a problem. But not yet.
GT
PS: And, oh, MB, tell us you have the very best padded helmet in the universe for your boxing.