FAA--- Food Addicts Anonymous?

I was just about to post a topic just like this.

I am feeling pretty defeated today... it's like I can't stop eating. I never feel full or satisfied. Even when I eat 2000 calories a day I still feel ravenous. I too would love some feedback on how to stop this cycle. It is making me miserable.

Today I was looking through my cabinets and I just HAD to make cookies because I had everything to make them and I couldn't focus on anything but cookies until I finally cooked them and ate them. UGH...

So I guess step one is to throw away ALL sugar in my house and ALL flour for that matter. And leave my money at home so that I'm not tempted to go buy donuts or fast food every time I go into town to drop my kiddo off at school.

I SO thought that I was alone and that people would think I was crazy because I'm addicted to FOOD... I felt like I would be laughed at!!

I'm going to add you as a friend and maybe we can get through this together!!! I know if there is someone holding me accountable I can usually do anything.

Let's start tomorrow by cleaning out our cupboards and fridge.

Fast food is addicting. If there aren't chemicals in it that make it addicting (I am sure there are but I don't know for a fact) then the simple sugars/simple carbs are DEFINITELY addicting. So the more you eat it the more you crave it. It's a cycle that has to be broken. I used to have bouts of binge eating where I would drive up to two or three fast food places and order a few things off their value menus then shovel the food into my mouth while driving to the next one. I hated that I did it but I kept doing it. Part of it was emotional eating, it was like drinking booze to numb pain but instead my booze was greasy, fatty food. It took a lot of effort to break the habit but I did it and I am sure you can too. Just take one goal at a time. For now make your goal NO FAST FOOD. Then once you feel like that one is under control and not a struggle for you move to the next goal.

For my weight loss experience I have learned that:

1. I never take it off as fast as I put it on.
2. It's a goal oriented proceess so I must make goals and then work to achieve them.
3. Baby steps are more attainable. If I set myself up for success then I don't get discourage and I don't feel like a failure.
4. Exercise is important but DIET is 80% of it (if not more).
5. Food is a necessity, it's everywhere and we use it for all reasons. I choose my relationship to it. If I want to have birthday cake I eat it on MY birthday. Not yours, not theirs, I mean..birthday cake could be eaten all the time if I celebrated everyones birthday. So I don't. If I know a big meal is in the plan (Thanksgiving, a work dinner, the Friday night date..) then I work out, eat very healthy before and allow myself to eat with some pleasure. If I want fries I get fries but I don't eat the Burger and fries together. Maybe a chicken breast with veggies and fries. Or I want a burger I eat a burger but instead of fries a salad.

Number 5 is hard if you are truly a food addict. If you try this and can't control yourself then checking out an FAA meeting is probably best. The program works for people who want it. It's structured and you have a sponsor for support.

NOne of us know how long our life is...we have to live each day like it could be our last. So why continue living hating ourselves or feeling like we can't do it?! WE CAN and We WILL! It's possible.

I'm definitely a food addict as well. Its hard to overcome, but one thing that I've learned from the people around me, and myself is that once an addict always an addict. That doesn't mean however that you can't control it. The cravings will always be there, and you will slip up every once in a while, however that's perfectly fine! You are allowed to have falls, as long as you get back up, you must be careful with is that if you do fall, don't stay down just because of the guilt of having fallen. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again! The slips will start to get fewer and farther between, and you'll only have them once in a while.

It is really good to have found this thread - I've been reading the "emotional eaters" groups but these don't really described what I experience. Like the other posters above, I do ok some days, although I am still food-obsessed, but every week or so I fall off the wagon spectacularly.

I don't feel bad during these times - I actually enjoy myself eating and drinking whatever I like. Obviously, feel awful afterwards - logging all those calories, my MFP friends must see it and despair but they are kind enough to be positive. I know what it takes to burn all those calories and I am ruining my own chances of success for short term gratification.

Its sooooo annoying!

On the plus side, I have managed to stay on top of my demons today. Normally I would have binged by now as I have had a very busy day and I would defend it by saying I have "earned" a treat. Staying strong by reading these posts, let's hope it continues.

p.s. any fellow suffers can add me for support ;-)

I know what you mean about weighing yourself often lambchoplewis...I find that I am obsessive about weighing myself...but it seems to help me more than hinder me. If I see my weight increase it helps me to reign myself in, so-to-speak. I keep tighter track of my calories and exercise even more.

I know what you mean slugkiller, I am constantly food-obsessed as well...though once I stopped eating sugar and white flour foods, my obsession started to decrease. I did really well for about 3 months and then fell off of the wagon last week and found myself food-obsessed once again. It was a really bad week, and I fell of the myfitnesspal grid, but a friend from this site reached out to me and helped to pull me back. I thought it would be harder to get back on track, but it actually wasn't...and that was encouraging for me. This is the soonest I have every gotten back on track...and that makes me feel like I might have turned a corner in my food addiction.

I know that for me, when I go on a binge, I cannot seem to be satisfied and my inner voice says "well you've already blown it, so you might as well eat everything you want" and then I go back to that "I'll re-start my diet tomorrow" statement...the problem is that tomorrow never comes.

