Tag Archive | Food Addictions

Food Addiction and Fa-La-La

Dec15

‘Tis the season for eating, drinking, and being merry. All that Fa-la-la-ing can really shake up the routine. And why not?

Fighting food addiction in a festive season where feelings are mixed, spirits are are high, and food is everywhere can be an un-winnable battle.

In that case, why fight it? What’s wrong with just enjoying the festivities without worrying about all the what ifs that no one can do anything about anyway?

If you’re going to have feelings, have warm, happy ones, and share them as often as possible. If you’re going to eat, eat responsibly.

One thing that is becoming more and more common during the holiday season is the amount of stress associated with all the good cheer.

How about using some of that good cheer to your benefit this year? You will eat, and maybe you’ll overeat–most people do during the holidays. But don’t let old negative feelings drive you to feed your food addiction.

Instead, be light of heart. Feed your spirit. Nourish the best in yourself. Soon enough it will a new year. Save your resolutions until then. For now, eat well, drink responsibly, and be merry every chance you get.

Be Bigger Than Your Food Addiction

Dec3

You know that expression, “You have too much on your plate”? Well, did you ever notice that when you have too much on your plate, you tend to put too much on your plate?

This is one of the big challenges for people with food addictions. Overwhelming stress, or the illusion of overwhelming stress, makes us eat for no other reason than we don’t know what else to do.

Stress has a way of making us think things are worse than they actually are. When we react by overeating, the stress gets worse because first, it doesn’t solve the problem and second it adds a second problem of becoming overweight.

Oddly enough, it seems like the larger your body gets the more invisible we become. People don’t notice us in positive ways and the fat is easy to hide behind. The truth is that we are only hiding from ourselves.

Things that happened in the past are in the past. They can’t be changed. Now is different. Anything can happen in the present moment, which is the only moment we have control over anyway.

If something in the past made you feel small and insignificant, then why not change things? We are responsible for making our own changes, no matter what, so why not be bigger than our food addiction?

I was thinking about this after I had been to a Seal concert. Seal is a great performer but I noticed something in this particular concert that I’d not noticed before. Throughout every song, his arms were outstretched most of the time.

As he sang with his arms wide, it gave me a sense of freedom, of being larger than life. As we left the concert, my friend and I serenaded each other with our favorite songs, none of when even vaguely resembled Seal’s performance.

As we sang and laughed, we stretched out our arms wide and spun around like children. It was a fabulous moment. In that moment, we were as big as the world with no worries, no troubles, no thought of food.

It was like being in a different world, one in which we were noticed and admired. Some people even applauded.

It didn’t matter what we did, or how we were dressed or whether or not we could sing worth a hoot. We were being our true selves in the best of ways. What a blast!

You are bigger than anything that will ever happen to you. Stretch out your arms as wide as the sky and spin around. Just for a moment, be your own true self. It’s positively addictive.

Finding the Right Therapist to Help You With Your Food Addiction

Nov23

Food addiction is usually tied to some deeply rooted emotional trauma. I say usually only to give the benefit of the doubt.  Personally, I’ve never seen a case that wasn’t.

In my own experience, I have found that a psychotherapist can be a great resource.  When you are ready to delve into that dark place and retrieve the faceless memory that is sabotaging your abundance, talking with a professional can be very helpful.

The new moniker is “talk therapist”  which I suppose does sound better then “psychotherapist”.  But don’t let the generic term fool you. There is nothing small about talking your feelings out.

I prefer a psychologist, a Ph.D. because of their educational background, but a licensed mental health counselor can do a good job too, and at a more economical rate. It can be a tough decision, but the key is finding someone with whom you feel comfortable.

Here are three things to consider:

1. Education and Background:  Where did they go to school? How long have they been practicing? What is their specialty? Do they have experience working with people with food addictions?

2. Location: Is the office close, comfortable and convenient? This is important because you will be spending time there unraveling and and reweaving parts of your life, which may be painful.

3. Do they instill a sense of trust? This is the most important consideration of all. If you are to discover or uncover the hidden feelings behind your food addiction, trust must be the basis of the relationship.

That said, go at your own pace. You’ll have to take some risks. You didn’t contract your food addiction overnight and it won’t go away overnight. And that’s okay.

Risks are a part of life. Just seeking a solution for a food addiction or an emotional problem that has led to a weight problem, is a big risk. Good on you for taking it.