Archive | September 2009

5 Eating Habits That Combat Food Addiction

Sep12

There are any number of ways to combat food addiction. Here are five eating habits I have found to be very useful and effective.

1. Don’t keep trigger foods in the house. Just like there are trigger emotions that lead to binging, there are trigger foods that feed a food addiction. You know what yours are. Don’t keep those foods in the house.

2. Eat small meals every 2-3 hours. Make sure to eat 2-3 ounces of lean protein at each and every meal (4-6 oz for men). Combine this with either a piece of fruit or a  small baked potato or 1/2 cup of rice at mid-morning and mid-afternoon meal/snack.

Replace the fruit with 1-2 cups of vegetables at lunch and dinner, eating the rice or potato depending on your preference. Portion size may be higher for men.

3. Do not skip even one of the small meals. When your body gets fed often, the brain will not need to send out a signal that you are starving. You will feel more balanced and less likely to stuff yourself with whatever you can find.

4. Eat when you are hungry. At first, you may not feel hunger so eating on time is very important. Eventually, your body will signal you when it requires more energy and you will know it is time to eat.

5. Stop when you no longer feel hungry. Do not wait until you are full. This is a tough habit to master, so don’t give up.

Learning new habits is part of the recovery process. Food addiction was a process that started with stress that led to emotional eating and eventually the food addiction itself.

It takes approximately 28 days to learn a new habit. Focus on the new behavior and not on what you are doing wrong. You can succeed in overcoming your food addiction. Keep your eyes on the prize.

#1 Fat Loss Secret for Food Addicts

Sep11

There are many weight loss products on the market today. The overweight woman with a food addiction is always looking for the next, newest, and best yet cure to counteract the effects of emotional eating.

There are books you can read–some really good ones–about all the different ideas about food addicts, how they get that way, and tips for weight loss. There are diets you can go on–tons of them, and information about emotional eating from many different sources.

The thing is, food addiction nearly always leads to weight gain. What you used to do to lose weight when you first started overeating, doesn’t work now. The emotional eating has changed your body’s response to food.

The weight gain adds to the stress and the response to the stress leads to overeating. You can’t read fat away and you can’t diet it away. And it’s not the weight that is causing the problem. It’s the fat.

You either kill the fat or it kills you. That narrows your choices, but not your options.

Most food addicts are overweight, and some are obese. Every body is different when it comes to how we absorb nutrients and metabolize fat. But certain conditions are present in every case.

The rate of food consumption and the greasy, salty, sugary, carbohydrate-laden, or dairy-based foods like ice cream and frozen yogurt (my personal favorite) conspire to slime up your intestines and give your body the what for.

These substances, eaten at the rate they eaten, without enzymes to aid digestion, maybe an antacid to quell the upset stomach after the binge, combine to make a putrid, slimy substance that coats the colon and stays there.

You have to get rid of that gunk before you start on your fat loss program. Then after you get rid of it, you can start eating foods that heal your body and restore your health.

This is the #1 fat loss secret that most people don’t even know about. Not weight loss, fat loss.  Click here to find out more. Learn about cleaning out that gunk, and you’ll be amazed and thrilled with your results.

After the #1 Fat Loss Secret comes Step #2. It’s called Eating for Energy. Now that you’re plumbing is cleaned out, you’re ready to take off those pounds and feel great again.

That’s enough for today. Try the #1 Fat Loss Secret for Food Addicts, the top secret information you won’t get from your medical doctor. Knowledge is power. Energize!

Food Addiction Can Limit Your Life Choices

Sep9

Most people put limits on what they can achieve in life. Food addicts are no different. It’s easy to fall prey to emotional eating. But does it have to take over your life and put limits on the things you enjoy?

When emotional eating, eating as a response to stress, becomes an addictive habit, it can severely limit your ability to function as you would if your emotions were in a more balanced state.

It’s true that sometimes we don’t want to be in a balanced state. We don’t want to be happy. It would be good just not to feel “that way”. Why do I have to decide now?

Most people I meet that have food addictions are caught up in the past–well, not the past exactly, more like the memory of the past.

I heard a song a few years ago that talked about never wanting to feel the pain of remembering how it used to be. It was titled, “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again”.

Hearing those lyrics, it struck me that reliving the emotionally traumatic event was indeed worse than the  event itself.

If the trauma was one of sexual abuse, physical or verbal abuse, or the unexpected breakup of a relationship, then remembering it again and again can be devastating. All are stressors that can lead to emotional eating and food addiction.

