Food Addiction Rescue Remedies

Forget About Your Food Addiction for a Moment

When we are troubled about something, especially something like a food addiction or an emotional eating problem like binge eating, it’s hard not to focus our attention on it.

However, since we attract to ourselves that which we place the most attention on, it’s a good idea to forget about our food addictions for as many moments as possible throughout the day.

The best way I’ve found to do this is to focus your thoughts and attention on the good things in your life and the things you like about yourself.

Let those things you like about yourself and your life overshadow the dread of measuring up to what society or your friends think you should look like. That only makes the food addiction worse.

We are who we are. And when we can become whatever we want to be, we will still be who we are. The best parts of ourselves are always with us, even when we forget about them.

We can’t change the past, so let it go and concentrate on the present. Forget about your food addictions and use food to change your life and your body to the way you want it to be.

We can have a simple win every day by focusing our attention on those things that will bring us what we desire. It’s hard at first, but it gets easier with practice.

Speak kindly to yourself, with respect and honor, and most of all, with love. The love energy of the heart will help to alleviate the emotional pain the fear energy of the mind can cause.

Create your own life anew each and every moment and you will have enough good memories to make you forget about your food addiction and enjoy your own beautiful self in your own new beautiful life.

Eat Your Way Out of Your Food Addiction

Just a little reminder that what, when, and how much matters when it comes to eating. If you’re trying to overcome food addiction, binge eating, or a similar eating disorder, it matters even more.

This is a replay of a YouTube video with some simple tips you can follow to get your eating and your weight back on track. I tried them and they work great.

Fight Your Food Addiction With Friendship

I was talking with a young woman today, younger than me at least, about friendship.  Marisa told me  how she had dreamed about being a nurse, falling in love and having a family.

She laughed about how she and her two best friends had their lives all planned out as she ate a bag of Doritos and drink half of a two liter bottle of Pepsi.

“I was one hot Mama then” she said sadly. “Look at me now”. Tears filled her eyes and her voice trailed off.  Marisa supports herself and her two children by working two jobs.  She hasn’t heard from her friends in four years.

“It seems like all I do is eat. I used to talk to my friends when I was lonely, or sad, or tired. We talked all the time, and now all I do is eat. I feel so ashamed. This is my life.”

Food addiction is often the result of life circumstances we cannot control. Food is the mother of all comforts and can be quite irresistible when it is always available when you need to feel comforted and supported.

In Marisa’s case, her boyfriend left and she had to drop out of college to support her children. With no support system and too ashamed to talk to her friends after she gained the first 25 pounds, she went to work and took care of the kids.

Too tired and discouraged to think about anything but the wolves at her door, Marisa eats. She doesn’t deny it. She says it’s her only comfort now, but she does hope to go to nursing school one day.

Although she is involved in her daughters’ lives, she says she misses her friends most of all. Not necessarily the ones she palled around with in college but just friends in general, those special people around whom you can always be yourself without fear of being judged.

Marisa joined a women’s health club two weeks ago. She said she is looking for something to replace the need to eat when the shame surfaces.

We hear a lot about the necessity of support systems when dealing with emotional overeating, compulsive eating and food addiction, but the word “friendship” doesn’t always turn up in the conversation.

The impersonality of this high-tech world sometimes overshadows the need for and the value of friendship. In a perfect world, every one would have a friend.

Marisa hopes to make new friends at the health club. She wants to be an better role model for her teenage children who are already experiencing the consequences of being overweight. She wants to see her dream of being a nurse come true.

Most of all, she wants to feel like a loved, appreciated and valued human being whether she is fat or slim. In her own words, “I want to be comfortable in my own skin regardless of my size, and I want to have friends again who accept me as I am.”

Friendship trumps overeating in every category. If you can talk to a friend about your feelings instead of stuffing them down with food and hiding behind the shame, chances are you will find a way to overcome your fears and your food addictions.

It’s Not Your Fault That You’re Fat

Removing the blame from gaining excess weight due to overeating or emotional eating binges may sound good in the short run, but what do you do when reality sets back in?

If it’s only a few pounds and you’re disciplined enough to stick to an eating plan for a couple of months, you can blame your weight gain on the holidays, or breaking up with your lover, or short-term stress.

You hit the gym a couple of times a week, get back on track and no real harm done. In a few weeks, your weight returns to normal in a seamless transition, and life goes on.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case for millions of people who substitute food for affection, companionship, and love. Eating in order to avoid facing your fears is a symptom of a deeper issue.

Blame is not the concern here. Responsibility is what counts. No matter who or what got you into the mess that caused you to gain thirty pounds, or however much you gained, the only one who can change your situation is you.

If you’re ready to accept responsibility for making the changes in your life, then you should also know that your reality is the only one that matters.

It isn’t your fault because no judgment is necessary. You can assess your situation without judging yourself or blaming yourself for being weak. We are what we are, and that can change at any time.

We change when we experience something that makes us see the world and ourselves differently than we did before we had this new information. We can aid this process with affirmations that help put new ideas into our hearts.

One of the things I use and have used for more than two decades are Prosperity Cards, specifically HarMoney. Of course you can write your own affirmations too, but if you’d like a little help with them, click here.

