Diet Survivors: January 2007 Archives

Sufficiency. It's a word that's creeping into your vocabulary as you learn intuitive eating. Are you sufficiently hungry to warrant a meal? Maybe only sufficiently hungry to tide yourself over until dinner with a small snack?

Sufficiency applies to fullness, too. You decide whether you're sufficiently full of each food you crave to put the napkin down and turn your attention elsewhere.

But sufficiency has another meaning, too, for folks learning intuitive eating. Chances are, if you've had food problems in the past, you probably struggle with feeling feelings.

Are you allowing yourself to feel them sufficiently so that you're not tempted to numb them with food? In fact, there is a sufficient amount of feeling feelings that we can do.

Let's say you just embarrassed yourself, or to word it more accurately to match how we often feel, you embarrassed yourself to death.

Instead of running to food, you try and sit with your yucky feeling. Yet you're thinking, "Who needs it? Should I really wallow in this? Trash myself over it?"

This is where sufficiency comes in. You can feel the feeling, notice it, even find it curious. "Gosh, I'm really feeling ashamed and embarrassed. What a strong feeling this is!"

Then you can say "Okay, I didn't eat my feelings. I didn't stuff them. I didn't try and change history. I sat with this. Now I'm going to ponder the likelihood that this feeling, like all feelings, will have an expiration date. Now I'll skate over it, and go about my day. It's time to distract myself. I might even like to do something extra nice for myself today."

As you can see, feeling feelings to the nth degree isn't the answer, either. Instead, we can choose a sufficient level so that we can remain emotionally balanced and healthy.

And guess what? Only you know, in the moment, in each circumstance, where that sweet spot it.

Yes, it's true. It's that much work. You might not have realized until now how much work it takes for an emotionally healthy person to manage feelings.

But you're not used to it, that's all. It gets easier over time, and turns into background noise. It won't always be so draining.

Try it today. Find some sufficiency. And utter the word "sufficiency" aloud once or twice, so it seeps into your self-talk.

As intuitive eaters, we strive to find our hunger and fullness signals. There is no better way to achieve this rhythm for life than intuitively.

But is it so black and white as hungry vs. full? Not really. It's just slightly more shades of gray than that.

Has this happened to you? You just finished a tasty sandwich, and you even felt good about putting down the sandwich unfinished. "Full," you declare, contentedly.

Then, twenty minutes later, you start thinking of the fudge in the fridge that your kids made the other day. Yum. You start feeling hungry again. Is that really hunger?

Sure it is. You weren't hungry for sandwich anymore. Now you're hungry for fudge.

Hunger is something we chase around until it's truly satisfied. That's why the greater powers of the universe invented dessert. It's okay to feel full of sandwich, but to find a little room for a brownie.

In fact, it can be even more shades of gray still. You might be full of sandwich, but not full of potato salad. It's a good idea to try testing each bite as you eat, and decide, bite by bite, which morsel you'd like next. Some folks will take nicely to this. Others like to eat the whole pile of potatoes first, then the whole slice of meatloaf. To each his own.

What's important is that if you focus in on what you really crave, bite by bite, not just meal by meal, you'll achieve satisfaction at the soonest possible point because every bite was "just right."

At first, you might feel hungry, then full, then hungry. You'll learn that it's normal to chase hunger around until it's truly satisfied. You might even top off that cube of fudge with a clementine. No guilt.

A ledge is any hopeless place. If you're learning intuitive eating, you're probably familiar with ledges. At a ledge, you feel shaky and unsupported. You can see the bottom, a long way off. You can too easily imagine yourself hurtling through mid-air off that ledge, headed toward the craggy surface below.

Suppose you just had a binge, let's say. You're anxious bout having binged, and that makes you want to binge more because it will numb your pain and self-hatred, and will further the euphoric high. You're on the ledge, peering over the edge. How do you pull yourself away from the ledge?

Happily, this phenomenon has been studied quite a bit for the community of people who have anxiety disorder. And you can handle it in much the same way that a person with anxiety disorder learns to manage it.

Now think about his. If you had a serious case of anxiety, the pressure to calm yourself down is immense. Wouldn't that pressure only make you more anxious about it? To peer further over that edge?

How does a person with anxiety disorder perform the neat trick of calming themselves down when what they really find easier is to become doubly anxious? Is it possible?

