ladynredd Well done!
You are an inspiration. It sounds like fun with your grandson! 3 hrs??? Wow! Bringing the carrots was a great thing to do. It's so easy to skip those seemingly 'little' things. Imo, any sort of affirmative action helps to solidify our intention to eat healthy, over & above having something to eat.

Sending good vibes to luckmommy Safe travels and hope you can get online to check in! Enjoy your vacay!

Happy Monday, Everyone!

hi I posted here once before ( Or I think this was the thread) Mars was kind enough to respond. I never posted again. So huge belated thanks to Mars for her response.

This whole food addict thing is getting the best of me. I find that either I am in the groove and the diet thing is in check, or I am whirling out of control to the point where I am gaining. Fallen off the "wagon".

These days, control over this addiction is elusive. So here I am again. Only this time I am not posting and running.... not to be heard from again. I have gained 8 lbs since mother's day weekend. Not proud of it. Gotta get back on board. I know how to do it. I know the low carb low cal, less intake of food, formula that works well for me. Just have to implement it and get back in the groove. Be stronger than the cravings. In a way, be addicted to the healthy dieting. Thanks for reading. Hope you all have a great day.

I am glad to be able to say that nobody polices me when it comes to food except for myself...My husband knows that my addiction will only get worse if others try to tell me what, or what not, to do.

I do miss my husband when he is away but emotions like loneliness or boredom are easy for me to manage without sugar...but the desire to sneak food is literally the 7-year-old-girl in me wanting to indulge in sugar and bread for the buzz. Does anyone else love the feeling of being full? Most people don't but I sure do and it can hard to live without. Being in ketosis really cuts cravings, which is great. The only way to feel full/stuffed on IP (if the desire for this sensation gets to be on my mind a lot) is to drink a LOT of veggies, tea and water until it goes away.

It's interesting how we all find ways to deal with food addiction...I find that planning ahead is the secret to success. Also, getting rid of stress, as possible, is always best. I, like so many of us, have intense personal pressures and being on the IP diet really helps me. I plan to abstain from wheat and sugar after I hit my goal as well as trigger foods. No time like the present to practice, practice, practice abstaining! I guess I have my answer to how to handle being alone with my addiction.

I can relate to that kind of gain...I gained like clockwork until getting back on track and this thread is really a big help.

I find the "healthy diet addiction" to be just the right cure too! Ha. I have of course slipped off the wagon over time and had to run alongside for a mile or two but it always feels gooood to be back on board. It sure is hard to parent ourselves but we gotta do it.

Thank you Mars735, I didn't succumb to temptation, and I do enjoy looking at the clothes too . I'm in love w/these Wallflower jeans they have them for less than $20 shipped.

Awww you are welcome Flower. I enjoy the candor & humor in your posts on 3FC. You have a lot of discipline! I find the same thing re 3fC, I'm not sure why but if I spend time here, I'm holding the line, if I leave 3FC, I relapse. Maybe posting here is a sign you are ready to back on board & enjoy some freedom from those foods. Sometimes I have a few false starts. I wish you the smoothest possible re-entry. This food addiction stuff is really tough to get a grip on. It takes fortitude to pick yourself up and start fresh. You know what to do, you've got this.

I've never noticed whether I get a buzz from being full--gonna give it some thought & pay attention. It's so useful to understand what drives our eating behavior. You've applied quite a piece of self-knowledge to the question, and it sounds like you've tapped into your determination. WTG!!!!

Candidcamster Did you get the jeans?

I just noticed David Kessler published something since End of Overeatingin 2013. I foget the title, maybe Hijacked? About how the certain foods (processed, with sugar fat salt) fool our brains into thinking we are hungry for more, even when we are full. So maybe it IS the food! I might have to read this.

Oh yes !! Words well said. "parent ourselves" indeed. Thanks. Here's to healthy addiction. It may not be as good as cure or healing. But it is a heck of a lot easier than the other alternative

AWWWW mars. thanks for the great vote of confidence. Today I went out after talking to my widowed sister in law and bought some of the dreaded popchips. But in my defense, I was good the rest of the day. I think I need a popchip blocker

Tuesday is another day. The goal: No popchips. No turkey jerkey ( my bags of trouble) . I think I will figure this out. With chicken, celery and cucumber as my wittness, I WILL prevail

I hope everyone has a good Tuesday

Hi all. I hope people had an easy time of it today.

amyniagara, you did help me today. I was in Trader Joes trying to relieve the pain by getting turkey jerkey ( very expensive). And not getting their version of popchips ( loaded with carbs). I kept thinking, what if I got some chicken sausage. Could I relieve the pain if I ate it ??

I was trying to thwart the inner tantrums as I thought of your words re parenting oneself. Yes, I must do that. So, I got the chicken sausage, went home and had celery sticks and cucumber and 2 chicken sausages... for breakfast. So by some miracle my goal was accomplished. No popchips or turkey jerkey. was a "nail biter". But with sheer persistence and diligence, I prevailed !! Tomorrow is another day. But for today I prevailed.

I hope everyone has a good tomorrow. I plan to prevail... again. One chicken sausage at a time

Fantastic...and now You have inspired me with your story. I agree...every day is one day at a time. I think that when we are committed, it gets easier to think of health and sanity and find our way towards the lifestyle that makes things better, not worse. Food definitely doesn't dull the pain...it is a very tempting distraction but will never be the cure. I have a hard time remembering that. (Insert Cross-eyed emoticon here). I should write that on sticky notes and stick them everywhere!

Way to go flower!

I slipped up yesterday--after talking myself through resisting something sweet in the lounge at work, I suddenly ate some. It's as if there is someone else in my head sometimes. But I did manage to put the brakes on and limit the damage, and I did manage to avoid the big story of rationalization. I KNOW it was a slip.

