Domain crossing presents huge problems for weight management and other behavior management programs and is a major contributor to their failure. Habituated mastery is faster than conscious regulation and is largely insulated from it. In the short term, awareness may win. But the long term, the one that matters for behavior management, is always directed at habits.

The best way to overcome the domain crossover dilemma is to condition signals from one domain with signals from the other, so that the occurrence of Domain-A activates Domain-B. In other words, you form a new habit or expand an old one.

For example, you have a bite of hot fudge sundae and a sip of V-8, a bite of hot fudge sundae and a sip of V-8. She’ll soon get to the point where every time she wants a hot fudge sundae, she’ll imagine what it tastes like with the V-8, she’ll be upset and want neither.

Of course, the flaw in this strategy is that you will want a caramel sundae. You will substitute an impulsive element of high sensory content for another, whenever your marrow hurts, instead of health and well-being, motivate eating.

No weight management program can be successful by mastering your food and weight consciousness. A successful program must develop a conditioned response to regulate feeding automatically, without having to “stop and think about it.” In other words, it should help you develop habits that cross domains. The trick is to condition core pain (inadequacy or unworthiness that makes you want to overeat) to stimulate core value: a sense of yourself as a well and healthy value creator. I call, the core value of eating.

Before you eat, think less about food and weight and more about creating value in your life, for example, developing an appreciation of basic humanity, meaning, purpose, love, spirituality, nature, creativity, community and compassion. You’ll be surprised how much less you’ll eat when food becomes less important in your value structure.