Every day  I battle my food addictions. Today I won the battle. It felt good.

I went to the Red Lobster with a friend of mine and got a breadbowl soup. Since it comes with a salad and grilled shrimp, I can never finish it, so I take what is left of the bread home with me.

When I get home though, I usually eat the bread right away. I don’t keep bread at home because it lures me into overeating. The trigger emotion is usually emptiness, and emotional eating takes over. My food addiction kicks in.

Today was different. I had lunch with a very special friend of mine that I don’t get to see very often. It is the kind of friendship everyone  needs and deserves, someone who is not judgmental and lets you be yourself.

Today, when I got home my mind was saying all the same things, and I heard the same self-talk but no food addict tendencies, no desire to engage in emotional eating, so stuffing down feelings of isolation.

My mind was screaming at me to eat that bread, but my heart was happy. I wasn’t hungry and no argument my mind could muster could change that.

Today I didn’t give in to my food addiction. I just had a really good visit with my dear friend and stuffed myself with the fullness of life.

It was a great day. I hope yours was too.

It certainly is true for me. Like many food addicts, I battle with my weight. I have made great strides, especially during the last decade, but my unique trigger is sleep deprivation.

Sometimes I just cannot sleep. Being the kind of food addict that I am, I have gotten a little “fluffy” lately. “Fat” sounds too cruel if you haven’t had a good night’s sleep. The more sleep deprived I am, the higher my risk of emotional eating.

Most diet and nutrition professionals, or bariatric physicians, might think that being fat is the worst part of having a food addiction. But the worst part is not being able to regain control easily after you jump the line.

Emotional eating sounds pretty lame to anyone who has never done anything more than pig out on ice cream when they broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriend.

With a food addict, stress does things to your body that causes you to behave in ways that people who have an occasional bout with overeating would not comprehend.

Dr. Susan Lark says that when you don’t get enough good quality restorative sleep , two particular hormones are affected. One is leptin, which is supposed to let you know when you’re full, and the other one is something called ghrelin, which stimulates the appetite.

When our hormones are out of balance, overeating is not uncommon. It’s not just overeating because we’re gluttons or emotional eating because we had a bad day. It’s much more intense and complex.

It is a physical response to a hormone imbalance in the body that causes the liver to go wacky so you can’t metabolize glucose properly.

The bottom line is you start snacking on high-carb foods that work against your body. For food addicts, it’s even worse. We go out farther on the limb and it’s harder to get back.

I read that magnesium is important for women when it comes to sleep. I don’t remember where I read it but the article advised men to keep a bottle of magnesium on the nightstand for their wives.

I think I’ll try that tonight after my Frutaiga nightcap. If you have any non-drug remedies for sleeping through the night, please feel free to share.

Any sleep tips for women or men given to overeating, emotional eating, or food addiction would be welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thank you, and sweet dreams.

Tonight I want to share with you some information about a product I have been taking for about three years now. It’s called Frutaiga. You say it fru-tie’-guh.

It decreases stress, helps me sleep better, improves sex drive, and it helped me get rid of my night blindness. That was really cool. I don’t have to wear glasses when I drive at night anymore.

The main reason it works so well is because of what’s in it. Not just the ingredients, which are all natural, but the fact that they grow under the worst possible conditions in one of the coldest regions in the world.

I think that’s significant because the harsh climate makes them hardy and very effective. If they can survive in Siberia, then maybe they could survive anywhere.

It’s kind of like wild salmon swimming upstream. They have to go through such an ordeal to get to their destination that you would naturally expect them to be stronger than salmon that are raised on a salmon farm.

So it would stand to reason that they would be healthier than their pampered, farm-raised counterparts. I happen to prefer the taste of wild Alaskan Salmon myself, and it doesn’t stretch my imagination too much to think they just might be healthier, too.

A butcher at a Kosher market I frequented when I lived in Connecticut once told me that the difference between kosher meat and regular meat was that if the animal hadn’t been killed, it would have lived anyway.

If we want to feel energetic, healthy, sexy, and ready for anything, we need to take better care of ourselves and pay closer attention to what we put in our bodies.

Overcoming a food addiction means that you have to give your body and/or spirit, what it needs so you won’t be pulled by some overpowering gravitational force toward a behavior that undermines everything you want for yourself.

It’s either feed the spirit, feed the body, or feed the addiction.

The product I was telling you about, Frutaiga, is a very special drink, like an elixir or something.

It nourishes the body, calms the spirit, and relieves some of the stress that leads to the panic and trapped feeling that causes uncontrollable overeating.

Food addictions are manifestations of unresolved conflicts hidden so deep inside that it sometimes takes years to identify them, let alone deal with them.

Nourishing your body in a way that helps it begin the healing process is a good start.

Remember, one thing at a time. Keep it simple so you won’t be overwhelmed with a list of things you won’t remember or want to do.

If you want to get some life back into you, don’t go for the high-caffiene, fast-acting and short-lived energy drinks. Try something that will help you start to heal your body.

Now, there are lots of things you can do for yourself, and I don’t want to push anything on you. This is just something that works for a lot of people, especially women people.

So, if you want to add something to your daily regimen that can do great things for your health, this is definitely one of the best things on the market.

That’s all I have for now. Click on the Fabulous Frutaiga link on the right and when the page comes up, click on Products, then look in the directory for Frutaiga Case and click there.

Till tomorrow……………….have a great night!

I was thinking today about doing something special for myself. It was just one of those days that seemed to pass without much ado.

Not boring exactly, but not spectacular. Here it came, and there it went. And now here it is 11:00 o’clock at night. Oh, well.

As it turned out, I spent most of the day doing laundry and housework, and ironing. Yes, I still iron. I like my blouses nice and crisp looking, and I like the way cotton feels on my body.

I find cotton clothing very comfortable. Remember, comfort is key. Be comfortable and you won’t even give a thought to your friends in the refrigerator. Let ’em rot!

Funny how when I think about doing something special for me, somehow I end up mowing the grass or cleaning the kitchen.

I like it when things look tidy and organized. I like the look of a lawn when it’s well-groomed. It makes me feel like I deserve to take a break. It makes me feel clear, even rich.

The problem with always doing those regular maintenance duties first is that you never seem to find the time to do something special for yourself, as if it has to be an either/or choice.

You have the time or you wouldn’t be able to do all the “necessary” things. You just can’t seem to find it when it comes to you.

There is always that excuse that you can’t afford a  30-minute massage  or a $25 pedicure or a $7.50 movie. But isn’t it interesting that we have it to spend on junk food and nibbles, stuffing down our emotions and hiding away from the world?

I find it hard to put myself first sometimes, but I’m getting better at it. And, wonder of wonders, when I actually make myself get a massage, my food addiction dissolves into thin air, albeit temporarily.

So why don’t I do it more often? I don’t know, but I definitely need to work on that.

The next time I have “one of those days”, I’m going to do something special for myself first.

Maybe I should start doing regular maintenance on me first, and let the lawn do the waiting, instead of the other way around.

I’ll bet I can find the time then. What do you think?