why do we feel we have to have it

[2big4mysize]

Did you know our brains have a marvelous filing system with crossreferences to just about everything you cna think of. I tell youit would make the biggest libray head librarian jealous.

Our brains file away how we feel after and before we eat a foods how it effected our mood etc. When we are sick our brains file all foods that made us better and all foods that made us feel worse. When we are feeling blue, happy, angry, sad, sexy, loving, old young,ect all have sections with every food we have ever eatten. Many foods like chocolate mimic neurotransmitters with their chemicals and this too is filed in our brains.

Our brains do not like when we don't feel in the best way it thinks we should so wen something like out of control anger or unhappiness happens it searches all those files and finds what helped us the best the last time. Those of us that are emotional eaters 9 times out of 10 it is going to be a food. It then prescribes that food and we get urges for it and our of the blue cravings for our comfort foods.

if we ignore it they get stronger cause our brain is sure it knows best and we still have the condition requiring a fix. There are other things we can do besides eat to minic those transmitters like meditation, exercise or even distraction. the more you ignore those food drugs your brain is prescribing the weaker the pathways to those foods as the preferred cure get and the newer substituted methods you chose gets stronger.

This is where the concept of the more you exercise your willpower the stronger it gets.

One problem with this is you will continue to get those Rxs from your subconcious for a long time and if you do give in and endulge them and you get the releif your brain says you need then that cure memory connection is made stronger and all your willpower exercising just went out the window with regards to that food.

[JoanOH]

As always, you make a lot of sense, 2Big. You know I'm going through a real difficult time staying away from LC bread -- I'm doing it, but my brain is SO focused on that bread right now. Reading what you wrote, I think I have finally figured it out. I'm going through a real worrisome time with my 23 yr old DD -- a girl who tends to self-destruct about every 6 months. I can see it winding up now -- and I'm worried for and about her. There's not a thing I can do about it but, of course, the Mom in me just wants to fix it, and it's frustrating that I can't.

And along comes the LC bread, calling my name. "I can comfort you. I can make you feel better." The words were muffled before I read what you posted. Now I hear them clearly, and understand better how to deal with them.

And yesterday, after getting that dreaded bread out of the house, nameless foods called me -- I didn't know what I wanted, but my brain was trying to convince me I wanted SOMEthing -- some comfort food. I didn't give in, but these kinds of cravings are really, really difficult for me. Far more difficult than cravings for sweets or carbs -- and now I understand that my brain is telling me that it knows how to comfort me -- with these dreaded foods.

I'm trying so hard to stay strong, but at the same time, because I'm NOT doing something else to comfort myself, I get a bit depressed and have a lower energy level than normal. Now, from your post, I understand it's time to find some other way to comfort myself.

Thanks, 2big. Knowledge is power and I feel a bit more powerful this morning

Joan J

[2big4mysize]

I'm glad I could help you Joan. I learned about it the hard way this spring when foods called my name and having been cheat free almost 700 days i went in a munchie binge that made no sense at all to me at the time and couldn't stop it anfd get my I love doing Atkins low carb feelings back :yikes . Having the rocket scientist mind metality many of my low carb friends have accused me of i had to find out why it was calling to me and why i felt I needed itand wouldn't control nor stop it. I posted and nobody seemed to have an answer so I headed to the universtiy lib and dug in and learned about minds and emotional eating way more then I wanted to know. I wish I was paying this forward cause I really could have used a gonebefore low carber explaining it to me but I'll settle for helping to create some like you with this info.

[ladysinger68]

How evil. Our own bodies setting us up for destruction. I am grounding mine. :raving

[Qjakal]

Not really evil...just a sense of survival gone astray. We're creatures of habit and our brains are wired this way for a reason that related to survival at one point in time, I'm sure.

Whatever the scientific explanation may truly be, I agree that it's a very powerful lure...the proverbial Sirens Song for all too many of us, made 10 times worse because we're generating it internally and all the earplugs in existence won't aid us through the crisis.

When possible I can exorcize it with exercise, but with a small child and the demands of life that we all have upon us this perfect timing scenario that allows me to utilize a known "cure" exists rarely, if ever, when the Sirens Song calls me.

I try carrying a *bad picture* with me, but at times it saddens me rather than strengthens my resolve, so it's a mixed blessing. I also try focusing on the many benefits of being a Normal Weight (TM...lol) and how much I enjoy shopping and generally just existing like this...also not a sure fire shield, but helpful. BUT in the end it boils down to setting up the one inner voice against the other...shouting it down with a resounding "NO...YOU DON'T *DESERVE* TREATS BECAUSE TREATS AREN'T REALLY THE ANSWER OR A REWARD!!!!"

There's where I often struggle mightily...the word "deserve". I've worked hard almost all my life as far as battling food/weight/cravings and when I feel successful that damn word hops up and insinuates itself into my subconscious, insistently braying that "you've done the job, now let yourself enjoy the fruits of victory". A first step back to the **** I just escaped and why I've rollercoasted up and down from 160 to nearly 280 for 4 decades...sigh.

I think 2big may have identified the problem but there's no one answer for us, only individual battles that we need to win every time the signals go out....

God help us.

Q

[Trying2]

2Big - that was explained beautifully. Do you know that I can actually taste & smell chocolate when I think of it?
Anyhow I was taught about the brain remembering pleasure in my "Learn to be Tobacco Free class." To prove the theory - it takes only 3 days to eliminate nicotine from your body. If I am 9 months without smoking and have not had nicotine aids, then why do I still think about having it/ wishing for one?? It's purely psychological - just like my food issue.

I guess I'm a mess with all the addictions. I shouldn't even attempt Vegas!
lol

[2big4mysize]

How evil. Our own bodies setting us up for destruction. I am grounding mine. :raving

Actually we can reprogram those pathways but you have to be consistant in your responses to it.

Our brains are very very good at learning even when we don't want them too just think of all those bad words you didn't want to know but your brain learned them anyways and they slip out sometimes. :yikes

So start with the first bite to reprogram your brain. that is what Dr Atkins si trying to tell us in the parts of DANDR where he says to have a hunk of cream cheese or macadamia nuts when you have cravings. this does 2 things for us one they now know we have fat receptors in our mouths that can triggers some pretty good neurotransmitters for pleasure so as you are going through the motions of being a good atkineer and having a high fat snack instead of the chocolate bar we are getting the chems our Dr Brain wanted, and secondly we will be increasing the ketones in our blood and the increase in ketone concentration will deepen that appetite control side effect. new comfort food memeories and new comfort food neurpathways for the next time.
the more you use it the stronger it will get and the weaker the high carb ones will become.

Then their is exercise and the endomorphines it releases in our brains. All the couch pototo inductees can use that to start reprogramming their Dr brains. This works great till you get sidelined with an injury so mix it up with something else. That was where I got snagged.

[Moochiecat]

This is probably the most interesting thread I've ever read here, and that's saying a lot with all the good info that passes through this board.

I've always visualized this as a detour. You want to go the usual route, but you stop, check yourself, and take a detour to legal foods.
I've talked before about conscious choices and talking to myself about why I need to eat an egg rather than obsess over something illegal.

It's like I'm awake for the first time in years and years, awake and in control...not on auto-pilot, plowing through breads, chocolate and danishes without a second thought and wondering why I'm hungry an hour later.

Going with the flow was certainly easier but where did it get me? I feel so much more powerful knowing I'm in charge of my choices now.
I still hear my brain chattering to me about illegal foods, but it's quieter now.