Fighting food cravings- Let's Get Real
Lorelei Fenton
Every day as we walk around our world we see food addiction. We hear people proclaiming that whenever they eat pasta, or home-baked bread, or chocolate cake they just can't stop. People are even prone to laugh at themselves and tell you flat out, they are addicted to something. But perhaps, when you really look at it, food addiction is not a funny thing. Perhaps if you look closely, you might even call food addiction a debilitating disease.
Now why do I say that food addiction is debilitating?
Let's take a look at fighting food cravings. You are a size 14. You want to be a size 8. Now we can talk all we want about how society favors thin people, and the model for beauty is skin-and-bones. And all of this is quite true. I don't dispute it. But the plain and simple fact is, you want to be a size 8, and you can't get there. It's you who wants this. It's not anyone else. And the kick in the teeth is you know you could be there. You know your body on some level wants to be there. But you can't stop eating all of the cookies, pasta, and bread in order to get there.
Many people with food addiction experience self-esteem problems. They think they are weak and have no will-power. They go on crash diets. They white knuckle it and become irritable and grouchy with their loved ones. Many will give up after a while, and begin to eat even more than they ever did. Most will then gain more than they ever did. Quite often these same people will become convinced that they are less capable than other people, and this greatly affects their sense of self.
All of this is what I would call a low-level food addiction, or the onset of more serious problems. Later down the line the cycles often get worse and worse. Your relatively harmless binging may turn life-threatening and bulimic. If not, your binges may become so extreme as to cause obesity. This in turn has you lethargic all day long, as well as lackluster and prone to sleeping. Your disposition is grouchy because your blood sugar is constantly shooting up and shooting down. And after a while your metabolism is destroyed, along with your self-esteem, and no diets will work any more.
People who take another path in food addiction often become anorexic. They decide it is better not to eat at all, than to fight the cravings, or be fat. This of course is life threatening. Now if you don't become anorexic or bulimic, but you do continue in your addiction, by the age 60 you will be a diabetic. Your body will have used up its supply of insulin over the many years of carb abuse, and it will begin to deteriorate rapidly. In this case you will lessen the very years of your life, and those last years will be painful in myriad ways.
And this is the thing about which we joke at parties as we eat our 10th cookie.
Well it may be time to stop laughing and start listening to our own jokes. I want you to know you can stop the roller coaster of fighting food cravings. Where I got off my own whirligig of was through a 12-step program for food addicts called Overeater's Anonymous. There is also a program called Food Addicts Anonymous. Since this is a true and bona fide addiction that masses of our society live unhappily with, these programs are good places to start. You'll also need a good Food plan, and a lot of other tools to help you on your way. But for information on this, you can look out for my subsequent articles.
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