Addictions…..and...emotional eating.....

As I was reading a post on Forbes Woman…..this made so much sense to me!

“The scientific community’sunderstanding of addiction has changed a lot in the last couple of decades.Where addiction used to be thought of as a substance abuse problem, researchersnow realize that it’s really a “bio-behavioral” phenomenon. They’ve discoveredthat not only can you get addicted to substances with no real addictiveproperties (like marijuana), but you can become addicted to plain oldbehaviors, like gambling, sex, exercising, and even eating…”

Yeah that is me….I have struggled and struggled…my problems with the Eat To Live plan are not because I am hungry, actually I am NEVER hungry…it is the emotional eating that I am addicted to and what I struggle with so much! I want to leave emotional eating behind….but…

I am fine until there is an issue with my life, if I get anxious, scared, sad or lonely I want to eat…not just nibble carrots, but have my comfort foods…I am not a cookie or ice cream binger, I want food like Famous Dave’s, Pizza Hut, Texas Roadhouse or the Imperial Buffett (Chinese) just around the corner from my house…

This addiction always satisfies, I always feel better emotionally….and just like all addictions, if I keep going on this way, I will suffer negative consequences….I won’t lose weight, I will increase my chances of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a host of other health issues….

One if the hardest things in my life has been the feeling of being out of control with food. The Eat To Live plan has changed all of that….because of the plant based diet, I am not longer out of control on a daily basis, but just as I described above, when I start having issues, I start craving emotional comfort….

I have some overcoming emotional eating tapes….I want to listen to those….

But last night I threw caution to the wind and we went out for Chinese food and it was WONDERFUL……..

Day 7........hit a WALL.........

Please take pity on me and show me your love and concern…..

I am hiding in my cubby thoroughly victimized and heartsick!!! There are sandwich fixings in the break room!!! I am not hungry BUT I WANT TO EAT THEM!!!

I have had the WORST 24 hours!

So far I have written about how wonderful, AWESOME and MIRACULOUS the ‘Eat to Live’ plan is!

It has been all rainbows and unicorns….

LAST NIGHT it wasn’t!

YOU can’t overcome emotional eating in a week and NEITHER can I!

It is obvious that I am an emotional eater…food soothes me….or rather I trained myself to let food soothe me…

There are those people who deal with their stress in other ways than eating….sometimes their ways are not healthy either……. 

When you use food for comfort, it shows.

I have had a pretty easy go of so far…no cravings, no desire to emotionally eat…

THEN last night I hit the WALL!  It had been a terribly anxious day at work, 2 co-workers were fired, friends of mine from my own team....

No matter how hard you work here, you have to have the numbers and my friends just didn’t..... a lot of us struggle to get the numbers…I am usually okay with mine, but this environment is so frightening at times…the constant concern, the fear, “is this the day that they tire of me and my numbers?”     

By the time I got home I was a nervous wreck……the cravings started about a half an hour before I left work, I was being pulled by a heavy-duty magnet to the vending machine for crackers, cookies, a BEAR CLAW!

I resisted, but again by the time I got home I was struggling. I wanted a Maverick Bahama Mama hot dog, kettle chips and a Pepsi, a far cry away from the plant based diet that I had been eating….I laid on my bed and the urge was so strong to give in….

I wasn’t hungry, but that is NOT the point and NEVER is to an emotional eater….I KNEW THAT THE Bahama Mama hot dog, kettle chips and a Pepsi would make me feel better! I can’t explain it, but it really does…..

But that is unhealthy, I resisted the urge.....

I remembered talking with my counselor as he asked me what the other people around me did to deal with stress…the ones that aren’t overweight…and so I went and played an hour of Plants vs. Zombies….the game distracted me, I was able to go to sleep later and the urgings passed with the dark (kinda)….PHEW!!!