going nuts for nuts.

healthyhappyconfidence

I've been eating clean for a week with no processed foods at around 1200 a day. I'm a 5'2" short Asian girl so
I think this amount is suitable.

However, I did eat an entire bag of roasted almonds today. (5 oz. = 850 cal)

I don't understand why I ate so many. They were good, but no amazing, but I just couldn't stop
after 1 or 2 handfuls. I continued eating them slowly one-by-one, but I still finished the whole thing.

What's the best thing to do after an almond binge? I went for a walk in -20 degree wind chill
and had plenty of hot tea and water.

seamoth

Hi there! I am the same with nuts. They are my weight-loss downfall. I sometimes buy a (large) bag of cashew nuts because I know a handful of them are very healthy to eat each day and supply all the right fats. But can I keep it to a handful? Never! I munch and munch and munch until...oh hell, the bags empty! Then I am overcome with guilt and, like you, up the exercise thing with gritted teeth. I think to myself "I will never buy a bag of nuts again because I know what will happen". A week or two go by ......and then my will power drops like a stone and I'm munching my way through a whole bag again in one sitting.
Does anyone else have this failing and what IS it about nuts that makes this happen? No other food, however decadent or delicious, has this effect on me!

TonyTrink

I know alot of folks in OA who struggle with nuts, particularly salted nuts as a binge food. I know, for me, almonds are a emotional comfort food and I will eat a whole container of them in one sitting. It's not a salt thing for me, but healthyhappyconfidence, it might have been a salt thing for you. If you've been eating a clean diet, staying away from processed foods, which are generally heavy in sodium. So, staying away from that for a while, then giving your body some yummy salty almonds, that might have triggered a binge, unless they were the unsalted "nasty" plain almonds...then I got nothing for ya.

Seamoth, as awesome as almonds are for you, I've found I just have to stay away from them. I can't eat a small handful, which daily is good for you. I can't stand the bland, gross, unsalted, "healthy" almonds. I can't do those things, because when I'm honest with myself, I don't eat almonds because they are good for you. Emotionally I have attached eating almonds to memories of my mother, who loved almonds. I'm fairly certain she was a compulsive overeater, like me, so I'm pretty sure her relationship with foods and almonds included, was highly unhealthy, just like mine is; however, I still attach a strong emotional connection between almonds and my dysfunctional relationship with her. I never got the acceptance and affection I needed from her, but when we liked the same foods, we had a bond. It was an unhealthy bond, but a bond nonetheless. So now, when I eat almonds, I'm feeling connected and accepted by her, and that's a really large void to try to fill, a handful of nuts doesn't fill it, hell, a whole container of nuts doesn't fill it, but once I start eating almonds, all I can do is try to fill that void that's unfillable with food.

I hope, that as I get healthier in my eating and coping with my emotions, that one day, I can disconnect the emotional attachment to almonds, but until then, the health benefits almonds provide, has to get met with other foods that I don't abuse emotionally. Funny thing is...I don't binge on almond milk...so I know the affect almonds have on me isn't about anything in almonds, because if it was, then almond milk would affect me the same way. Once I noticed that, I had to figure out what the emotional connection with almonds was, and that's when the memories of my mother raving about almonds came flooding in. It's so annoying to find out just how much of my emotional life is twisted up into food, but it is getting better, slowly but surely.

LRoslin

I'm the same way with nuts. I think because they were always a "holiday" food in my family; we had the salted Planters mixed nuts or peanuts around at Christmas and New Years', so the associations are pleasant. I don't even buy nuts anymore; nobody else in my family likes them in baked goods or anything like that, so if I buy any they are going to get housed by me.

seamoth

TonyTrink, thats given me a lot to think about, so thank you!

healthyhappyconfidence

Thank you guys for the thoughful input

I guess the best thing is to not buy in bulk and separate them into portions.

Best of luck!