Fighting Food Cravings

As I look back on my life with food addiction, I wasn't even in denial. I just did not know there was anything to deny. Addiction- all addiction- is a body, mind, spirit phenomenon. In food addiction, you crave the many elements of food that are chemically addicting (sugar, wheat, flour) but you also crave the feeling of complete and utter numbness that comes with it.

I myself was never a binger or a starver. I was an all day nibbler- but I was just as driven. Hovering at the treats table at a party was my thing, and I had it down to a science. If you were slow and nonchalant about it, no-one would really know how much you had eaten.

In those days,I never knew that binge eating, anorexia, and compulsive overeating were all manifestations of the same disease- food addiction. In fact, for most of the years of my young life I did not even know that food addiction existed, or that it was a problem. I lived the problem day in and out, on and off the scales, on and off diets, and up and down emotionally with the variances of my weight. But I had never heard of this as a problem.I came to peace with food in a program called Overeater's Anonymous. I finally succumbed to allowing others to help me, and eventually, of my own choice, I gave up eating all sugar wheat and flour products.

Here is an excerpt from a anonymous story I found. Although many of us may not be this extreme, there is no saying that we may not get there. Addiction, all addiction, is progressive and gets worse as time goes by. I hope this person's story will help you understand the very real and killing problem of food addiction.

{The streets team with activity. Business beckons. Individual people focus on their individual purpose. I am without real purpose on this Manhattan avenue here on a downswing of another mindless burst of loose energy. My forces have dissipated. I feel the edge of the gray cloud of a binge. I ignore it: I push it away to focus instead on the glamor of the shop windows and the glitter of the street vendors' wares. I walk; half looking for a subway, half addressing the feeling that is now nagging-tapping me on the shoulder like the haunted ghosts of memories buried alive. It's useless to fight it now. I check the time; 10:20 a.m. I have about an hour to purge myself of the horror about to come.

The gourmet deli is before me. Muffins, croissants, and delicate pastries beckon me with thier cloying scent. A real 'city binge' I think crazily, comparing with the Hostess and Drakes binges of the Queens. I buy a large chocolate mile, a buttered bagel, a peanut butter cookie, and a tremendous chocolate chip muffin. I pay quickly, counting neither what I offer, nor the change. The numbness is starting.

I leave the store and tear the wrapper from whatever is on top. The bagel. I need the milk. All is geared to bringing it up later. Eating and drinking, I stop at another deli. Everything goes back in the bag as I enter the store. More mindless choices. Another bagel, a chocolate croissant, some pastries. I leave continuing to eat, thinking of nothing else.

The people along the next few blocks see me eating. I make no eye contact. They see me eating something. I entertain the notion that they meet up with each other at some point and compare notes. I am aware of the absurdity of the thought. One more stop before I hit the subway. A few more pastries, a couple of buttered rolls and another drink. She overcharges me but I ignore this. It's interrupting the binge.}

Now consider that a compulsive eater does much the same thing- but he or she keeps it down and lives with the bloated, sick feelings. And consider that an anorexic does not eat- for fear that the food will take him or her over. If you consider all of that, you can sort of get a picture of food addiction.

Please stay tuned, as I will continue this story in my next entry.

In a recent entry from a food addict's website, Daily Strength, which I highly recommend for all kinds of support groups you may need.
http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Food_Addiction/forum/7957992-slipping-into-relaps

The entry was called 'Slipping into Relapse.' I quote the person who wrote it as saying " I allowed myself a Sprite and piece of cake on my birthday and it's been downhill ever since...and I am out of control with my food."

Her desperation brought me back to my desperate days with food. We all want it to be so different. We want to look different, feel different. We want grace of sanity around food. But for many people certain foods are physically addicting. A craving is set up that can not be controlled. But somehow through the 12 steps of OA and a higher power we find we can get back to our center. We can stay on our food plan, away from the foods that affect us- if we rely on a power greater than ourselves.

Other people in the world may laugh, but for many food addicts overwhelming craving that gets in the way of life is very real.

Blessings to the writer of this entry. May you find strength, hope, and tools in getting back to OA.

Please read some of my other writings on various topics on my blogs. Below is an excerpt from a recent article I wrote called On Heaven, Hell, and The Law of Attraction Energy

www.hubpages.com/hub/Law-Of-Attraction-Energy

Let us consider that Jesus' point was not that we become Christians, then get the prize- which is the Kingdom of Heaven. After all there was no such thing as Christianity at the time, so how could he be discussing that. So instead let us suppose that the point Jesus was making was that we become Christ-like. The point was that we follow the light of God within us, as taught by Jesus. (And coincidentally as also taught by Ghandi, Buddha, Martin Luther King Jr., and many other great spiritual leaders.) Let us suppose that when we become Christ-like, regardless of our religion, we have found eternal life. Because being Christ-like, in its highest sense, encompasses our light, and our love, and all that is good and beautiful. And GOD is the life/light/love force in the universe. So he, and we, are eternal.

I think it is very fitting to speak about my dad in this blog this week. He passed away a week ago Monday, and it was truly a week of sadness and also soul searching for me. I thought about this blog a lot. My dad had chronic adult-onset diabetes, you see.