Whatever happens, whatever you choose, responsibility grows on you. Feeling in charge of your life gives you a greater sense of freedom, which seems to become enhanced as we are willing and able to take on greater responsibility for our being.

Compulsive Overeating Puts Your Life at Risk

Here is a video I found on YouTube that talks about the risks of compulsive overeating. I hope you enjoy it.

Food Addicts: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

I recently made the decision to take a retail job close to home. It was a big change from the corporate and executive positions I have held in the past.

This was a huge decision but I made the choice because I wanted to continue working on establishing an online business. In the big picture of my new life, this entry level position accomplishes what a corporate position cannot even offer.

As a food addict, I didn’t want to think of the stress I was heading into. How could I survive? I could see myself binging and stressing as I dealt with new tasks that require manual dexterity. My life would be very different.

And then something miraculous happened to put things in perspective.  I found myself right in the moment, focusing on what was important at that time, including when I had to eat. I did my work in the moment. I ate when I was supposed to, on time.

Whatever I was doing at the moment had 100% of my attention without the double-edged sword of multi-tasking hanging over my head. And the world didn’t stop.

My managers don’t bully me. My co-workers smile and speak kindly. They help me learn and they respect me. At the end of the day, I have accomplished something by my own standards as well as those of others.

The first night I ate for four hours straight while listening to “poor you’s” from former networking buddies who offered to do whatever they could to help me get back to where I was.

But when I thought about it–no.  I passed that turnoff for a reason, and I’m moving on. I don’t want to go back to a place where I was always hungry, starving for something and substituting food for what I really wanted.

I believe it was Sir Winston Churchill who once said that it is not always enough to do your best, that sometimes one must do what is required. When you step up to the plate, you can also step away from the plate.

Food has a role in my survival but only to provide me with the energy I need to live a productive and healthy life. For the past several days since I started this job, I have only craved food when I went too long without eating.

I find myself adamantly refusing to eat junk food or snack food during that small, off-the-clock lunch window. Out loud I say, “I need real food; I want real food.”

With huge changes occuring in my life, my stress level is lower than it has been in decades. The food addictions bother me less than when I encountered what now seem to be the least little frustrations.

Does that mean I’ll never binge again, that I will banish my food addiction forever? I doubt it, but for the moment, who cares? Forget one day at a time. I’ll take one moment at a time. That I can handle.

Maybe overcoming the emotional eating urges and the food addictions is all about living and in the moment and doing what is required. Can it be possibly that simple?

I don’t know. Don’t sweat the small stuff and let’s find out.

Eat on Time to Ward Off Food Addictions

I started a new job today. I was scheduled for five hours but ended up working seven hours. That doesn’t sound like a big deal but it was.

For someone with a food addiction, it is critical to eat the right foods at the right time and to eat on time. I had brought enough food for five hours but not for seven hours.

By the time I got home it had been over four hours since I had eaten. I made a turkey sandwich and left immediately to buy a box of Pure Protein bars so I won’t have the same challenge tomorrow and Sunday.

I know I’ve talked about this before, but I feel it is worth another reminder. Once the edginess starts, the starving feeling is right on its heels.

Next comes grabbing whatever is convenient, usually foods you don’t really want or need. By that time, you don’t know what you’re hungry for, and the hunger doesn’t seem to want to go away.

For instance, I’m still hungry, even though there is no reason why I should be. Had I eaten the same sandwich just ninety minutes earlier, it would be a whole other story.

So, eat on time. If you have to eat every 2 to 3 hours, you’ll be hungry at that time. Heed your body’s calling and eat when you’re hungry. It’s one of the best things you can do to ward off  food addictions and keep that energy blasting through.

Winning the Emotional Eating Battle

Here is a great YouTube video featuring motivational and weight loss speaker Michelle May, M.D. I love to hear her speak. She really puts emotional eating in perspective.

Fear and Food Addiction

Fear has a way of getting in your head and drawing you to the things you want most to avoid. When you focus too strongly on your fears,  what you fear comes to control you.

If you’re a food addict, you might fear food because of the power it can wield over you at moments of emotional vulnerability. If you do fear food, you’re in a rough spot.

We have to eat in order to live so this is one time when you have no choice but to overcome your fear of food. The more you fear something, the more you draw it to you. It’s the Law of Attraction in the worst way.

There’s a lot you can say about fear, but I just want to say this: You either come from your heart or your mind. If you’re heart-centered, you’re in the love and trust zone. If you’re letting your mind rule the roost, you will be saddled with fear and doubt.

Since food addictions are linked to unresolved emotional trauma, there is usually an injured heart involved. Where there is not enough love, fear steps in and fills the void.

The rescue remedy for today is to fill your heart with love whenever you feel afraid. Let the mind be, and feel the love. Capture a happy moment, a memory, a sunset, a time when you felt free and alive.

Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and feel the moment. Fully experience that moment of happiness when fear was nowhere to be found.

Use this simple exercise to fill your heart with love. Go within where there is no fear. Trust your inner being, which is the source of true power.

Food addiction cannot stand against love because it is powered by fear. Fear and love do not co-exist.

Corny as it may sound, if  you practice choosing love, the habit of doing so will help you overcome your food cravings and bring you the greater gift of peace of mind.