Food Porn

"Food porn" is an interesting term, isn't it? Along with other terms like "[blank] porn," it implies that porn is the ideal way to describe something very satisfying. But is it, though?

While walking through Whole Foods the other day, I came across some tasty-lookin' snacks and got tempted. At times, I do buy snacks, but I usually don't. Why? If they're not in my home, it's REALLY unlikely that I'm gonna eat them.

My internal dialogue went like so:

• "That looks really good.

• But I shouldn't get it. It's got no nutritional value.

• But life is nothing if you can't enjoy yourself sometimes. It's not that bad.

• But it's not GOOD, either. And I can find enjoyment is other things."

"I" won. I didn't buy the snacks.

This made me think about how similar this situation was to resisting porn.

With porn and junk food, you can give your brain tons of stimulation it’d love, but you’d be debiting your future happiness because those habits come with a cost. There then comes a choice you need to make:

“I see something I know my brain would like, but I know it has no real value for me (in fact, it's harmful), so I won't indulge.”

Yeah, your brain loves it. How could it not? Porn is designed to be extremely appealing to your brain, just like junk food.

As humans, we crave food, just as we crave sex (unless you’re asexual), but there’s a risk to these cravings; there are bad ways to satisfy your hunger and lust.

By bad, I mean that they can fuck your brain up.

If you eat trash that your brain loves, it’ll get used to that and dislike other things. Same for porn. You’ll start to prefer that over real life.

Knowing that you can reject junk food gives you the ability to reject porn, too. It’s even easier since you don’t need porn to live, unlike food.

Some people delude themselves into thinking that they need porn, benefit from it, or that there aren't any issues. Such delusions include:

• It’s not a problem for me.

• I can stop whenever I want.

• I can just consume better and better stuff forever! Problem solved.

The problem is that your brain will be reprogrammed into preferring the most stimulating forms of lust satiety (think of junk food addiction).

Over time, your brain will feel intense discomfort with anything less than hardcore porn (think of people who believe that water is too boring to drink).

Eventually, your pleasure receptors will literally not be able to enjoy the things you used to enjoy.

• You’ll also waste a lot of time.

• You can avoid kicking your brain into this deep, deep pit.

• You can find more pleasure in the little things (human interaction, water, etc.).

You won’t waste hours of time just to regret consuming what you were looking for.

But you'll need to make some changes (only if you care, of course):

1. Really think about what kind of life will make you the happiest in 10 years and what you’d need to do to get (and stay) on that path. (This was the topic of the previous newsletter.)

2. Put blocks and timers on your internet access because you’re definitely gonna get tempted if you have too much downtime.

3. Get a life. Be busy with important (and hopefully beneficial) things.

4. Read EasyPeasy Method: https://read.easypeasymethod.org/index.html 

5. Read or listen to The Freedom Model: https://amzn.to/3OHns4r 

6. Read the summary God Notes: https://www.docdroid.net/C052jAS/easypeasy-god-notes-pdf 
   (If you want an more concise version of the God Notes (that I made trimmed), reply to this email so I can send it to you.)