I. NEED. HELP!! Food Addict. :(

Check out "The Starch Solution" by Dr. McDougall. Watch Forks Over Knives. Drink a lot of water. 3 Liters/day minimum

Nah. That is not going to address real issues. In fact, it may make everything worse.

I've had 5 Hershey's cookies and cream candy bars (regular size), an entire box of Cheez Its, a Jr whopper with everything on it from Burger King, large order of crinkle fries from BK, and a slice of red velvet cake so far today.

How the heck do I stop myself from doing this to my body?? I feel disgusting...but also better at the same time.

I just started a "new" job... which was essentially just my bosses adding someone else's job onto my old job and having me do both when the lady retired. Are my cravings a result of stress??? I think I am honestly addicted to the cookies and cream bars. I have had at least 2 bars at least 7 out of the past 10 days. I want to stop, but I always mindlessley drive to the store or gas station and end up with empty wrappers at the end of the night. It's like I don't even notice i'm doing it.

Someone help me!! Has anyone ever been to therapy for food addiction before? I'm seriously considering it right now because this just isn't right or normal. If anyone has good contacts in the DC area, i'm all ears.

It sounds very stress driven. I've had that problem before and you're going to need to retrain yourself if you can't find a support group. The retraining is every time you feel you're reaching for something, get up from your desk and get some water, walk to the bathroom, just walk down a hall and back again, something that will break your "cycle" (it might just be stopping what you're doing and take a moment but not actually get up). I know it's coming across as such an "easy fix" but I know it's not. Find an exercise you enjoy, even if it's a DVD and regardless of what you've eaten during the day, make a point of doing 10 minutes of exercise, building it up until it's 30 minutes and even more when you get home (or if a gym is feasible, then make a point of going to the gym daily). This will start retraining your response to be stress exerciser rather than a stress eater. I say to start small and build up because you're retraining an automatic response you've created in your life so far. Also, make sure you log everything, the good, the bad and the ugly preferrably the minute you realize you've eaten it and before long the minute you realize you are going to eat it. Again the retrain of yourself to see what you're doing. It'll start helping you to see what triggers the response so you can combat it possibly stop yourself from eating it because you don't want to do that to your daily alloted calories, fat, proteins, sugars, etc. This has been helping me as we get more and more vendors sending temptation (Red Velvet Nothing Bundt Cakelettes are a downfall for me) in our office. I've gone to where the "treats" are, looked in the box, and then realized, "I have to track this", "Damn, I don't want to do that, it's not worth the moment of pleasure" close the box up and walk away.

Another thing to do is to have "healthier" snacks available so that you don't have far to go for the snack if you do stress eat. I keep pistachios or almonds at my desk. Yes, they're a bit more fat than I want but they are a better fat than candy, cookies or Cheez Its so I can justify them. Popcorn is another thing if you can eat that without the butter because it doesn't taste bad if you keep it for a couple of days. The healthier choices ready is a big help too. Because we all do go mindless at times especially after we've learned to be stress eaters, and even then it's about what's closest and easiest to get to.

The rest of the advice, is forgive yourself for your past (that means even 5 minutes ago). It's done, it's over with, you can only start anew, start making better choices immediately but you can't change what you've already done.

I know you can do this because you've already recognized that you have a problem. That's the biggest step regardless of what addiction you have (and come on, all of us are addicted to food and then not the right kinds of food (because how many overweight people do you know that are addicted to carrots, celery, broccoli without sauces or dips), if we weren't, we'd all be slender and not having to learn what is right for us to eat to be slender).

Keep fighting the fight against fat.

Okay so lots of suggestions here but no one really addressing the potential "addict" in you. I am a member of another twelve step program. I believe my truly addictive tendencies carry over to food as well. I can empathize with you on finding empty wrappers (in the neighborhood of six or ten) and not even realizing I have eaten them... or eating 1 then 2 then 10 and not being able to stop. You are right. THIS IS NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR. While everyone binges once in a while these are dangerous when they turn into patterns such as ours. I don't have personal experience with this program, but I hear from other twelve-step cohorts that Food Addicts Anonymous has done wonderful things for many people. It wouldn't hurt for you to try a meeting. There is no obligation. Just go and see what you think. If it feels right pursue it, if not, don't. You don't have anything to lose by trying except an hour of your time. I'm sure if you Google it you can get meeting dates/times in your area. Best wishes on your journey! Message me if you want to chat.

This is a great idea!