The sleeping dragon of rebellion 31 Now this was a bit different from the usual Last Supper Effect because I had not even begun to talk about going on a diet – but of course, her mind saw it coming! We had awakened the sleeping dragon of rebellion and it had leapt into action! The tricky thing about this dragon is that it goes about its business quite unconsciously – a process we will discuss in more detail when we explore self-sabotage. Further exploration uncovered the insight that the only way in which her mother had ever nurtured her, that had had any value to Martha, was by providing full( and fattening) meals. Unconsciously, she had sensed a threat to the only reliable form of emotional nurturance she had ever known. Our unconscious has an uncanny awareness of what it perceives as a potential threat. Unfortunately, it has no concept of the passage of time and that our circumstances change. While this underlying problem was not dealt with, any attempts to lose weight would go the way of all Martha’ s previous attempts – of which there had been many. What does it all mean? Bringing all this together, we are left with a clear message. Restricting or depriving ourselves of certain foods is the beginning of a sabotage process that will ultimately bring our dieting undone. Often, as we have seen, even the mere prospect of dieting can cause us to rebound into over-eating. Deprivation, of anything, has powerful psychological ramifications for us all – we don’ t like it and we will do almost anything in our power to overcome it. Underestimate this force at your peril. But this is just one aspect of how we sabotage ourselves. Let us now add two other dimensions to deprivation and look at how we can sabotage ourselves on a daily basis.