Archive | October 2009

Food Addiction and Wellness

Oct31

Those two terms don’t seem to fit together, but they can. Overcoming a food addiction takes work. When you’re ready to do the work, you can make it happen for yourself.

I’ve talked about stuffing down your emotions, feeling compelled to eat certain foods at certain times in response to specific emotions. I cannot say enough about the importance of keeping a daily journal.

What every food addict wants more than anything in the world when they feel out of control is to feel in control again.

Wellness, oddly enough, is rarely an issue when we feel like we are in control of our lives. What is easy to forget sometimes is that we can be in control only in the present moment. Once the moment is past, we have no control over it. We cannot change anything by reliving it.

We have choices in every moment until that moment is gone. Food addicts  tend to eat in response to deep-seated emotional trauma that can surface at any given time to remind us of our victimization. Yes, usually a food addict has been victimized in some way at some point in their life.

It could be a lost love, the death of someone important to the person, a terrible decision that changed your life forever. Now the experience or fragments of it remain locked inside awaiting release.

The pain of remembering “how it used to be” or “what happened back then” is more than the food addict can bear sometimes. And so we eat, until we are able to release the pain. And then we’re okay again, back in the moment.

Wellness is a great goal for anyone. Freedom may seem distant, recovery long, but there is always now. Now is where freedom lives. Now is where wellness rests. Now is the best time to be alive, to be anything.

Now will never come again, and it doesn’t need to. When you fully experience each moment, now seems to last forever.

A Food Addict’s Halloween

Oct30

Halloween can be sheer hell for food addicts handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Yeah, you’re supposed to hand it out, not turn out all your lights and sit there in the dark and eat it yourself.

Halloween is one of the few opportunities some of us get to interact with real people, and children at that. Few things are more entertaining than watching children enjoying themselves.

The smiles, the big eyes when they get to choose their favorite candy all by themselves, the shrieks when an older ghostly creature jumps out of the bushes and scares the crap out of them, and the sweet, distracted “thank you” at Mom and Dad’s urging. It’s just too cool.

True, all that candy can be tempting, but I have noticed that I don’t feel overly emotional or stressed out waiting for the trick-or-treaters, so I don’t have any addictive cravings. That doesn’t mean that I won’t eat candy corn or M&M Peanuts but I just don’t go nuts with the stuff.

I’ve had 4 bags of candy stashed in the corner in a tightly-tied plastic bag for three days and I haven’t been tempted once. It actually feels weird. And just try to journal your feelings when you don‘t crave the addictive food!

My food addiction plan is in place. I expect to eat some kind of candy, so I’ll keep a couple of fat blockers on hand, but my plan is what will save my bacon.

I plan to enjoy every single bite of Halloween candy I eat–every morsel. No negative self-talk about shoulda, coulda, woulda baloney. Of course, I will drink lots of water to help flush the fats from the Snickers, Tootsie Rolls, and Peanut M&M’s, should the kids leave any for me.

And my surefire backup is a group of teenagers who come by around 9:30 and are happy to see a smiling face after being run off by some of my neighbors who close up shop by 8:00 PM.

Not only do we have a nice conversation, but they know that Ms. Bernie will give them the rest whatever candy is left over at the end of the night, so they really look forward to that.

Little do they know that they are helping me more than I am helping them. I’ve learned that when all is said and done, people are the absolute best rescue remedy for any food addiction, any time. Count on it.

It’s a Brand New Day

Oct29

Every day is another opportunity to learn more about yourself. The more we learn about who we are and what makes us tick, the sooner we can escape from the mental anguish that led us into the world of food addiction.

The secret is this: the way in is the way out. Get inside yourself. Notice and take heart with what you learn. Accept and love who you are.

Don’t psychoanalyze yourself. That will only lead to judgments. Judging yourself or trying to justify a problem with emotional or compulsive eating won’t solve it. That only leads to more stress.

Instead, keep a journal. Observe yourself and write it down. Write down your panicky feelings before you eat. It will change the way you respond to the stress that triggers the panic that fuels your food addiction.

Life does not have to be as stressful as most humans tend to make it. We decide how we feel about things. When we feel anger or despair or sadness, we are feeling emotions. Something is making us feel them. What is it? Not why, but what? There is rarely a “why” but always a “what”.

How do you want to respond the next time you feel that way, which you certainly will? If there is a plan in place, you can be prepared the next time you are caught off guard, like a fire drill prepares you for a fire.

Something as simple as writing your feelings down in a journal before acting on them can mean the difference between giving in to your food addiction and walking away. You deserve a chance to choose a brand new day.

What Foods Should I Be Eating?

Oct27

Food addicts often ask this question. In fact, so do most regular folks, especially nowadays.

We are used to being told we have to give up certain foods in order lose weight, reduce size. Give up, lose, reduce. Not words that leave you feeling very upbeat.

Let’s focus instead on gaining good health, increasing our enjoyment of life, welcoming good things into our lives.

Here is a video I found on YouTube that reveals the top three best ways to make food your friend.

Whether you have a food addiction, a problem with emotional eating, or have gotten yourself into a big, fat depression because of careless eating habits, these tips will help you get back on track.

Enjoy.