Wellllll yesterday I did end up having a 3.5 oz bag of popchips. Nasty little things, they are. And the funny part about it is after I have finished inhaling them, all I want is MORE. For me, food does actually dull the pain for that day. But it creates a whole other level of pain in weight gain and lack of control, shame etc. As well as the ever famous avoidance ( to name a few).

Sounds like that had many components of success, mars. Ya, there was the slip. But it was well controlled. And you didn't go into the rationalization. Perhaps its not IF we slip ( when we do) but rather what we do with the slip. Do we go back for more? Do we spiral out of control? I hear ya re the "someone else in my head". That's what makes this so darned ( being careful with my expletives) hard. And that's why it takes such courage and strength to work on this each day. Okay, I was trying to sound really positive and motivational in general

Today I managed to win. I didnt eat anything bad. I honestly would have liked to have missed one of those meals. But that's not an option these days. I am grateful that I was able to stay low(ish) calorie and low carb. I will not vouch for what will happen on Saturday. Its my costco ( aka sample) day. To make matters worse, I have to go to the chocolate factory/store to buy my particular (low fat and alkalized) cocoa powder that day. Suffice to say, I will not be posting here on Saturday. I will be in a carb coma.

I hope everyone had an easy(ish) time of it today.

Congratulations on the wins, flower!

Amen to this! The pain it causes me is the way those trigger foods bring out that bottomless pit, 'I could swallow the ocean' feeling. The only point of satisfaction is getting so stuffed I couldn't possibly have more, yet my mind is still hungry. I wonder what they put in those darn pop chips. I don't even especially like em but I always want more anyway, if I eat them. Crack chips.


Thanks, flower, I'll take it----very helpful!

Same with me re Costco. I must time my trips to get out of there before the lunch time deluge of samples. And they just make me hungrier when i have some. Cocoa powder factory sounds both delightful & dangerous, lol. You are walking the gauntlet tomorrow--don't go in on an empty stomach! Sending you good thoughts to do things in the most self-caring way possible. When I know I'm going off my diet, I make sure to ENJOY!

I'm recovering from my Tuesday slippage into a little sugar, but not getting complacent. I think I will start logging in how many sugar free days, and invite anyone else to do the same with any of your triggers. How we love to count things! Today is Day 2.

TGIF cometh!

TGIF is here, Mars! Counting sugar-free days sounds like a nice way to stay on track!

I had an "ugh" month. Extra this over there, extra that over here. None of it truly egregious, compared to past behavior, but it still all added up to an over 5 pound gain for the month.

Le sigh.

AND my weight trend for the year as a whole is up, up, UP. I'm going to have to re-institute more structure if I want to reverse it. And I have a seriously complicated relationship with structure. We're definitely frenemies.

I have challenged myself to plan more this month and cut "fun snacks" out altogether, instead of justifying reasons to eat them.

And that's that.

Mrs. Snark, Yay you for recognizing a trend and jumping on it! You've got it, and if it means dropping in here, well that's a plus for the rest of us!

flower oh was I channeling you yesterday evening. I cooked up some ground turkey to use in the coming week--this, after a great day of OP eating and feeling really fine about it all.....Next thing ik now I'm eating a little dish of the ground meat with some Walden Farms BBQ sauce. and another, and possibly another, and wanting more more more. it started so innocently, too, just tasting the meat. The saboteur in my head said, 'hey why not add the WF sauce, after all I'm trying to get rid of it anyway.'

The result was feeling too full--it was unpleasant even though I didn't really eat all that much. It's just that i had felt really fine in my body, and mind too, mostly. I dumped the rest of the WF down the drain, case closed. BBQ IS a trigger for me, probably due to the sweetness. And this was calorie free, mind you! Anyway I wondered if there is flavoring to the pop chips that calls out to you flower.

That feeling of being to full--overstretched stomach--is unpleasant. I've begun to notice that lately. There is a definite disconnect in my head between stomach and brain hunger. I'm calling it another feature of addiction: Aside from the feeling of 'there's never enough to satisfy me', this wish to eat more even when stomach, body feel just right, the head wants to eat. and eat. and eat.

The other things I've noticed lately is that when I eat past pleasant fullness, my mood changes almost instantly. This is not about feeling disappointed or self-judgemental. I left most of that behind once I reached goal wt. No, it feels directly connected to the slightly unpleasantly overstuffed stomach sensation.

So, the punchline of this long ramble is that I'm going to experiment this weekend with NOT feeding my brain. The conditions should be favorable--beautiful weather, no obligations.

Beginning day 3 no sugar.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Mrs Snark, I have gained a bit of weight this year as well. It feels rather out of control. For me, I think it relates to allowing the trigger foods back in my life. I still am in maintenance. But not quite as low as last summer

Mars, I so understand ( from my own perspective) everything you wrote about. All the observations. All the behaviors you wrote about. I REALLY hear ya.

I think your observations sound on point. I am interested in what you wrote about NOT feeding your brain. I think thats the way to do it. To show the mind who's boss. I think once that pattern is established it makes it easier. For me, there have been those "grace times". That's what I call them. Where there is a reset. It usually is a health thing where I am forced to eat differently. So the choice is removed. Then that gets to be the pattern. I am looking for one of those times again. Less painful, if you know what I mean. Not obsessing as much.

Re the popchips, yes, crack. I finish a bag and want more. One bag, gone in less than 5 minutes. Then craving more. My mind on popchips

I am wishing you a sugar free saturday. Sugar. How can something so horrible taste so good? This is the question. The devil's spawn. I do think we all are so strong to be grappling successfully with all of this. Yes we are !!!