Hello everybody,
(First of all: I do realyze there are a lot of "I"s in my post. My English is not good enough to write more elegant :-((( )
I want to share my story with you to show you that it is not impossible to do!!!
I am from Germany. I have always loved to eat junk food. I have been a real binge eater. Fortunately it never showed and I have always been skinny -until I became an exchange student in Indiana. I gained really fast and got addicted to fat. At school all I could think about was lunch/dinner. First it made me feel sick. Then I became lazy. Then depressed and really big. Never would I have thought those changes were possible just because of food.
Fat is addictive! I honestly believe it is THE hardest addiction to quit. Why?
1. Becaue you cannot "just" stop eating. You HAVE to eat. Or you die.
2. Food -opposed to drugs- is easy to get.
2. It is not commonly percieved as an addiction. (People will not tell a drunk to just quit. They will not tell a junky that either. But they DO tell big people to "just eat less". How f***** up is that?!)
3. The results (weight loss) take long to show.
I lost all that weight and started feeling better immediately. It is a constant struggle, though.
I cannot tell you what to do. I can only tell you how I did it.
1. I had to accept that food is not the enemy.
2. I learned to appreciate good food.
3. I would rather eat small quantities of very good/tasty/expensive food (fresh fruit, Steak, Kaviar, Carpaccio, Goat cheese, fresh natural jughurt etc.), than large quantities of bad food (plain pasta, pizza, fries). Think about it! Honestly...does a pack of fries actually have any taste of its own -without salt and Ketchup?
4. I started to think about what is good and useful stuff to have at home (loads of fruit, vegetables, salad, olive oil, rice, couscous, milk, plain joghurt etc.) and buy only that. (Any kind of candy/chocolate/chips I had at home, I would eat at once. So I decided to just not buy that stuff anymore.)
5. It is always a good idea to go grocery shopping AFTER eating. I try never to go shopping hungry to not by unnecessary food, especially snacks.
6. The most important thing I had to learn is this: If I fall off the waggon -and it does happen more often than I like- I do not give in. I do NOT tell myself "F***! I ate that piece of cake, when I really shouldnt have. Now I might as well eat the bag of chips ant that bar of chocolate." No! I tell myself "Ok. I slipped. So what? It happens to the best of us. I did enjoy that cake, but now I will not feel bad, because of a bad conscience. I will feel good, because it gives me the possibility to get back on track."
I hope I could inspire some of you, because I have been there.
Hopefully I did not offend anybody. If I did, I did not mean to. Sorry.
Alex

Great post!

I wish I could get in the habit of planning every meal to that level of detail...I do pretty well with breakfast and lunch most days...at least Monday - Friday when I am working...however the weekends are always a bit more challenging for me because my husband likes to cook and he may want something different than what I had in mind for dinner or lunch.

He loves food as much as I do..but he has a pretty active job that helps him to keep his weight down.

Eating fatty rich foods used to be our thing that we had in common as a couple...you know, we would watch Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and then try to go to the places that were within driving distance that we would see on the show and do our own evaluation. That practice has pretty much came to a halt since I changed my eating habits...now we have to find a different thing to do as a couple...lol

@CandyMouse
Do you think it would help to REALLY think about food? I mean to plan every meal. So it is healthy AND tasty.
Like Bircher Muesli for breakfast, grilled fish with loads of vegetables/baked potato and a huge salad with goat cheese, different seeds (sunflower, pine, pumpkin...), tuna etc. with fresh herbs and just a little bit of oil (Ever tried pumpkin seed oil?) and balsamico vinegar.
After I gut used to great food, I did not want to eat burgers and fries anymore.

Yeah, it really helps! You can get the same level of enjoyment by buying another pack of cookies and, for example, some kind of vegetable that you never cooked before, only the latter is way healthier:) You know what I mean? But you know, there are two things...I realize it now, First, sometimes you are too busy to make these fancy meals, and it feels so great just to buy something simple,stuffing and probably unhealthy, Second, and I notice it only now... sometimes it really seems that you have no other concerns in life but thinking about food: what is healthy, what has less sugar etc etc. I miss this feeling now when I'm on a diet when you can just go to the supermarket and buy whatever you feel like eating today without thinking too much. it feels kind of shallow to dedicate so much of my time and attention for food...

P.S. what's o special about pumpkin seed oil?I think we have some, never tired it though..

So glad I found this post. My husband has joked for years that I am addicted to food. Most days I never feel full no matter how muchiI eat. Many times I will see something on TV or think about a certain dish and until I get up and either make it or go out for it I can't think or focus on anything until said tasty morsel is in my mouth. I've put in 30 lbs since my husband an I met and I fear putting on another in our next decade together.

I've been on the emotional eaters pages and don't associate myself with that because I don't eat when I have a certain emotion, I eat or think about eating all day long

I've also used the "pretend to order for two" trick in the drive thru. Even making sure o order two different drinks with the meals because surely that makes the fast food drive thru person totally think I'm buying breakfast for someone else. Nope, those two tasty egg mcmuffins and has browns are for me. Sigh.

Glad I found this post.

Especially after my bag of baked chip, bucket of strawberries, cool whip straight from the container, cinnamon toast and spoonuls of peanut butter I just ate in a few short hours binge. Gag.