I am addicted to food. It is my answer to all my problems. I have bipolar disorder and severe anxiety and when I get stressed out I go straight to the frig. I have a terrible sweet tooth. I can't get enough of chocolate. I have been working out 1 hour a day doing 4 miles on the treadmill burning roughly 550 calories. But I am still not losing weight cause I can't stop eating. I've tried snacking on carrots and the like but I always end up eating chocolate kisses or an oreo. I would eat one and say that is all I'm going to eat, but then I would give in and eat 2 then 4 and then I would become out of control. I am at the end of my rope, I need some help, some suggestions how to control what I eat...anyone out there who can help me?
First of all, like with all addictions, realizing it really is the first step, So Yay! First things first, GET RID OF THE JUNK. If it's in the house you will eat it, I have learned that one from experience! Second, find a diet plan that works for you with your needs. I'm doing the slim fast thing along with calorie counting and with that you get to have slim fast bars which taste just like candy bars. The peanut butter ones taste just like butter fingers- i've even caught the boy eating them so they help to satisfy the sweet tooth. When you feel like going off plan and snacking, come here, clean, do some work, call a friend work out, do anything to take your mind off it and before you know it, it'll be time to have another delicious snack bar. lol It's worked for me! Good luck!!!!
I HIGHLY recommend the book "The Thin Commandments" by Dr. Stephen Gullo. He is a food psychologist with a resume a mile long. He is widely considered the best of the best. Patients pay $1000 an hour to work with him in NYC. His book really taught me how to psychologically manage food issues.
I found this bit online which gives you a taste of his book/approach (better than I could trying to summarize it)
I also agree with Goody3shoes get rid of all the junk in your house. Usually I can kick my bad habits in the beginning especially after a binge when I start eating healthy. You're addicted to sugar, switch the chocolate bars and candy with sweet fruit. Oranges can usually do that trick because they have so much citrus in them. Besides fruit is natural sugar and not processed.
I also can't say no to reading a good psychological book either.
Good luck, were all here under some sort of food addictions but in the end it always comes down to mind over matter. Remind yourself why you are doing this post pictures of what you want yourself to look like when you finally drop the weight on your fridge. Maybe even have a picture of your highest weight of yourself on your fridge to make you reconsider going for that bucket of ice cream or whatever. LOL and best of all stay OUT of the AILSE at the grocery store, thats where most if not all the processed bad food is.
I was a food addict too because food comforted me. It was the final straw though when I realized the food wasn't comforting me AT ALL but hurting me.
Make a plan and stick to it. Take before pictures and plaster it on the fridge (I did that + made a collage of bad pix and put it on my computer desktop). Get rid of the junk in your house (I had to so there was no temptation within reach)
I had to be super strict in the first few months but I still satisfied my chocolate craving with dark chocolate squares that I savored with every bite.
At first you have to go cold turkey but for me I was able to moderately incorporate all the things I loved and not go overboard. There's also a forum Chicks who Binge in another part of 3FC
admitting it and trying to stop is half the battle
we all have them days but somewhere inside you have the strength and the willpower to say no and to choose an apple,, it will click and when it does the rewards are gonna be so worth it...
the pictures as the weight goes down are so much more rewarding then the "fake comfort" that the chocolate brings.. it will click eventually, initially it will take one **** of a leap of strength, but it will be worth it...
it gets a little easier.. 1hr workout is fab... but give yourself the 1st week of snacking less.. once you have a good loss it'll get easier to say no, cos you'll have the boost .. you can do it..
This might sound weird, but what is working best for me is actually keeping some of the food in the house-food that I love to eat, but isn't the worst for me (like Nutella is the WORST) but isn't great either. Not having it at all made me feel really deprived and anxious, and then I'd waste money buy it again...then throwing it away again...then buying it again...and each time, consuming not all of it, but a good amount of it. Now, I just keep it there-usually its best if they are ingredients of food that I love, like honey for example, when I used to love to make huge sandwiches of honey and PB. Its there, and I feel secure knowing that yes, it is there, but like I'm not gonna binge on this straight up honey-its too sweet by itself. IDK if that makes any sense lol.
So yah, in short, I keep an ingredient, or a small, not too unhealthy thing, that I was really into, but not the entire dish itself (like a combo of bread, nutella, pb and honey) and that way the "bad" food is there and I dont fret about it-because I dont have to think "its not THERE"
For me, it was situational-in college I did not have to do this because I had a dining hall, the food, low cal AND fattening, was just there if I wanted it and I chose not to have it
In the working world, I have to buy the food to have it, otherwise, I don't have it because grocery stores make me feel much more distant from the food than a dining hall and I battled with the feeling of depriving myself. I'm trying to accept that feeling and deal with it, by having "something" in the house and therefore, choosing not to have it, instead of feeling like I can't have it.
Last edited by pixelllate; 05-20-2011 at 04:40 PM.
Just throw it away. Seriously. Sometimes, I still binge, but at least I have to walk to the grocery store to get chips or whatever. When I regret it the next day or that night, I throw them away immediately.
Food addict ...how do I beat it?
Hi
First things first, GET RID OF THE JUNK. If it's in the house you will eat it, I have learned that one from experience! Second, find a diet plan that works for you with your needs. I'm doing the slim fast thing along with calorie counting and with that you get to have slim fast bars which taste just like candy bars. The peanut butter ones taste just like butter fingers- i've even caught the boy eating them so they help to satisfy the sweet tooth. When you feel like going off plan and snacking, come here, clean, do some work, call a friend work out, do anything to take your mind off it and before you know it, it'll be time to have another delicious snack bar. lol It's worked for me! Good luck!!!!
