Anxiety and agitation in avoiding comfort foods.

wontwentyfive
wontwentyfive Posts: 22 Member
edited November 27 in Motivation and Support
Im a week into tracking and have already ordered delivery pizza and ate cheetos during the week. Im still under CICO.

I still struggle and barely was successful in avoiding Mcdonalds, fatty snacks, fast food and often go through the rest of the day incredibly anxious. I keep thinking about ordering or binging because I start feeling really sad and wrong.

Going into CICO I was obese from weekly fast food and delivery. It would not be abnormal for me to eat only fast food for a week. The withdrawal effects are so overpowering and it really ruins my day.

What can I do? Its so embarrassing to talk about and difficult to control.

Replies

  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,143 Member
    You aren't addicted to fast food, and you aren't going through withdrawals. You have a bad habit that you are trying to break. It's not pleasant to fight our habits, but give it a week or two and you will break the habit and you won't be wanting it all the time.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    So you are eating at home 80% of the time. That is major success.

    I’d like your opinion on the thoughts from this book excerpt. Let me know if you relate at all.

    http://www.happinesshypothesis.com/happiness-hypothesis-ch1.pdf
  • Ainadan
    Ainadan Posts: 158 Member
    There is an old story that has been told many different ways, but I was told it like this:

    Once upon a time, there were these two young lads visiting their grandparents on summer vacation. They soon got bored, and started pining for adventure. Seeing this, their grandfather said to them "There is some old treasure hidden in the woods, and you can find it, as long as you don't think about white bunnies." Keeping this in mind, the boys ran off to find the treasure. However, they couldn't stop thinking about white bunnies. The more they reminded themselves to stop thinking about them, the more they thought about them. At the end of the day, the boys returned, defeated. Then their grandfather took them aside and asked them what had happened. "We couldn't stop thinking about white bunnies" the lads told him. The grandfather nodded and said "Always remember this; you cannot get rid of bad thoughts by telling yourself not to think them. You have to replace them with good thoughts." and that was the real treasure the boys found that day.

    Ok, so that sounds like one of those Facebook stories, but it is a real psychological phenomena. You need to replace your negative thoughts about fast food with positive ones about being and eating healthy. And if you have a hard time doing that, then replace it with a meditation or a prayer, some positive mantra that you can repeat in your head to take your mind off of fast food. I suggest learning about the discipline if mindfulness and see if that helps.
  • siobhanaoife
    siobhanaoife Posts: 151 Member
    One really common reason that people overeat is for comfort - for a distracting pleasure, for escape, for short-term boost of feelgood chemicals in your brain, to "eat your feelings". So if you take that coping mechanism away, and you haven't got another ready to take its place, you can end up very raw and upset. All the feelings you were eating to avoid are there, but your habitual coping mechanism is gone.

    Of course, this may not apply to you - not everyone eats for comfort. But if it does, you may be sitting closer to your feelings than feels comfortable. There's lots of ways to address feelings - I don't want to go on and on in case this doesn't resonate with you. But one thought - the feelings you're trying to avoid, you might try feeling them. It's less awful than it seems, and it can lift so much tension and anxiety.

    Hugs. A week isn't long enough to be used to things yet - hang in and it will seem more and more routine.
  • wontwentyfive
    wontwentyfive Posts: 22 Member
    siobhanaoife wrote: »
    One really common reason that people overeat is for comfort - for a distracting pleasure, for escape, for short-term boost of feelgood chemicals in your brain, to "eat your feelings". So if you take that coping mechanism away, and you haven't got another ready to take its place, you can end up very raw and upset. All the feelings you were eating to avoid are there, but your habitual coping mechanism is gone.

    Of course, this may not apply to you - not everyone eats for comfort. But if it does, you may be sitting closer to your feelings than feels comfortable. There's lots of ways to address feelings - I don't want to go on and on in case this doesn't resonate with you. But one thought - the feelings you're trying to avoid, you might try feeling them. It's less awful than it seems, and it can lift so much tension and anxiety.

    Hugs. A week isn't long enough to be used to things yet - hang in and it will seem more and more routine.

    This resonates with me. Absolutely, it does. I started eating to cope with and away from things I couldn't control and feelings I couldn't confront was one thing.

    If you can, please go on with anything else you'd like to add and explain. What you wrote above offered something about me that I couldn't put into words.
  • wontwentyfive
    wontwentyfive Posts: 22 Member
    It never ran across my mind to be aware of how I'm associating negativity with fast food and foods that brought me to my current weight.

    I'm grateful for everyone's feedback -- it's a struggle I've kept alone and scarcely open to online communities. This is helpful. Thank you.
  • siobhanaoife
    siobhanaoife Posts: 151 Member
    So, a couple things:
    - this is very common
    - there's no reason to be embarrassed
    - it's fixable, and can be fixed incrementally - you don't have to go from zero to perfect in one step, no one can
    - you'll be happier once you make progress on fixing it
    - you won't keep trying to fix your feelings with food once you can see better for yourself what's going on

    I recommend that you look into Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. You don't need a therapist to do so, though you certainly find one, CBT is widespread. There's a bunch of good books out there. A leading CBT expert even made a book about dieting and a companion workbook, The Beck Diet Solution. But you don't need any particular book or brand name or whatnot. It's a way of thinking about how your thoughts affect your feelings, and vice versa, and how we develop habits of thought that include things that aren't true and stuffing your feelings down that lead to anxiety and depression.

    CBT teaches you how to identify some habits of thought (catastrophizing, over personalizing, there's several, see http://www.cognitivetherapyguide.org/negative-thinking-patterns.htm ), interrupt them, and dig into what you're really feeling and why. It also helps you build new habits of thinking that serve you better.

    Some people who want to lose weight (probably most!) need help. But what help they need can be totally different. Some folks really would get a lot out of seeing a dietician. Others out of working with a personal trainer. Another could really use a personal chef. And some could really get value out of working with a therapist. We use experts for lots of things; feelings can be one of those things.

    And sometimes we can't afford any of the above :neutral: But there's peer support, like here, and books, and tons of stuff on the Internet - you reached out for help. That rocks! There's help to be found. You can be OK.

    Sorry to write you a novel. Hugs to you!
  • siobhanaoife
    siobhanaoife Posts: 151 Member
    Also - aside from stuffing your feelings you may be self-medicating with food for clinical anxiety or depression. That's best discussed with experts. Good news is, it's also fixable :)
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