The answer is yes, and it's done all the time. Some may be helped with medication, but medication alone doesn't take you away from the ledge. They do something more. With the help of a book or a therapist, they learn how to talk themselves off the ledge.

Folks at the ledge need to understand that they have choices. They need to train themselves to talk themselves off the ledge. It's that simple. And that challenging.

What's your ledge? The ledge is that hopeless place. For people re-learning, or learning for the first time how to eat, the ledge could be:

1. Binge disorder
2. Social blunders
3. Avoiding parties or other social situations because of the food or the way you look
4. Spring season when everyone seems to be dressing skimpy
5. Obsessively weighing yourself
6. The way your clothing fits
7. Faulty beliefs such as "I can't pursue my dreams until I lose the weight."
8. Self-rejection in order to be acceptable to the world
9. Too much stress

Your personal ledge could be any of these, or could be something not even on the list.

How often do you find yourself on that ledge? A few times a year? Every month? Several times a day? It may feel like a hopeless place, but it doesn't have to be. Granted, you might continue to go to the ledge more than you like, but you can learn to talk yourself away from it sufficiently so that your life can move forward.

So, when you're on the ledge, ponder your self-talk, and see if it's helping you move away from your ledge. If you realize your self-talk is not helping, or it's pushing you closer to the abyss, make a choice. You can replace it with new self-talk:

1. I'll put away this outfit where I can't see it and be reminded. I have a lovely outfit in my closet that fits me nicely. I'll wear that.

2. If I don't accept myself, I can't imagine other people being able to. So I'll start accepting myself as I am today. After all, I can't be anybody else today.

3. I really did overeat this time, and I have an inkling as to why. But I'll walk away from this hopeless place by stopping right now in the middle of the binge, instead of waiting for pain or sleep or midnight.

4. I just said the wrong thing, but everybody does that sometimes. Why do I think I have to be more perfect than other people? To make up for the weight? Later for that.

5. I'll go to that reunion and just be me. Reunions may seem like they're all about first impressions and outdoing each other, but I'll avoid that part of it. There's someone going that I haven't seen in thirty years, and I can't wait!

6. Weighing myself this often isn't pushing me away from the ledge. I think that in terms of ledge management, once a week is quite enough.

7. I reject myself at this weight, and all those self-rejecting things I've been telling myself are only keeping me at the ledge. I'll walk away, and decide it's time to accept the new me. I may be overweight, but nobody's perfect.

When you're on your ledge, you can either jump off into that hopeless abyss or you can talk yourself back down. It's your choice, and nobody will do it for you.

Find out more about Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet.

The thrill of the kill. Hunters understand it. It's that rush when they zero in on their target. Mountain climbers understand it too. It's the anticipation, the false peak, and then the exhilaration when they finally reach the real peak and soak up the panoramic view. It's a rush of adrenaline.

Race car drivers, rescue workers, parachutists, and stunt men all love the adrenaline rush, and strive to repeat it again and again. And nearly all of us have sought the thrill of the roller coaster at one time.

Adrenaline can be addicting. When it's turned toward something good, how could we argue? Adrenaline can help you take a test, brighten your solo voice, or run a good race.

Even if it's risky, it can help us rescue someone from a burning building. But what if you're addicted to a thrill that's disguised as good, but is slowly leading to your demise?

That's what diets do. They give us the thrill of the adrenaline rush, followed by a letdown, followed by a redoubling of our efforts to get that feeling back. It's one reason why dieters who reach their goal weight either continue to lose, becoming underweight, or gain the weight back so they can lose it again. They can't stop reaching for the thrill. They're hooked on adrenaline.

Are you hooked on one of these?:

1. The thrill of the weigh-in
2. The thrill of tightening that belt enough to find the unused hole
3. The thrill of compliments
4. The thrill of counting up your day's calories and seeing that you didn't cheat
5. The thrill of buying new, smaller clothes
6. Even the thrill of feeling a little hungry or deprived at the start of the diet.

This last one is most interesting and insidious. With the gung-ho attitude of a new diet, you misinterpret the rush to mean that your harsh treatment of yourself is healthy and good. But it doesn't last. Eventually, the truth prevails.

Does adrenaline have a place in weight loss? Can you think of one good role that adrenaline can play in learning intuitive eating? I can't think of any.

