If you haven’t caught it yet,Lose Weight for Love is the new BBC One program in which couples who’ve fallen into unhealthy routines make a bid to turn their lives around together.
Viewers of the show will remember the part when the pair try to cut alcohol from their diet – the sneaky thing so many of us forget about when we’re trying to shed pounds.
In the first episode that aired on May 18th this year, viewers saw couple Becky and Phil take an assessment online in order to reduce their weekly units intake.
The tool created by Professor Paul Dolan – aka author of Happiness by Design – is a brain training tool that aims to eliminate urges for an alcoholic beverage over a soft one or a cola over water unconsciously by using ‘cognitive bias modification’ - or CBM.
In the show, Professor Dolan successfully helped fizzy drink addict Phil reduce his unconscious desire to down a can of pop over a bottle of H2O.
And now that online tool is available for YOU to try too, all from the comfort of your own smart phone/tablet/laptop.
The clever training works by assessing how bias users are when considering images of alcohol over other things. If this bias is present, then users encouraged to put this aside by ‘pushing away’ images of drink for 15 minutes in the assessment.
It’s said to work by training our noggins to not be drawn to drink first by default.
As simple as it may sounds, so far it’s proven to have positive benefits for those struggling with excess drinking.
A recent study showed that four of the sessions over consecutive days saw a group of alcoholics have a 13 per cent lower relapse rate than those who didn’t try the test.
But research has shown it’s not just alcohol-dependant individuals that can reap the rewards of the test, as the training can help anyone reduce their intake by changing their instincts to reach for one drink over the other.
Creator Dolan explains:
“It used to be the case that changing the way you think about something required hours spent sitting on a psychologist's couch, delving deep into your personal life and digging up painful childhood memories.
“Thankfully, this is no longer the only option available. It has now been shown that the way we think can be altered with a handful of 15-minute training sessions, and not a psychologist in sight.
“And it is not just for treating automatic preferences for alcohol or fizzy drinks. Versions of this task are being used to treat symptoms of anxiety, depression and other disorders. The indication is that CBM allows people to have better control over their behaviour making it more likely that they will be happier overall.”
**Want to give it a go? Head here:
If you try the test, let us know how you get on at @CloserOnline on Twitter and Facebook.
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