WTF is wrong with me???

This might sound silly but maybe even try buying sweet or candy flavored chap stick lol. I have a chocolate flavored chap stick that I put on sometimes and it surprisingly helps me out with temptations, sweetness flavor and no unnecessary calories.

I have only been on MyFitnessPal for a couple of weeks - just getting started... but when I am feeling like I'm going to eat something I shouldn't, I tell myself "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!" I can't remember where I saw that the first time, but it helps to keep me headed down the right path and keep my focus on the prize! I WILL get back in my clothes - comfortably! Hang in there - you can do this!!!

I've come across Pins from pinterest with this on them---adding it to my daily AM affirmations routine. lol

But what gives?? Why oh Why am I like this? Why can't I just STOP eating!!!!

I'm not convinced that it's emotional eating... Maybe it is... Why do I eat?

I'm going to focus on only eating when I'm truly hungry. Sometimes I just eat because something looks good and I know it's gonna taste sooo good! Like a donut or cookie or cake...

I know I eat when I'm bored... I don't think that's "emotional" tho...

How do I stop the cravings? When I am actually hungry I want something dense that will fill my stomach. Not an apple... When I wake up in the morning I'm hungry and I crave carbs!!

I'm rambling...

A number of things could be happening here.

1. Physical addiction
Processed foods are deliberately manufactured to create physical cravings. Even if emotion doesn't come into play, the physical addiction does. A year ago at this time I was habitually polishing off a pint of ice cream a day. I've done without it now for about nine months and I don't miss it at all.

To stop my cravings, I used what I call bridge foods:



Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips were one of my “Before” snacks. I’d dump a healthy handful or two into a bowl for my chocolate fix. Note the calorie counts above and the amounts. The package defines a serving as 16 chips/80 calories, but a handful could easily contain 32 chips. Most of those calories came from fat.

These days grapes are my after-workout snack. I usually eat two cups of them. They contain a lot of water, so they’re pretty filling, and the red grapes especially are nice and sweet.

I didn’t turn to grapes immediately. Raisins were my “bridge” food. They were sweeter by volume than grapes and less fattening than chocolate. But a half cup of raisins had almost as many calories as four times the volume of grapes.

The first couple of weeks took a lot of my willpower, but then my body adjusted. These days, willpower is hardly an issue for me. We still have several bags of Ghirardelli chips in the house because my partner eats them. They don’t tempt me at all, but I could eat them if I wanted to. I ate 32 chips on September 15, 2012, and haven’t had any since. I just haven’t felt the need. I also used to eat a lot of energy bars, which my partner still eats. Again, I can walk right past those without getting tempted. I turn to fresh produce, which is much more filling -- but I needed a sweeter bridge food to get me to the point of being satisfied with (and preferring) fresh produce.

Having fresh produce and the other foods I eat freely available is crucial. They need to be at least as convenient for me as "convenience foods." When I travel I pack a small cooler with a meal, should I need it on the road, along with my own utensils:



The cooler typically holds crispbread, canned chicken, and an orange or banana.

2. Nutritional needs
When I'm hungry, I stop and ask my body what it needs. If I need protein and try to fill up on carbs, it doesn't work; I'll still feel hungry. Sometimes I have to have a fatty food to balance my macros out. In that case a typical snack for me is a half cup of unsalted peanuts.

What works for me -- and this takes a few minutes -- is imagining one food and then another. Not just picturing it in my mind but remembering the smell and taste. Then I ask myself if it feels right, or if a different food will hit the spot. I know when it hits the spot.

3. Neurological habit
In her book Brain Over Binge, Kathryn Hansen refers to her own binge eating as a "binge-created brain-wiring problem." The following comes from a review of her book at
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2011/book-review-brain-over-binge/

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She compares her lower brain’s signals to a child throwing a tantrum to get a toy. Giving in to the child’s demands reinforces the tantrum. The tantrum can then be practiced in additional situations; once rewarded, it becomes linked with those situations. In this way, the “triggers” for Hansen’s binges kept multiplying; but they were only associations. The true cause of Hansen’s binges had always been the urge to binge itself.

Trying to substitute her binges with other activities had failed, in the same way that responding to a tantrum with a hug fails if the child really wants a toy. Hansen’s tantrums — her lower brain’s signals to binge — succeeded only because she paid attention to them. Her attention led to increased neural firing, which in turn strengthened that pathway in her brain and literally fed her habit.

Her lower brain could not control her actions, but her prefrontal cortex (her “highest human brain” and the seat of her free will) could. Hansen recognized her irrational urges as “neurological junk” unrelated to actual need. Rather than try to fight, reason with, or “surf” those urges, she acknowledged their presence and otherwise ignored them. Her detachment stripped them of their emotional significance, making them less of a threat. Their neural connections weakened until the urge to binge simply faded away. Hansen’s need to purge as compensation for her bingeing vanished in turn.

She likens her “brain over binge” technique to the practice of “mindfulness” taught by neuropsychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz to people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Mindfulness involves observing spontaneous thoughts and feelings in a way that is nonjudgmental, as though they belong to someone else. Doing so helps patients resist the urges associated with OCD.

Central to Hansen’s recovery was the knowledge that she could take matters into her own hands rather than make excuses for her behavior. Contrary to what she had learned in therapy, bingeing was not her method of coping with life. It was not part of a disease. Blaming it on a trigger was an inaccurate assessment, even when doing so made her feel less accountable for her actions. Her bingeing was a bad, persistent habit stemming from her own poor choices.

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The neurological component of Hansen's bingeing doesn't necessarily apply to all binge eating; individuals differ. But it could be a factor.

4. Emotion
I'm not necessarily referring to emotional eating here, but to the title of this thread: "WTF is wrong with me???" I would encourage you to flip that around. I don't see anything "wrong" with you. You are fighting a battle for your health and well being and you are looking for strategies that work. By posting this thread, you are engaging in problem-solving. That's all very positive stuff.

When I started (restarted) my own weight loss I told myself that whatever I've done to gain the weight, I'm owning it. I now own the process of changing my eating habits and exercising. That was then; this is now. The day I ate out and had my usual serving of antipasto, and then checked MFP to see what I'd eaten in terms of calories, fat, and sodium, I learned a lot about antipasto. Yikes! I absorbed that info and moved on, started over the next day. I didn't get down on myself; it was just, Whoops. Every day is a fresh day and I just keep on keepin' on. I need and take all the positive energy and language I can get.