There are times in our lives, in fact, when we shoo away adrenaline. When we're building a house of cards. When we're tying to beat someone at chess. When we're preparing for a speech, carrying the new baby down the stairs, pulling into the school parking lot to have a heart to heart with the principal.

When we're interviewing for a job, learning to drive, adding up numbers to fill in our tax forms for the IRS.

You can surely think of more. The truth is that we have hundreds of times in our days and weeks when we resist the temptation to get a rush. They always seem to be during tasks that require calm, sustained, concentration.

Why is it, then, that at one of the most focused times in our lives, when we are trying to change how we eat, we abandon all reason and seek a thrill? It doesn't make sense.

Are you addicted to the thrill of dieting? Of weight loss? Of compliments? Of buying smaller sizes? Does that explain your temptation to return to dieting?

If so, stop and think. Can you go on like that forever? Does the adrenaline rush, in fact, cover over your body's appetite signals? While you're thrill-seeking, your body is pleading in quiet desperation:

1. Please don't give me another one of those diet shakes
2. I need more fats, now!
3. Gosh I'd love a balanced meal
4. I can't stand this much longer
5. This diet soda is poisoning me
6. I don't feel well
7. If you feed me one more green soup, I'll explode

Is the thrill of the kill killing you? Your body is desperately awaiting sound reason, while your mind is on the thrill of the ride.

It's time to shoo away the adrenaline. Use calm reason. Use logic and grandmotherly wisdom. Go out of your way to avoid thrills. Sounds dull by comparison, doesn't it? But you've tried the other, and you know where it got you. If the adrenaline way to diet worked, you wouldn't be reading this.

Today, picture one of those "no smoking" signs. You know--the one with the picture of the cigarette that's crossed out with a red diagonal line.

Change it in your mind to "no adrenaline." Then, along your journey to normal eating, every time you're tempted to ride the adrenaline rush, think of that sign.

Find out more about Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet.

Recently someone on my Diet Survivors message board asked me about pregnancy. She expressed frustration over craving more food, and craving more fats in particular. How does one handle learning intuitive eating while pregnant?

There is no one right answer, of course, but as a non-dieting advisor, here was my answer, adapted for this blog:

Okay, you asked my advice about pregnancy. This is my Linda-wisdom. It's about me (I've had four babies) but I believe it may apply to others. Keep in mind that I had four horrible pregnancies (but wonderful kids.)

When you're pregnant, you've been invaded by an alien. It lives inside your body, tells you what to do, what to think, and erases sections of your brain at will with a big blackboard eraser. It's that blackboard eraser, by the way, that gets caught in your esophagus, preventing food from getting down there.

This alien builds what the medical community calls a placenta, but it's actually a rebuilt model of your sucked-out brains. That placenta, consisting of the mother's cerebral cortex, gets tossed into medical waste eventually, never to be seen again. You're left with nothing but a brain stem when the alien finally leaves the premises.

This alien demands rich foods, carbs, fats, and lots of it. It dismisses the whole notion that you have any autonomy or free will. It knows everything better than you--a notion which, as you know, sticks around for twenty years or so.

For now, you're just a walking incubator. My suggestion is to toss all your plans out the window, bond to your alien, and let it have what it wants. Keep in mind that it really doesn't want you to overeat too heavily, because that could lead to diabetes which is bad for it. It's a very self-serving creature.

If you can get through each day feeling as though you acted reasonably enough, and didn't depress yourself too much, declare it a good day.

In a year or two, after the baby is weaned, you'll have your body back, but you'll have to do some dumpster-diving to find those placenta brains.

The way to handle being on this board while pregnant is to take it all in academically only, for later use after you retrieve your cerebral cortex. Keep all you read here a little bit at arm's length.

It is my belief that expectant mothers are so preoccupied with heavy expectation that they might prefer to go real light on the expectation of themselves.

Does that help?

Find out more about Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet.

Self-talk. You hear about it in reference to recovery from eating issues. But what is it exactly?

Every one of us, all through life, talks to ourselves. We help ourselves remember our keys, and right before a speech, we encourage ourselves, saying "You can do it you can do it."

Self-talk is a healthy way to help ourselves accomplish tasks, overcome hurdles, face fears, and more.

