Redefining my relationship with food. Need help!

fat2fitaddict
fat2fitaddict Posts: 90 Member
edited November 28 in Food and Nutrition
Hey guys, so I am desperately needing to redefine my relationship with food and nutrition in general. I have been (up until about 2 weeks ago) have been a food addict and major over eater. I started as a young kid overeating for pleasure. I grew up poor and on a farm and found out that food and snacks could give me pleasure that I wasn't getting in life as a kid! (I just recently came to understand this revelation!) What I am needing is some help in how to switch my brain and thinking from food as being a pleasure or comfort to it being a resource.

I battle cancer and beat it with a bone marrow transplant about 8 years ago and even after that, still turned and TURN to food as a pleasure and comfort. Often times eating up to 5x the amount I need! For exp, I go to burger king ant eat 3 whoppers. Mcdonalds and eat 4 double cheese burgers. Any ideas, tips, advice, suggestions, or even personal success stories I can get I appreciate!

Thanks! Also, feel free to add me if you'd like.

Replies

  • chloexoxmae
    chloexoxmae Posts: 32 Member
    Hello. I'm 24 and also a food addict. I have gotten a lot better at controlling my food urges but still overeat or binge some nights (1-3 nights a week).
    Something that helped me, before the holidays hit and something I am trying to get back into, is cutting out sugar. Refined sugar is highly addictive to our brains and is in god damn evreything. Cut it out as much as possible, with the exception of fruits, and you will slowly have less and less cravings for sugar and carbs.
    I've Internet searched 'binge eating disorder' and found a few sites but the advice for overcoming it is pretty generic. You really do have to find what works for you.
    Something else that helps me is hopping on YouTube and watching some videos about sugar addiction, sugar industry, meat industry, ect. If you knew how fast food burgers are really made it would curb your decision to eat them. Also, researching how meat farms fatten up their animals is very interesting to me. For example, farmers give their cattle hormones and antibiotics to fatten them up. Hormones that did not meet safety standards at time of approval. Other countries like Europe don't give their meat animals ANY of that because how harmful it is. Really look into that and how it contributes to our health and it will suprise you.
    Your brain is in habit of binging. Every time you refuse to binge, you are re-training your brain. I think of that concept often as well and it helps me in the moment to make better decisions.
    I hope some of my advice was helpful to you. Your definitly not alone.
  • alp_19
    alp_19 Posts: 54 Member
    I am in a very similar boat in my relationship with food. I grew up with a family that places a strong emphasis on food - holidays and get-togethers are crazy potlucks with much much more food than could possibly be eaten. I started eating unhealthy foods for every emotion/experience - celebrating, feeling sad, stressing about the future, etc. I know people who view food as just something to fuel their body but I've never seen it that way and I'm not sure how to either.

    I'm still working on this as well but I can give some advice from my experience. Exercise has been very very helpful for me. I used to hate running and working out but now I love it. I get addicted to beating my records and improving. It gives me something to focus on. Lifting is a good, goal-oriented thing to get into as well. When I exercise after eating a ton I always feel the difference and I try to remember how awful it feels when I'm thinking about eating a ton again. When you eat healthy for a few days or a few weeks and feel the difference it's incredible and a good motivator.

    Another thing that's helped me is having certain motivators or mantras. One quote that has stuck with me is this: "If you want something you'll find a way. If you don't want it, you'll find excuses." It brings me back to reality and cuts through the *kitten* that I use to reassure myself when I'm binging or giving up on a workout. Both of these things are a decision. Every bite is a decision that you're making. And if you make bad decisions, then that's fine but you have to take responsibility for them and move on. It sucks to come to terms with but it's helped me a lot and pushed me to change my ways when I'm struggling. Another similar idea is "If you're tired of starting over, stop giving up."

    Good luck with all of this! You can make these changes. Don't let setbacks hold you back. It's not going to happen overnight. We've created habits/coping mechanisms over a long period of time so it takes time to fix them. But it's worth it.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Just break up. Seriously, it's just food. Don't personalize it. See it for what it is. Food.
  • mikeski52
    mikeski52 Posts: 59 Member
    I would recommend trying out Intermittent Fasting (people like to abbreviate it to IF), which is nothing more than decreasing the window each day in which you can eat. When I first started my path to losing weight, I forced myself to not eat my first meal until about 11am-noon each day. This might or might not have been the direct reason I was losing weight, but it helped me change my mindset about food; namely that nothing bad was going to happen by NOT eating when I WANTED to.

    I would also recommend reading the book "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think". Good read.
  • nadler64
    nadler64 Posts: 124 Member
    angelalp19 wrote: »
    I am in a very similar boat in my relationship with food. I grew up with a family that places a strong emphasis on food - holidays and get-togethers are crazy potlucks with much much more food than could possibly be eaten. I started eating unhealthy foods for every emotion/experience - celebrating, feeling sad, stressing about the future, etc. I know people who view food as just something to fuel their body but I've never seen it that way and I'm not sure how to either.

    I'm still working on this as well but I can give some advice from my experience. Exercise has been very very helpful for me. I used to hate running and working out but now I love it. I get addicted to beating my records and improving. It gives me something to focus on. Lifting is a good, goal-oriented thing to get into as well. When I exercise after eating a ton I always feel the difference and I try to remember how awful it feels when I'm thinking about eating a ton again. When you eat healthy for a few days or a few weeks and feel the difference it's incredible and a good motivator.

    Another thing that's helped me is having certain motivators or mantras. One quote that has stuck with me is this: "If you want something you'll find a way. If you don't want it, you'll find excuses." It brings me back to reality and cuts through the *kitten* that I use to reassure myself when I'm binging or giving up on a workout. Both of these things are a decision. Every bite is a decision that you're making. And if you make bad decisions, then that's fine but you have to take responsibility for them and move on. It sucks to come to terms with but it's helped me a lot and pushed me to change my ways when I'm struggling. Another similar idea is "If you're tired of starting over, stop giving up."

    Good luck with all of this! You can make these changes. Don't let setbacks hold you back. It's not going to happen overnight. We've created habits/coping mechanisms over a long period of time so it takes time to fix them. But it's worth it.

    This. Also, I strongly recommend working with a) a registered dietician and b) a therapist. No shame in getting professional help. Start with your family doc and get referrals. Good luck.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    you may want to check out Overeaters Anonymous or there are binge eating support groups too. there is an OA group here. There probably is a BE group too but I haven't found it. I've found when i have a pervasive issue, that having someone who's been there and understands is so much more helpful than people who haven't been
  • kpedersen78
    kpedersen78 Posts: 1 Member
    You need to dig down deep into yourself and find the strength to just stop it. I have struggled my entire life with food addiction and I consistently fall off the wagon. But every time I fall, I get back up and fight my demon. Binge eating has so much more to do with your mental state than most want to admit. Therapy may help.
  • chelsy0587
    chelsy0587 Posts: 441 Member
    For me... this was a lot of self reflection. I would log everything I ate, and just look at the calories or the amount of fat I was putting in my body and try to figure out why I thought I needed that much... or what it did or didn't do for me.

    Then I forced myself to eat higher protein and fiber foods.... I didn't feel hungry, or bloated, or lethargic... I felt good... I kept that up for about a month and then had a "cheat meal" which I TOTALLY enjoyed and ate the entire plate, but afterwords I felt guilty, bloated, weighed down with all the carbs...

    If you want it bad enough you will make yourself do it, and you can learn a lot about yourself.
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