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Another Candy Day

Feb13

Everyone was buying cards and candy at the store today. Lots and lots of candy. How can you kick the habit when every time you turn around, there’s another reason to eat for no reason except to celebrate a reason to eat.

Yeah, it does sound confusing, but it’s true. What can I say? Our society revolves around eating, not food, but eating.

So what’s a food addict to do? You can’t give up everything but if you give in to temptation, how do you do it without falling off the wagon? I can’t answer that one all by myself, so if anyone has a comment, chime in and share it.

Food addicts, emotional eaters, and overeaters share enough rough patches. We need our special days too, those days when we can just enjoy life without all the woulda, coulda, shouldas haunting us every time we take a bite.

Since food happens to be part of life, I guess we’ll just have to find a way to work things out so we can enjoy that too, even on the special days.

Overeating? Don’t Even Start!

Feb12

Don’t kid yourself. The best way to keep overeating from burying you is to just not start. It’s easy to convince yourself that a little extra pasta  won’t hurt.

A few more M & M’s, eating just enough ice cream to make it look even in the carton,  or one more candy from a box of chocolates is just enough to send you over the edge, so don’t start.

Eating stops when your stomach signals you that it is full. Overeating starts when we ignore the body’s signals. Cross that fine line and you’re in trouble.

So don’t cross it. Ha! Easier said than done. So what’s the answer? Can you repeat the question?

And that is precisely the kind of self-talk that gets us into the overeating mess. And it is a mess, that’s for sure. Easy to get into and hard to get out of, just like any other habit.

And therein lies the answer. Don’t even start letting it become a habit. As soon as you recognize that you are overeating, stop.

Focus on recognizing when you begin to overeat. Recognizing is not the same as realizing. Recognizing means you can see it coming and can do something about it. Realizing means you waited too long.

While you see your chance, take it. Stop overeating before it becomes a habit. If you can do that, you will buy yourself some time to figure out a real solution and avoid a real problem.

I’m talking about obesity. Habitual overeating is what gives obesity its foothold. If you have the discipline to stop the overeating cycle at the recognition stage, you will be empowered to one day break it altogether and create your life anew.

Hungry When You’re Not

Feb10

How can you be hungry when you’re not?  Why does your mind tell you one thing and your heart tell you another and both make you feel like eating? Why do feelings and food seem to be so closely related?

Good questions, all. Hunger is a feeling that occurs when the body feels stress. Usually it is a signal that the body needs fuel, and the obvious response is to eat. This relieves the stress and makes us feel balanced again.

We may not think of feelings and stress in the same thought sequence but emotions do create stress. It may be positive stress which has the feeling of abundance or negative stress which has the feeling of lack.

It’s the negative stress that can really get a food addict’s motor running. Emotional eating is an accepted practice in our society. We feel an emptiness inside and it feels natural to want to fill it with food, but a food addict can take that practice to the extreme.

There are different kinds of hunger. Hunger is a feeling with a name and a face. In other words, hunger has an identity, one not always associated with food.

So what about feeling hungry when you’re not hungry? Well, there are those words again. If you’re going to call it hunger, you’re going to think of food.

What emotions make you eat? When someone dies, I don’t feel like eating at all. When sadness or loneliness consumes me, I crave music, fresh air, deep breaths, the sounds of nature.

My heart knows that these things will re-establish my connection with the Universe and get me back on track. Once the harmony returns all is well, but until it does, everything seems a little off-center.

Food is always the answer to hunger, but what kind of food for what kind of hunger? If we are lonely, should we not seek out friendship instead of eating a quart of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream?

If we are hungry for intellectual stimulation, should we not go to a library or an art museum, read a book, or have lunch with someone who speaks in full sentences and present tenses.

There are many kinds of hunger, and food isn’t the only answer. It is one answer, though, and an important answer for emotional eaters and food addicts.

If you feel hungry when you’re not, it’s time to get connected again.

Advice for Food Addicts: Spit It Out

Feb9

An elderly doctor gave me some advice years ago that I was reminded of today. He had retired from his medical practice of nearly half a century and had begun treating patients using nutritional therapies.

This was in the 70’s when nutritional medicine was a more secretive practice than it is today. On one of my evening visits to his Trenton, New Jersey office, Dr. Getlen diagnosed my hypoglycemia.

Until that time, other doctors had attributed my symptoms to a variety of things. Among their suggested diagnoses were newlywed shell shock and a possible brain tumor. I’m not kidding.

That same night I confided to Dr. Getlen that I ate uncontrollably whenever I felt nervous. We didn’t call it stress back then. We didn’t call ourselves emotional eaters or food addicts in those days either.

Whenever my blood sugar would drop, I would crave sweets. Once the addictive feelings began, I ate until the candy was gone. Food addiction creates more problems than just weight gain, and no one knows that better than me.

Today, I was watching a small child eat candy at the urging of her mother. “Try this one, Honey.” The child chewed the jellied candy vigorously and then spit it out. She did this repeatedly until the woman threatened to keep all the candy for herself. No comment on that one.

She asked the little girl why she kept spitting out the candy. The little girl replied very politely and matter-of-factly, “I already tasted it”.

Suddenly, Dr. Getlen’s words came back to me. He told me how to eat what I wanted without having to feel guilty about eating or worrying about gaining weight.

He told me that when I got the urge to overeat sweets to do it. He said to be sure to chew whatever I ate thoroughly and savor every bite.

Then, to my surprise and puzzlement, he told me not to swallow the food, but instead to spit it out. He said it was my mind that was in control and it was only interested in pleasing my taste buds.

He was right. I did it and it worked, especially with jelly beans. That little girl knew the secret and observing her, I was reminded of it.

It may sound like a terrible waste to spit out the food, and it would be rather disgusting if you did it at a restaurant.

The object of the exercise, however, is to satisfy your hunger without turning your body into a garbage dump. So, try it and see if it works for you too. But only at home.

P.S. It doesn’t work with ice cream.