Addiction

[Alienore]

Re: Addiction

Just take it a meal at a time, a day at a time. Don't rush.

It does get easier - I lived on crisps (potato chips), bread, cereal, cookies and all the fattening things I could shove down my throat. Now, I don't buy things like that - there's nothing like the smell of a decent stirfry or a juicy chop or piece of steak to get my mouth watering. Chocolate is something I still have issues with but most of the time I manage to avoid it!

Like any addict, you do have to work at it and WANT to do this for YOURSELF. Not your husband, not your children - YOU. Otherwise, it won't work.

Tell yourself you're worth it, tell yourself that you love yourself. And MEAN it. That mental boost will make a huge difference. And post often - the people here are just amazing with the love, support and encouragement you will get.


Deborah

[k5commando]

Re: Addiction

I think you hit the nail on the head, we are very similar to alcoholics. Good news is that it does become easier to stick with it. Every now and then I look at a piece of cake or something and say to myself those infamous words of doom "what's one piece going to hurt"? That thought lasts about a second as my before pictures start playing in "fat kid theater" in my mind.

[sofarsogood]

Re: Addiction

"Fat Kid Theatre" - That's funny. Now every time I look at cake I'll think of it and laugh too hard to be able to eat.

On that same train of thought, do you guys think that the way we eat is more of a gene thing or a learned behavior from when we were growing up?

I'm asking because I've always made sure my kids ate healthy (hiding what I ate from them). So do you think they will just continue with this healthy way of eating when they are grown up, or will their genes kick in when they're old enough to decide what they want to eat and they'll be carb/sugar/junk food addicts? Did anyone here have parents that were really focused on making sure you ate healthy growing up? I know I was raised on kraft dinner, kool-aid, hotdogs, etc. which was pretty much the norm twenty years ago.

[slimndown]

Re: Addiction

I think the body's reaction to food is inherited but I am convinced that our eating habits come from the way we were raised. For example: I was raised with mashed potatoes and gravy. It was one of the first foods I ever ate as a baby and is one of my comfort foods to this day - although I don't like them as much now I've been eating right. I was also raised to eat everything on my plate and to stuff myself full when I eat - both habits I'm trying to break. I have been eating a lower carb diet for the past 2 years (not low enough to lose weight but not enough to gain much), so my 2 year old daughter has been raised with eating meat and colorful veggies. There was a couple of weeks this summer where I bought junk food for lunches because they were easier to make in a hurry. She didn't eat it. She likes pasta - but the good stuff. She won't eat mac & cheese, hamburger helper, mashed potatoes. If they're put on a plate with chicken and tomatoes, she will eat the chicken and tomatoes then steal the rest of them from off my plate. It's definitely learned. After a while of this WOE - try that experiment with your kids. You may be pleasantly surprised.....

[dreamof145]

Re: Addiction

I know for me, it is a bit of what foods I was raised on, (mostly pasta, breads and potatoes). But it was also a insecurity feeling. I learned early in life to get my comfort from food. Lots of stuff involved that I don't like to think about, but I knew food was always there to help me out when I was blue. When I got older, I was the friend who always baked for the other friends. I'd make cookies and cakes and since all my friends had lives to lead, they appreciated that someone was there to supply them with the goodies.

This WOE has been a real challenge for me. I have relearned how to cook and what to eat to stay healthy instead of making for others to please them and make them like me. I no longer think of food as my main attraction and ways of getting to know people. I use action instead of food. Asking people to go places and do things instead of out to eat. This I think has been my biggest accomplishment in my relearning here at ADBB.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Addiction

your responce to foods are learned behaviors. you learned to associate happy memories with the foods you were raised on. What parent screamed at you made you upset, angry or depressed serving you dessert? So your brain in its vast fileing cabinet of memory stored those foods with happy times and the post meal good feeling with that food. and this happened over and over again growing up. Then it also noticed that certain foods would independantly cause this effect also (because many foods like chocolate mimic neurotransmitters) andstored them too. then when DR BRAIN sees you are feeling blue it searches for cures that will make you happy andpoof out come Rxs for all those childhood foods and they are high carb cause that is howyou ate.

Now you can break those neral connections to those foods as comforters the more you resist the Rx and use something else like exercise, meditation, distraction or any nonfood response. Ignore the signal ( practice strengthening your will power some folk call it) and it will get smaller and smaller until your Dr Brain loses that stored memory retrevial system and has to use the new one you just made.

Happy low carbing.