Archive | October 2009

Five Common Excuses for Eating Junk Food

Oct16

Here are 5 common excuses and/or justifications for eating junk food. Add yours and we’ll have a survey to determine the top 10 favorites.

1. I didn’t have time to prepare a meal.

2. It’s just candy corn. There’s no fat in it.

3. Hey, this diet isn’t working anyway.  I might as well eat what I like.

4. I’m doing a fat flush tomorrow so I have to finish off all the junk food tonight so I won’t be tempted.

5. Well, ice cream does have calcium in it, and the nuts have protein. It’s better for me than chips.

Fellow food addicts and emotional eaters, I have used all of these. Sometimes I made a conscious effort to give in to my food addiction, and sometimes I chose something more healthy.

When your work schedule is such that you have to eat while driving, or there were no breaks for 3 hours so you were famished after the meeting and grabbed some chips from the vending machine, it’s hard to resist junk food.

Anyone with a food addiction or a problem with emotional eating has to arm themselves with a plan. You have to be prepared to follow that plan so you can reach your goal.

Being healthy is a great goal. It takes some work but it is worth it. You will add years to your life and you will enjoy those years.

No matter what we tell ourselves, we will follow the commands of either our mind or our heart. Some of the excuses for overeating are hilarious. I can relate to all of them except the ones involving beer.

I carry around 30 extra pounds because I choose to. There are plenty of reasons but none of them have anything to do with my life goals.

They’re just part of my food addiction. They remind me that I get lonely, that I sometimes feel overworked and under-appreciated, that my friends aren’t always there when I need them. And so I visit my friends in the refrigerator.

I can’t deny that it gets harder as I get older. I can’t say that it’s the best I can do. It’s not. I just don’t feel like doing the work some days, and I have to pay the price for that.

Still, when I look back at all the excuses, I’m really only kidding myself. So maybe now that the weather has cooled off a bit, I’ll trade in my candy corn for a nice walk in the park. Now, there’s an idea.

Break Your Food Addiction’s Winning Streak

Oct15

10 Things to Remember on Those Days When Your Food Addiction is Winning

On those days when your food addiction totally takes over your life and you forget how to value yourself, here are some things to think about:

1.  It really is all about you. You are the superstar of your life. Don’t worry about people judging you. They don’t know anything about you. No one can or will ever be a better you than you can be. It’s your life and you are the most important person in it.  So who cares what they think?

2.  If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be good for anyone else. You can’t give what you don’t have, and no matter what they may say, most people want love and acceptance from other people. Learn to love and accept yourself and you will find it easy to love and accept others for who they are.

3.  It isn’t always about the why. Sometimes it’s about the who and the what. We can’t always have a reason for why things happen the way they do. You can go crazy trying to figure it out. Sometimes you have to ask yourself,  “Who is this about?”  How did it make you feel, and what was it that made you feel that way?

4.  Going within to find the true you will open your heart and ease your pain. Everything you’ll ever need to know is in your heart because that is your true essence. Seek your truth there, not in the artificial outside world.

5.  When you’re ready, you will act. It’s okay to wait but time won’t stand still for you. While you see your chance, take it. I think that was a lyric in a Steve Winwood song. Anyway, it’s true.

6.  You deserve a great life. Everybody does. Even if you can survive on less, you still deserve a great life.

7.  If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me. Don’t wait for destiny to drop in your lap.  Do the work and manifest your own destiny.

8.  No one ever digs out of a hole. Put down your shovel and reach out your hand. Everybody needs help at some time or another. Don’t be a martyr. Ask for help when you need it. The really great things always involve more than one person, even when only one person gets the credit.

9.  Learn acceptance and tolerance won’t be an issue. Take things and people as they are. Live in the moment. Make it count.

10.You are loved. You may not realize it, or feel it, or feel you deserve it, but you are loved. Know that. Stay strong and heart-centered. It will change your life.

Now, maybe you think these things are generic and you might not see how they relate to food addiction or emotional eaters. Well, guess what? We’re all people just trying to live our lives.

Stress affects everybody. Lately, everywhere I go I see people who are eating instead of speaking their truth. They wear their feelings on their whole body, not just on their sleeve, as we used to say when I was younger.

First and foremost, people are people, not rich people or poor people or fat people or good or bad people, just people. An extra 35 or 50 pounds can make you forget that and dumb down your dreams and expectations.

Don’t do that! Dream as big as you can. Accept who you are and show up for life. Do the work. And above all, be your own beautiful self.

Why Food Addicts Eat What They Eat

Oct14

Did you ever wonder what makes you crave the foods you eat when you stuff down your feelings? Never gave it that much thought, huh? Well, that’s okay. Most people don’t.

Remember that while not all emotional eaters may have actual food addictions, they do share similar tendencies toward certain food cravings.

This video may give you some insight into the feelings that trigger your emotional eating and ignite your food addiction fuse.

I thought it was very interesting. I hope you think so, too.

Discover Your Food Addiction Triggers

Oct13

I have read several books that give all kinds of tips for getting over a food addiction. Most of them are geared to losing weight. That’s all well and good but I have to wonder if many of these authors have ever had a food addiction.

Emotional eating is a problem for many women today. It may be for men too, but I cannot speak for them. I hear women saying that they were not helped by this tip or that tip, or they couldn’t stay on a diet long enough to lose weight (who can), or they just don’t know how to stop eating. That last one isn’t going to work for anybody.

I can only say this. If you do not get to the heart of the stress that is causing you to eat uncontrollably, then you will not be able to let go of the food addiction.

There are many triggers. Keep a journal of when you pig out, not when you eat but after you pig out. What specifically happened that made you start stuffing down your feelings?

How do you feel about it? What time of day was it? Were you tired, frustrated, angry? What emotion drove the behavior that sent you reeling out of control for those moments, or hours?

How long did you eat? What did you eat? Were you exhausted from not enough sleep the past few nights and the local drugstore had a BOGO special on candy corn? Did you crave pasta or bread? Did you eat ice cream?

If you will keep a journal of just these things, you will start to uncover the hidden secrets that create your food addiction. You don’t have to journal every day. Do that in another journal.

Only journal when you overeat, not at a meal but when you drop what you are doing and head for the comfort food. Remember to answer all the questions. I will talk about this again in more detail in a later post or an article.

You will find that you have a trigger time, maybe in the morning or afternoon or the evening. My freedom time is in the morning. I NEVER have a problem with food addiction in the morning.

Food addictions are associated with a particular emotion at a particular time and a particular food or food type.

The journal is the key. Start recording today. This must be written down in your own handwriting. As a writer, I learned that you can type anything but the emotional stuff. That always works out better when you write it yourself.

Now, more on this later. Have a wonderful day and get your pen or pencil ready. Make sure you take your food addiction journal with you wherever you go. It doesn’t have to be on your person, but it should be easily accessible.

Let me know how it goes.