From my earliest memories I can remember being addictive to food. When I was a child it was all kinds of foods. My grandmother was a really good cook. I remember sneaking in the kitchen when she was frying chicken and taking a piece and running off and eating it.
People of average weight don’t believe this but a food addiction is one of the hardest addictions to overcome. There is food everywhere, it is legal and everyone has to eat. We celebrate with food, eat food when we are sad, glad, mad (emotional eating) and we show love with food and reward with food especially our children.
As an adult sugar was my drug of choice my trigger food. I WAS addicted to it. I would do anything to get it. I would sneak around and eat it. All my friends said, “How can you be over weight? You don’t eat that much”. The truth was in front of other people I didn’t. But the stories I could tell you…..On Valentine’s Day my husband would buy me the biggest heart of chocolate. I would eat it and then go back to the store and buy another one that looked exactly the same. Then I would eat it and do it again. One day a few weeks after Valentine’s Day my husband was putting something in the outside trash and found 3 empty boxes and asked “What is this?” I just shrugged my shoulders. So, many times before I picked my kids up from school I would eat a six pack of ice cream sandwiches or a dozen Krispy Kream Donuts and get rid of the evidence. It gave me such a RUSH!
Well after weight loss surgery I knew I had to do something about my addiction or I would be back where I started! Sugar to me is like Alcohol to and Alcoholic I CAN NOT TAKE A BITE OR IT WILL BE THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING I CAN NOT STOP! I do not eat bread, rice, pasta, potatoes or sugar. I have not tested my RNY to see if I can eat sugar without getting sick. I don’t want to know that I can eat it and not get sick. I tell myself….if you eat it…you will get sick. If I knew I could eat it and not get sick I might eat it every day and find myself in the same situation I was before. SO I DON’T GO THERE. In the beginning it was not easy, but it has been almost 8 ½ years and I do not crave it or even think about it. But it has been a long, long road to get where I am.
I have added some information from Obesity Action Coalition below and their website. Also, some website where you can go and take a quiz to see if you have a food addiction.
There is nothing to be ashamed of if you have a food addiction, but if you find you do. Please get help. When you first have WLS (RNY) you can only eat small amounts but as time goes on you can eat more. I want you to be successful, so learn your body. Learn your trigger foods…..YOU CAN DO THIS AND YOU CAN BE SUCCESSFUL!!!! Be fair to yourself and get the tools needed to be successful. The surgeons only do surgery on our stomach we have to do the work on our heads and if need get help.
Much Love,
Ginger
Food Addiction and the Weight-loss Surgery Patient
By Katie Jay, MSW
For people with food addiction, the decision to overeat is not a conscious one, at least not in the early days of your addiction. You do not wake up and think, “Rise and shine! Let’s get crackin’. Eat a box of donuts and lose some of that self esteem!”
No, it’s usually more like, “I'm going to be so good today…is that an OREO?”Food addiction is a daily struggle for many weight-loss surgery (WLS) patients. It may be a week, a month, a year after surgery; but for about 70 percent of those who undergo weight-loss surgery, it happens. Of course, having the smaller stomach and/or rerouted intestines that come with WLS can be a great tool to help control your eating, but if you had trouble with food before surgery, there is high risk of eating compulsively, overeating or even just obsessing about food after surgery.
What exactly is food addiction?
Addiction is a loaded word that unfortunately holds a negative connotation for many people. That is why I prefer the term eating disorder, but even that term is viewed negatively by some.
The truth is, though, that food addiction is a complex problem for which there is no one cause and no simple solution. No matter what you call it, food addiction or an eating disorder, the basic definition is the same: an unhealthy relationship with food.
Sure, there are more clinical definitions, but it all boils down to one’s relationship with food – how you think about it, how you use it, why you use it and what your behavior with food does to you (obesity, shame, preoccupation, illness, depression, etc.).
In fact, shame and self loathing are such major factors in obesity and food addiction that I feel compelled to remind you that a food addiction is not a moral issue. It is not an affliction of weak-willed, lazy people. It is something that occurs in people of all ages, income levels, races and sexes. It has a strong genetic component, a relationship to brain chemistry and a cultural component (can you say, “Supersize me?”).
You do not set out to be addicted to food, or to be obese. Food addictions can develop over time, and are not always obvious in the early stages.
Food Addiction is an Unhealthy Relationship with Food
(to read all the information on Katie Jay, MSW article go to Obesity Action Coalition website)
http://www.obesityaction.org/magazine/oacnews6/healthqanda.php
Here are some other websites that have quizzes for you to take to see if you have a food addition.
http://www.addicted.com/addiction-resources/self-tests/food-addiction-quiz
http://www.foodaddicts.org/quiz.html
http://www.lifescript.com/Quizzes/Food_and_Diet/Are_You_Addicted_to_Food.aspx
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment