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Food Addiction Never Takes a Holiday

Dec28

So if you have a binge eating disorder or a food addiction, pay close attention to this important message. Okay, just having some fun. I’ve been Christmasing in blizzardy, rural Kansas without wireless service for the past 8 days. It was fantastic!!

The truth is, I love the Christmas holidays because they are so festive and happy. I love the spiritual high, the music and I love the food.

I’m not much of a party girl,  so I don’t have to contend with some of the most tempting holiday fare. I do remember those days, though, and how hard it was to turn down the many offers of food and drink.

Now when I’m celebrating at someone else’s house or party,  I take a few precautions that I’ll share with you.

Beware of friends, family, and anyone with a tray of food who try to bully you into eating when you are not hungry. Be nice but beware.

Food addiction and emotional eating run rampant during the holidays because holidays are packed full of feelings. Some of those feelings will bring you happiness and peace. Others will trigger an uncontrollable urge to eat.

Since there’s still another week to go before New Year’s resolutions promise to undo all the “bad stuff” from the holidays, my advice is to have fun. Truly enjoy yourself. You can do that without stuffing your face–at least some of the time.

When you eat in order to gain the approval of someone you love, you both get hurt. You get angry with yourself and build resentment for the food bully. If you want the food and ask for it, that’s another story, and that’s perfectly fine.

Walk your own path. Walk the path that takes you in the direction of your goal. If what you are doing or planning to do will keep you from achieving your goal,  then you are going the wrong way.

If you have a food addiction, treat that with respect. Food addiction is hard enough without feeling that you are required to sabotage yourself and your valiant efforts in order to please someone.

People do things because of who they are, not because of what someone else does. There is no reason you can’t eat, drink, and be merry like anyone else. Unless you are a food addict.

So keep that in mind all through the holidays and the whole year. Enjoy the food and festivities. Eat something “sinful” and enjoy it. Stuff, stuff, stuff with happiness.

Just because food addiction never takes a holiday doesn’t mean you can’t.

Your List of Addictive Foods Can Change

Dec13

Just because you’ve felt an addiction to a particular food doesn’t mean that it will always affect you in the same way.

In fact, foods that once comforted you in times of emotional crisis can lose their appeal and you may never crave them again.

This happened to me with frozen yogurt. When things felt bumpy, I craved something smooth. What worked best was Publix Blackjack Cherry frozen yogurt. When I traveled, I actually worried about what I would do if I had some emotional crisis when I was on the road.

Publix is a Florida company and I traveled outside the state. Can you imagine frozen yogurt being that much of a priority on a road trip? And you know what? It was never an issue, because when I was on a training assignment, I was doing something that fulfilled me.

When I got home though, it was a different story. All the paperwork and getting ready to leave town in two days–it was overwhelming.

I’d stop at Publix on my way back from the airport and pick up half a gallon of Blackjack Cherry. I’d eat the whole carton and then go to bed.

It became a ritual. That food topped my list of addictive foods for years and finally last year I lost my taste for it. I didn’t do anything. It just happened.

Some people think that once you’re addicted to a particular food, you never get over it. But you do. One day you just don’t want it anymore. You don’t really give it up. It’s more like it leaves you.

So don’t be too hard on yourself when you give in to your food addiction or go on an emotional eating binge. Adding guilt won’t make you feel any better.

Just know that everything has a life span, even food addiction. Never give up on yourself. Just keep working on letting go of things that no longer serve you.

Food Addiction and Emotions

Dec10

Emotional eating has a number of patterns. The most basic one is a reaction pattern of stuffing down feelings of temporary emotional anguish such as sadness or rejection.

Food addiction adds a wrinkle to the emotional eating pattern. Since every food addict has specific foods that are addictive and specific emotions that trigger the overeating, it is important to understand the underlying causes of the addiction.

The emotional triggers can surface at any time so until the underlying cause is identified and healed, steps must be taken to minimize the risk of overeating at the time of these emotional flareups.

One thing you can do is to make sure these foods are not readily available when the overwhelming hunger strikes. If they are, it may take days to break the overeating cycle.

Emotional eaters tend to eat until the feelings are soothed. A person with a food addiction just keeps eating, beyond discomfort and even to the point of pain. There is no emotion to soothe, just a bottomless pit filled with unidentifiable shame.

Shame is a debilitating emotion, powerfully negative and capable of sending anyone on the verge over the edge. The trigger snaps and we eat until we stop eating.

Of course, the best solution is to work with a therapist as well as participating in self-help programs that help you identify the emotional trauma that “started it all”.

The trouble with shame is that it is both the tormentor and protector. Shame and blame are dark twins who rarely travel alone. Learn how to recognize them.

While sorting it all out, try to keep the “danger foods” out of the house. Make it harder to get to them. No stashes in the pantry or the car, and no eating in the bathroom stall.

Set some ground rules, even if only for one week at a time. If you can follow them for one week, then you can set another time goal.

The important thing is to take some kind of action every day that will move you one step closer to a healthier life for yourself.

Anatomy of a Food Addiction

Nov27

Tonight I want to tell you about a terrific book by Anne Katherine, written about food addiction and compulsive eating. The book is titled Anatomy of a Food Addiction: The Brain Chemistry of Overeating. You can get it online in paperback for around $10.00.

When she first wrote it in 1991, I had been working at a psychiatric facility. I saw some things there that made me realize that I wanted to uncover and get to know the real me. One troubling aspect of my life was my relationship with food.

The stress at the facility was immense and the administrator was a control freak, a very cruel and destructive one at that. I recognized what a valuable resource a good therapist could be so I availed myself of the contacts I’d made since I took the job. Soon afterward, I left  the facility.

Anne Katherine’s book did not reach me in my younger years because my food addiction was not a major concern. I was usually never more than 20-30 pounds overweight and no one seemed to notice, except me .

I played down the addictive behaviors. When I attempted confide in someone, they laughed at me and called me a drama queen. But I knew it was serious business.

When I finally found someone to take me seriously, it was a very special clinical psychologist whom I saw for several years off and on. Between the two of us, we were able to uncover the emotional trauma that had been buried for decades under my food addiction.

Finding Anne Katherine’s book again was a blessing. There are exercises included in the text. They  help you find your own answers, as all food addicts must  if we are to overcome our fear of food and the emotions that send us on an eating spree that doesn’t stop until the pain goes away.

There are all kinds of programs for compulsive eaters but the best ones start with education. When you read this book, you will be able to relate to it, if not identify with it.

Everyone needs a starting place, and this may be your chance to find it. You’ll probably get the best deal if you go to amazon.com, but the library will work just as well.

Happy reading!