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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.

Food Addicts Need Plenty of Rest

Oct4

Going without sleep can seriously impair your ability to ward off the temptations of seasonal candy and social treats.

I’ve been sick from food poisoning the past few days days and I’m not out of the woods yet. Needless to say, I am not thinking of food addictions at the moment.

Rest seems to be the most attractive thing on the menu for the time being.

It’s easy to forget that a simple necessity like sleep can have such a positive effect on one’s health. Sleep can heal so many things, including the negative effects of overeating associated with food addictions.

Stock up on ZZZZZZZ’s and nap when you can. The brain loves it and those hormones that make you want to eat everything in sight are nowhere to be found.

Emotional eaters need to be pampered with non-food warm fuzzies. Sleep is right up there at the top of the list when it comes to results.

So good night, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite.

Take a Vacation From Your Food Addiction

Sep30

When heading out on vacation, there’s that little thought in the back of your mind thinking about the weight you’re going to gain. You may be pleasantly surprised and you might even lose a few pounds.

It’s true that overeating is common for most people while on vacation. However, emotional eating and food addiction are not the same as overeating. They’re triggered by enormous stress, not all the delightful foods that beckon you on your holiday.

Give your food addiction a vacation, too. If you’re not emotionally stressed out, you won’t feel the uncontrollable urge to stuff down your feelings with too much of the wrong foods. And, by the way, the wrong foods for someone else aren’t necessarily the wrong foods for you.

So, here’s today’s rescue remedy. Try some personal empowerment. When you’re on vacation, enjoy yourself. Relax, get a massage, do what you really want to do at least part of the time and you won’t feel the need to eat in order to cope.

Emotional eating is eating when your emotions have gotten the better of you. Don’t let your vacation companions, even if they’re family, bully you into doing things you don’t enjoy and that don’t make you feel relaxed and happy.

Be a little selfish. Let someone else cope for a change. You just enjoy yourself and your vacation, whether it is for a day or two weeks.

There’s no law that says you and your food addiction can’t take separate vacations.