But what happens when self-talk goes bad? Unnoticed negative self-talk is the hallmark of folks with perfectionist tendencies, low self-esteem, and self-hatred. It accompanies addictions, and ruins relationships.

What makes negative self-talk insidious is when we're not aware of it. It's so natural that it's not unlike breathing. What if you could stop your negative self-talk?

Cognitive therapists agree that when we're able to catch our negative self-talk, we can replace it with something more positive, true, rational, or loving.

An example:

Negative self-talk: I overate today. I hate myself. I'm such a loser.

Positive self-talk: I overate today. I was feeling embarrassed about something, which probably triggered it. But I stopped sooner than is my usual habit. Hurray! I'm making progress!

Think of your negative self-talk as being like a household or room fan. It's running all the time, and causes a background hum that you don't notice.

When we choose to become aware of our self-talk, it's like sometimes saying "There's that fan." Then we can replace what we've just thought or told ourselves with something else.

For example, you've lost a few pounds just by learning mindful eating, and now you're saying "Sure, but you've done that before. It won't last. You don't deserve it anyway. Who do you think you are?"

That's when you take notice of the self-talk, and say "I have no evidence that I'm doomed to failure. Therefore I will choose to believe in myself. I'm important, smart, and beautiful, and I can recover from my eating issues if I darn well feel like it."

That's how we recover from negative self-talk. One awareness at a time. Over and over and over.

Before long, our behavior toward ourselves and others will improve. This adaptive (inner) change is what leads to new, lasting, external change, such as eating better.

But the best part about it is you don't have to eradicate the negative self-talk. That would be too hard, and we just don't have to be perfect like that.

Instead, after enough practice becoming aware of the fan, we start to act on our conscious thoughts instead of reacting to the fan.

So, a person recovered from negative self-talk still has the fan running in the background. Every once in a while, she even notices it. She says "Oh yes, there's that fan again. " She laughs at it, and goes about her joyful life, doing just what she wants to do, never dragged down by the fan.

Have you ever met a person whom you just know has great self-esteem? Chances are, that person has at least some negative self-talk habits that he simply doesn't act on. In fact, it may be human nature to be hard on ourselves to some degree, to say hurtful things to ourselves. But he's aware of it, which means he's not compelled to act on it.

We're all walking around, in fact, with portable fans. But some folks act on the negative self-talk, unaware they're even doing so. They sabotage themselves, making their own dismal predictions come true. The rest of us laugh at our negative self-talk, and go about our day, doing just what we set out to do.

Do you think you may have negative self-talk that you act on? Start to become aware of your fan today. And be encouraged, knowing that you never have to stop the negative self-talk completely. Instead, see if you can become aware just once today, and then act on your replacement self-talk instead of the negative self-talk. It will become easier and easier.

Soon, that fan will truly be relegated to "noise level."

Paint your decisions with an itty bitty little paintbrush. Why would you do that? It's probably the opposite of what you've been doing. When it comes to reversing the diet mentality, choosing a few opposites can be an eye-opener.

What is meant by painting with a broad brush anyway? It means sweeping changes, grand decisions. It means:

1. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to eat healthy all the time.
2. That's it. I'm never eating sweets again.
3. As of this weekend, I'm going on a full cleansing fast, and then I'm going to start eating intuitively.
4. Today I threw out all my large plates. From now on, I will eat all my meals from a teacup saucer.
5. I'm making myself save up for a nutritionist. Then I plan to put all my eating decisions into the hands of a professional.
6. From this day forward, I will only "cheat" with my hunger and fullness plan when I'm eating out.
7. By next year, I'm determined to drop this extra 100 pounds.

Why should you abandon a big plan for healthy eating? Isn't it good to have plans and goals?

These thoughts, although some have the fragrance of intuitive eating, are all really a rehash of the black and white thinking, or "all or nothing" thinking, that accompanies the insanity of the diet life.

Dieters tend to think in terms of putting themselves on one overall plan which, if only they would stick to it, will result in their happiness. But it never seems to work, does it? Human beings aren't built that way.

People need warm up time before they can change. They need to dip their big toe in the water. They need to conduct small experiments. And mostly, they need to be in charge, play by play, over their decisions. When you make some big plan, you're dooming yourself to feeling controlled and unable to decide for yourself, in the moment, what's best. It's a way to put a harness on yourself, and it's destined to backfire.

