Overcoming Food Addiction One Baby Step at a Time
Overcoming food addiction, at first thought, can seem so daunting to those of us who know this monster intimately. It feels as though you are nothing more than a puppet on a string when your addiction to food crashes in on your life on a daily basis. How many times have we decided that today we are going to take charge and regain the control over our lives that we desire only to be defeated at the first emotional hump or 10 minutes into the first hunger pain?
I am very familiar with this powerful foe of food addiction. I was well on my way to 300 pounds before I began to get a hold of this beast. Although I am not at the weight that I desire to be yet, I have dropped around 35 pounds since I stepped into the ring with this opponent. I have gone from about 285 pounds “officially” (I know I have weighed a little more than this at times but I was too ashamed to want to know) down to 250 pounds in about 6 months “without dieting”.
I remember not being able to help myself from devouring sacks of potato chips, bags of cookies and whole cakes and pies. Today I have something that I cherish and that is “control”. This is not to say that I don’t still have “run ins” with the enemy but now I have understanding and wisdom in how to overcome the “lies” of food addictions.
The one thing that made the difference in overcoming food addiction was facing the monster head on. “Hunger” was the big obstacle for me. I say “hunger” because it was a physical hunger but also an emotional hunger. I am still not sure what it was all about I just know that by facing it down, it is being fixed. This may explain it better…if you were driving down the road and had a flat tire, would you walk three miles back the way you came to try to find out what made your tire go flat? Or would you just want the tire fixed so you could go on your way?
The method that helped fix my tire was from a book I stumbled on while surfing the net one day that introduced the method of 24 hour short term fasting as a safe and healthy way for weight loss…yes, I laughed out loud when I first read that also. Overcoming food addiction was not my primary goal here, I just wanted to lose weight before I had a massive coronary.
I think the big thing that helped me with this technique was that it was actually easier for me to “not eat” than it was to eat right or eat healthy. By doing this I eventually became experienced with “hunger” and you know what I came to see…”He ain’t so tough”. I started out by “fasting” lunch a couple times a week. Then I began “fasting” breakfast and lunch on Mondays and Thursdays. Now I control and decide when to eat and how much. I don’t like feeling stuffed anymore but I do eat until I am full.
This was a gradual process. Overcoming food addiction is not going to happen overnight and it is not going to come from a magic pill. Overcoming food addiction is very possible if you take it one baby step at a time.
I have written a very personal review of the book that has helped me see the truth about weight loss and food obsession. You can read about my experience by clicking here now.