I remember back to the days of my childhood. My dad and I used to have a grand old time together sharing fun, and sharing food- ice-cream, donuts, and cake being our favorite things. When I was with my dad, there was always a treat in store. In those days I had never even heard of food addiction or the concept of immense cravings.

One of the ways my dad and I bonded was through food, and there was no question about it.

But as I watched my dad in the last years of his life, I remember thinking so frequently "What a price pleasure in food can exact." As time went by my father could hardly walk due to his diabetes. He couldn't see very well. Food began to have no flavor at all and he had a hard time swallowing. He spent his days dozing listlessly in a chair, and was sad beyond measure at the loss of all that he had ever enjoyed in life.

And the odd irony was that toward the end my father couldn't even eat from the havoc to his body. And one might even say that in the end he died of starvation.

So what is there to say about all of this? I know for me I lived a full seven years with no traces of sugar, wheat, or flour in my body- as well as a whole host of other ingredients. And it took a lot of work because in truth there is hardly a box, can, or jar on a grocery store shelf that does not contain at least one of these ingredients, and usually they have a lot more than one. Now I live mostly craving- free, perhaps because it also takes seven years for the cells in a human body to replace themselves. Considering that the cells in your body literally become addicted to those substances, I probably don't have any addicted cells left.

During the week after my dad's death I did partake in some of the typical no-nos. I had some ketchup, which contains sugar. I had a few onion rings. My family, now used to a whole new me, was shocked. I feel that perhaps it was just my yearning to once again feel some comfort in food, as if my dad were back with me. But I know I tread on dangerous waters, and I don't suggest you try it- especially if you still have most of your old, addicted cells.

So where does this whole conversation leave us. For me it leaves me with a stark reality. I feel healthy, vibrant, and fully alive these days, and I want to honor my father's love by not following him down the path to self destruction. He could not avoid it, but I can. So I will stick to the foods that keep me feeling great. And I will try to educate others on the same issue. And I will hope that the manufacturers and food stores eventually start to provide us with foods that we can eat. And knowing my father and his loving nature, his spirit will be happy if I follow this path.

This is a don't miss tool for dealing with cravings.
Click Here!

This is an equally powerful tool for the mind.
Click Here!

We've all heard people fighting food cravings in many different ways. For instance we've heard ,"Once I get started on dinner rolls, I can't stop." Or "there's not enough pasta in the world for me." Or we've heard "Two cookies, are you kidding?"

So let's face it, some foods are addicting. And I don't mean that in the laughable sense. Such as when we chuckle after eating our 3rd slice of cake, and explain "Well, I'm just addicted to chocolate cake." I mean it in a very real and alive way. We are all addicted to many of the foods we eat. And it's debilitating.

'Debilitating,' you might say. 'That's a bit extreme, isn't it?' Well maybe not.

It is often said that society favors thin people, and that the model for beauty is skin-and-bones. Now this is probably true and I don't deny it. But you may be a size 14, and you want to be a size 8, and you know this is your ideal size, as well as very achievable. And yet you can't get there because of all the cookies, pasta, and bread you eat, even as you say you don't want to. Then you have a problem. And the problem is that you are fighting food cravings.

Now you're in a pickle, and your self esteem plummets. You ask yourself, 'Do I have no will power? Am I a weak-willed glutton?' Now you go on crash diets. You begin to starve yourself. Your blood sugar becomes sporadic. You begin to snap at the kids and growl at your husband. Perhaps you spend 2 weeks doing this before finally giving it up. Now you go out and eat. For two weeks you eat whatever you want, whenever you want. On come the pounds you lost, plus a few more. And your self-esteem plummets even more.

Food addiction as it progresses will soon lead to extreme fluctuation in blood sugar due to the overeating of processed carbohydrates. This will cause bouts of lethargy and sleepiness, and irritability. Certainly obesity will set in, or perhaps a person's behavior will become bulimic. Now the journey for the food addict is perilous. It becomes a psychological addiction to stay thin, inside of the physical addiction to eat more. By the end metabolisms are destroyed, diets on longer work, self-esteem in this area has all but disappeared. And the food addict's very life may be in danger.

People who take another path in food addiction often become anorexic. They decide it is better not to eat at all, than to fight the cravings, or be fat. This of course is life threatening. Now if you don't become anorexic or bulimic, but you do continue in your addiction, by the age 60 you will be a diabetic. Your body will have used up its supply of insulin over the many years of carb abuse, and it will begin to deteriorate rapidly. In this case you will lessen the very years of your life, and those last years will be painful in myriad ways.

Still we joke about food addiction all the time.

Fighting food cravings is no laughing matter for a lot of people. But there are sources of help. There is a program called Overeaters Anonymous, which I attended for many years. There is also a program called Food Addicts Anonymous. Both of these will give you the support of other people on a similar path, as well as their experience strength and hope. You will also need a food plan that deals with food as an addictive substance. And there are many other tools I will give you in subsequent articles. But to those of you who suffer, I will just say, yes you can live a healthy happy life with food addiction. But you need to reach out.

This is a don't miss tool for dealing with cravings.
Click Here!

This is an equally powerful tool for the mind.
Click Here!