Forbidden Foods - What Do You Think?
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angelgayla
Posts: 56 Member
I use a variety of resources to help me keep my motivation high for my weight loss journey. Currently, I am reading "Why Weight? A Workbook for Ending Compulsive Eating" by Geneen Roth. The book itself is not a diet plan, it is companion to use with the weight loss plan of your choice. She gives the readers various exercises to complete which are designed to help compulsive eaters understand why they overeat and to help them reach their goals.
At the end of Chapter 4, she asks you to write down a list of your Forbidden Foods - foods that you binge on and usually won't allow yourself to eat. Then she recommends the following:
1. Look at the list you made and decide which is the first food you would like to eat again without guilt.
2. Bring that food into your house this week. Bring more of it than you could possibly eat at one sitting - and eat it when you are hungry and until you are satisfied. Allow yourself the pleasure of good tastes.
3. As you eat it, notice whether you like it as much as you thought you would. Notice how it tastes, how it feels in your throat.
4. Remind yourself that you can have it again any time you are hungry.
5. Do the same next week. And the next.
6. Bring one forbidden food into your house each week, until you have no forbidden foods.
So, what do you think about this exercise?
At the end of Chapter 4, she asks you to write down a list of your Forbidden Foods - foods that you binge on and usually won't allow yourself to eat. Then she recommends the following:
1. Look at the list you made and decide which is the first food you would like to eat again without guilt.
2. Bring that food into your house this week. Bring more of it than you could possibly eat at one sitting - and eat it when you are hungry and until you are satisfied. Allow yourself the pleasure of good tastes.
3. As you eat it, notice whether you like it as much as you thought you would. Notice how it tastes, how it feels in your throat.
4. Remind yourself that you can have it again any time you are hungry.
5. Do the same next week. And the next.
6. Bring one forbidden food into your house each week, until you have no forbidden foods.
So, what do you think about this exercise?
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Replies
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Right now, in the place I am, the thought of doing this is VERY frightening to me.
It is easier to not touch my "forbidden" foods at all than it is to allow myself to eat a small bite of them.
STEP 2 is the most frightening of all to me because there is no such thing as "more than you could possibly eat at one sitting" in regards to the foods that trigger my binges. Just being honest.0 -
Nobody would ever tell an alcoholic to bring in more of their choice booze or a drug addict to bring in the best drugs. I've read some of her books and really wanted to like them, but in the end I came to believe she does not have the answers. I can't avoid eating all food but I can avoid bringing in foods that set off my food addiction.0
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Right now, in the place I am, the thought of doing this is VERY frightening to me.
It is easier to not touch my "forbidden" foods at all than it is to allow myself to eat a small bite of them.
STEP 2 is the most frightening of all to me because there is no such thing as "more than you could possibly eat at one sitting" in regards to the foods that trigger my binges. Just being honest.
I'm with you, #2 blew my mind.0 -
Nobody would ever tell an alcoholic to bring in more of their choice booze or a drug addict to bring in the best drugs. I've read some of her books and really wanted to like them, but in the end I came to believe she does not have the answers. I can't avoid eating all food but I can avoid bringing in foods that set off my food addiction.
Great analogy! It just doesn't seem logical to me for a compulsive overeater to do this exercise.0 -
The only book I read of hers was "Women, God and Food" which I've now read a few times and truly do love. It just sends so many bells of recognition off for me, it was my version of "coming home." In that book she doesn't offer much experiential advice... maybe check that out and see if it rings for you before doing any exercises she recommends, as I also would be afraid of the forbidden food exercise... at least at this point in my journey. Yesterday was my son's birthday, and while cake is not a forbidden food.... last night perhaps it should have been. Ate too much of it, regret today. Hmm... don't think I could bring a sheet cake into the house any time soon.0
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Why bring gasoline to a fire ?0
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This exercise is not OA friendly and I would steer clear! I focus on OA friendly literature, to name a few:
Overeaters Anonymous
The twelve steps and twelve traditions of OA
Voices of Recovery
Abstinence: Members of OA share their experience, strength and hope
The twelve step workbook
The Big Book
etc...0 -
That is not 12 step friendly. I have tried something similar and that is were the last 5 pounds came from. It was like trying to make friends with a rattlesnake. First I am not real good at only eating when hungry. Second my car is to small.
( as a diabetic I got my A1C from 6.4 to 6.9 trying to make friends with something that does not belong in my house)0 -
I am trying to not make anything "forbidden", as that can be a mind messer upper. However, that said, I have learned that indulging in certain foods -- and certain thinking patterns -- leads to bingeing. And if I'm gonna binge, I can do it on ANYTHING, from foods that really make me crazy and set off my dis-ease, to whatever the next possible "good" choice is. And this is all flowing from clarity of about five days of abstinence, so I'm pretty clear headed -- today -- as the scale shows. Only when I am abstinent does pounds literally fall off me like leaves in autumn.
I am aware that there are certain foods that my body does well on, tolerates, and has a reaction towards in a negative way. I know that if I choose to eat something that has consistently shown will lead to bingeing and months "lost", I am much better off NOT choosing that food. "Forbidden" can set me up for a whole bunch of mind games and my choice -- for today -- is just staying away from foods that make me crazy and give my dis-ease a major big foothold into my life. I've also noticed that smoking (which I just gave up -- again) also creates a chemical reaction in my body that creates weight gain and the same kind of mind-altering processes and lack of clarity that certain foods create. So, my goal -- just for today -- is to make choices that keep my body feeling healthy.
:flowerforyou:
I think I rambled a bit ...
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So, I just want to make a pitch for "cunning, baffling and powerful" in relation to OA and our dis-ease. I've been dealing with this today, and MFP is saving my abstinence. 0
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I'm not really in to "forbidden foods" but wanted to check in here tonight because I made poor choices in my food before checking the calorie count. That will NOT happen again. CRUD. But, progress, not perfection -- and a good lesson well learned. :flowerforyou: 0
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Nobody would ever tell an alcoholic to bring in more of their choice booze or a drug addict to bring in the best drugs. I've read some of her books and really wanted to like them, but in the end I came to believe she does not have the answers. I can't avoid eating all food but I can avoid bringing in foods that set off my food addiction.
i agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!0