That's how the "on again off again" craziness of dieting evolves, eventually snowballing into the desperate insanity that seems to take over the dieter's life. It even sometimes leads to a binge-starve cycle.

So, if you already know that painting your eating life with such a broad brush will fail you, what's the alternative? Try doing precisely the opposite. Paint each new decision with a fine brush:

1. As I continue my eating life, I'd like to wait just long enough for hunger, but not too long. I'm aiming for the "sweet spot" in-between. I'd like to try this for lunch today.

2. I'm interested in exploring the old foods--that is, some foods that I used to like before I banned them with my diety thinking.

3. For the next meal (perhaps tonight), I'd like to eat just a tad slower, and see if I can begin to sense when I'm getting full. It's just an experiment right now.

4. I just ended a binge about an hour ago, and don't yet know why it happened. I'd like to understand it, but I also know that setbacks are normal. So if I get right back on track by waiting for hunger, it's all really okay, since it will probably take a very long time to get hungry again.

5. I'm thinking that maybe therapy would be helpful. Maybe I'll make small decisions leading up to my first therapy session, such as talking to friends about the possibility, pondering it a while, making some phone calls to inquire, and making an appointment to try out a therapist. But right now I'm content to be at Step One.

6. Tomorrow night I'm eating out. Wouldn't it feel good if I just stuck with my usual waiting for hunger, and stopping when full? I'm already used to it. I'm thinking that at this point, it may not be that hard to do.

7. I know I'm an emotional eater, and I have stress right now. What I'd like to do, the next time I'm stress-eating, is to recognize it dispassionately. Maybe after a few times of recognizing it, I can stop, look at my food which really doesn't taste good since I'm not hungry, and put it down. Wouldn't that feel pretty good? But I'll make one decision at a time.

What makes real lasting changing in a person's life is a long string of good decisions, dictated by his or her good judgment and circumstances. And happily, the string never has to be perfect to get a good outcome. Like a cultured pearl necklace, the string can have a few flaws. But if there are a SUFFICIENT number of pretty good pearls, the necklace is beautiful.

One more thing. In addition to a fine brush, be sure and paint your decisions in many shades, including pale, bright, dark, in every color of the rainbow. Ditch the black and white, in favor of every shade and hue possible.

Rich pudding, ice cream covered in syrup and whipped creme with salty nuts, troughs of macaroni and cheese. These are all binge foods. When we binge, we crave intensity, but due to chronic deprivation, we demand enormous quantities.

Did you know that once you practice the hunger and fullness method of eating, and are in tune with your tastes, you will still crave intense foods? But you'll become even more discerning, discriminating, and picky than you were when you were overeating.

Busy normal eaters can go for long periods of time without eating. They just don't get around to it. But when they do eat, a salad with low-fat dressing and a diet pop just won't do.

They might wait until 3 pm to eat lunch, but then they chow down on some leftover steak seasoned with just the right amount of salt, warmed up just a tad in the microwave, a side of crunchy potato chips, a salad drizzled with oil and vinegar, and a tiny, intense square of homemade fudge for dessert.

Now that's what I call a meal. I want salt, fat, meat, crunch, rich. Intense foods.

Interestingly, I eat "healthy." That is, I avoid fake, manufactured, and processed foods when possible, and I avoid partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. I avoid refined white flour and corn syrup.

But intensity? That I don't avoid. Do you crave intensity when you binge? It's no wonder, because while you're on the dieting side of the roller coaster, you're probably eating dull, bland foods.

Get off the diet roller coaster. Find out what you really like. Learn to save up your hunger, and then focus in on your cravings for intense flavors, textures, colors. Aim to stimulate different parts of your taste buds. Look for crunch, smell, softness, consistency, salty, rich...whatever you crave.

Savor every bite. Then stop eating before you get too full. Eating when full only ruins the experience. The meal is over. Now wait, and do it all over again at the next meal. Sound like fun? It is, and you can live this way. In fact, you can live well this way.

And the joke on all of us is that the food will be so satisfying, so flavorful, so intense, that you'll only need a little bit to be a happy camper. Your body will love this, and will reward you.

What if someone were to ask you, "Do you really want to lose weight?" Would you say yes right away? Would it be an automatic response? Do you even know whether you'd like to lose weight?