When the mind is bogged down with all that negativity, it’s pretty hard to get over anything. And there is food beckoning and promising relief. Even a temporary distraction from the mental barrage feels welcome.

Why is it so hard to speak your truth? Maybe because it is hard to find your truth, and you have to find it before you can speak it. For food addicts it is hidden deep so the stress is more threatening.

Food addiction is a exaggerated response to stress that we cannot find another outlet for. Stress locks up the mind and in some strange way, emotional eating unlocks it temporarily.

In that unlocked state, you can triumph over it and reclaim your power to make the life choices that will lead you closer to your goals and dreams.

The more information you have, the more choices there will be, and the more you will feel empowered to make them.

Food addiction can be conquered. That’s a choice too. It can be replaced with other choices, better choices. Only the mind limits; only the mind judges; only the mind justifies and demands.

You are greater than your mind, and you can use that to your best advantage. Whatever the cause of your food addiction, you must be a detective and get to the heart of the matter where the real power is.

Be an observer. Pretend you are helping a friend and map out a plan that can help you take control of your life and the choices you make.

Emotional eating is a choice. Any response to stress is a choice. But food addiction complicates things and makes it almost impossible to remain in control long enough to make that choice.

Why does food relieve the stress? I’ve never heard a good answer. It just does. But sooner or later you will be faced with the reality of how  emotional eating limits your life choices.

And then you will have another choice to make.

Food Addiction Time Zones

Sep7

Unlike other addictions, food addictions have time zones, blocks of time when you are most vulnerable to emotional eating.

My time zone is in the early evening and then the late evening. Mornings are no threat at all, no matter where I am or what I am doing.

Mornings are the best time for me. I have the most energy then.The hours from 5:00 AM to 2:00 PM are my most productive.

I am more organized, more creative, and more on target. I get more accomplished during those nine hours than I do at any other time during the day.

The mornings are when I feel most alive. When I am able to sleep for 5 hours in a row, which is rare, I am in heaven. Nothing can get me down. I am unstoppable.

Until 3:00 o’clock. That’s when my energy is on its way down and my creativity and productivity come to a standstill. The grey clouds of vulnerability start to gather.

I am out of energy, and I haven’t mastered the fine art of napping, so my body  feels stressed. I get agitated and uncomfortable. Stress is a big contributor to emotional eating.

Even if I have just eaten an hour earlier, if I’m in the zone, my food addiction kicks in, and I feel like I am starving.

Food addiction is subtle at the onset. It’s upon you before you even realize it. You are very likely not hungry at all, but you do need comfort and support.

You might sit down and put your feet up, take a bubble bath, get a massage, or visit with a friend, all things that would comfort and calm you.

But you are stressed, and you may not have a lot of options, and your friends in the refrigerator are calling.  When you’re feeling vulnerable your food addiction can take over.

If you are not able to avail yourself of some stress-reducing non-food remedy such as those previously mentioned, you may choose a quick fix.

And why not? It makes perfect sense in the moment. There’s no question that food will reduce  the stress temporarily. However, when “temporarily” wears off, you’re in trouble.

There are signs, but we don’t  always read in time. Sometimes we don’t even see them in time.

Food addictions, and the emotional eating brought on by them, create feelings so powerful that you choose food over everything else. If you are to overcome your food addiction, you have to be prepared for those vulnerable times.

When your hormones are out of balance, your brain gets confused. It doesn’t know how to interpret the signals. Stress signals starvation to the brain, so it instructs the body to seek out food.

One of the best remedies is to know your time zone. Recognizing the signals before you get too far out of balance can ward off emotional eating.

Here are some questions to ask yourself that will help you identify your food addiction time zone:

When do you have the most energy? Morning, afternoon, or evening? When it is daylight or when it is dark?

When do you seem to accomplish the most? Early in the morning? Not before noon? After dark? Be as specific as possible.

When does your mind seem most clear? When is it easy to focus and to get thinks done? What time of day do you seem to waste a lot of time and not accomplish much?

What time of day do you feel the happiest? The most inspired? The most self-motivated?

Some people are morning people like me. Others stay up half the night and sleep until noon. There is no best time of day that is the same for everyone. We are all different.

As adults, we can manage our own lives. In fact, we must. It is far healthier and infinitely less stressful to live our lives in harmony with body, mind, and spirit.

Pay attention and you will be able to identify your food addiction time zone. Then you can plan your trip back to the neutral zone where you rule and your food addiction cannot ensnare you.