Maybe you're taking it for granted that you're supposed to want to lose weight. "Well of course I do," goes the reflexive thinking. "Here are all the reasons why I'm supposed to want to lose weight:"

1. Other people expect me to
2. I've never known any other way of thinking about myself
3. I'd be healthier
4. Everybody is waiting for me to lose the weight
5. I would look like I've given up if I stop trying to lose weight
6. People would think less of me for not trying

Notice how many of the above list are about other people, not you.

But now ask yourself, entirely for yourself, do you really want to lose the weight? Is it a must? Would the sun still come up tomorrow if you decided today not to lose any weight?

Many of us are stuck in the diet trap because we've never considered not trying to lose weight. Because of how tied our weight loss is to our image and other people, it feels downright disloyal and awful to choose for ourselves whether or not it's even a goal right now.

As long as it's not truly your own goal, you may always be stuck in the diet mentality. It will always feel like a "must." And perhaps you've learned enough cognitive therapy from Diet Survivors by now to know that "musts" are often the problem, not the answer.

As long as we have weight loss as an edict for ourselves, we stay stuck in a harsh, all or nothing cycle of diet, binge, diet, binge. It never ends.

Contemplation time is the way out of many gnarly problems in life. Why is this so? Because complex problems, such as diet addiction fueled by faulty beliefs, resulting in eating disorders that lead to further faulty thinking, are problems which require adaptive change. It's not enough, in other words, to just learn portion control.

Perhaps one of the first questions to contemplate is "Do I really want to lose this weight for me?" Ponder it a while. It may be that you have a list of wrong reasons, but that you also want it for yourself, apart from those other reasons.

On the other hand, you may discover it's not even what you want right now. Perhaps what you'd like right now is to reduce your focus on food and diets, and restore your perspective in life. Maybe the weight loss can come a little later.

Either way, the normal eating life is an autonomous life. When "musts" are turned into "strongly prefers," we are empowered.

"My problem is I like food too much." This one belief may be the single most irrational and untrue belief underlying the diet life.

It's just not true. The opposite, in fact, is true. You don't love food enough. You don't love it enough to:

1. Eat only the intensely delicious form of it
2. Time your eating so the taste of your food is magnified
3. Build rituals around setting the table and arranging the food
4. Give it your full attention
5. Savor every bite
6. Honor your likes and dislikes
7. Build it into culture, rituals and romance
8. Allow eating to be a sensuous experience

Folks who don't love food enough disrespect it, and are mean to it. They:

1. Eat any old place, such as standing at the refrigerator
2. Eat when they're full and can't appreciate the taste
3. Force it to act as their therapist
4. Wring all the delicious fats out of it, then serve
5. Chow down on appetite-killing snacks right before going out to eat
6. Eat it when it's burnt, underdone, or otherwise should have been thrown away

Perhaps it's time to consider that some of your beliefs, part and parcel of the dieting life, are exact opposites of the truth. This certainly is the case when it comes to loving food. And that means more unraveling. Ask yourself today "What was it again that I was feeling guilty about?"

Then shed your guilt over loving food. Loving food is part of the answer, not part of the problem.

Haven't made a New Year's Resolution? That's understandable. Many folks only feel pressured by them. It can be awfully depressing when you fail after deciding that you must do something.

But without musts, how will we ever change or improve? We think musts must be good, but when we ask questions of folks, this is what we learn about musts:

1. They lead to black and white thinking
2. They set people up for failure
3. They add pressure to an already pressured life
4. They lead to impaired autonomy
5. They lead to rebellion
6. They disallow better solutions
7. They disallow real life circumstances

Is it possible that the musts are part of the problem instead of part of the solution?
If musts cause all these awful things, then maybe musts make matters worse.

Regardless of the time of year, try this for your New Year's Resolution: Give up your musts. Replace them with your own personal autonomy, as in:

1. I prefer
2. I would like to
3. I'm wondering if this would work for me
4. I'm pondering
5. I strongly prefer
6. I'm interested in trying
7. I'm curious about

Incredibly, Diet Survivors members who find true, lasting success at learning intuitive eating are those who report their progress was aided by giving up their musts.

Today, ponder the possibility of giving up your musts. Decide if you'd prefer to do that. Then experiment with it.