Food Addiction Support Group
An individual suffering from a food addiction disorder frequently experiences episodes of uncontrolled eating, or binging, during which they may feel frenzied or out of control. They will eat much more quickly than is normal, and continue to eat even past the point of being uncomfortably full. Binging in this way is generally followed by a period of intense guilt feelings...
Isn't it funny, how it can take so long to understand the simplest things??
I think my problems with food started when I was a kid, as a way to comfort myself in an abusive and crazy childhood. I bet I was on my first diet by age 11. I'm in my thirties now, and I just recently figured something out: giving up never works! Ever. End of story.
I'm always telling myself, "Oh, I'll start eating perfect tomorrow", and, then, I give up, and eat everything in site. Even stuff I don't especially like! Even weird things, like whip cream, just 'cause it's there. The point is, I give up.
I give up. Every time I let myself eat everything I want, I'm giving up.
It suddenly occured to me, very recently, that this will never work.
Giving up will simply never work.
So, the past 5 weeks, I have refused to give up. Even when I eat half a box of chocolates at once, even when I know I should not be eating toast and Nutella at 3 am. No matter what, I do not give up.
Not giving up is the only thing that will work.
It'll be slow progress. There will be slip-ups. There will be times where you feel like there is no progress. But the ONLY thing to do is to keep trying. After all, slow progress is better then giving up.
For example, I lost 3 pounds last month, but got sick this week, and didn't have the chance to exersize, and didn't eat very well, so i wouldn't be surprised if I've gained it back. But I can't let that cause me to give up.
We need to be easy on ourselves. We need to care for ourselves the way we'd care for our friends, or kids, or boyfriends, or girlfriends. Gently, and with love. We've been struggling with these things for a long time - of course, all our habits are not going to stop overnight.
Even if I gained the weight back, I will NOT give up. Because I still feel like a sucess - I've began training myself for the habits (exersize, yoga, eating less, etc) that will last me the rest of my life.
I hope all of you never give up, either.
I think my problems with food started when I was a kid, as a way to comfort myself in an abusive and crazy childhood. I bet I was on my first diet by age 11. I'm in my thirties now, and I just recently figured something out: giving up never works! Ever. End of story.
I'm always telling myself, "Oh, I'll start eating perfect tomorrow", and, then, I give up, and eat everything in site. Even stuff I don't especially like! Even weird things, like whip cream, just 'cause it's there. The point is, I give up.
I give up. Every time I let myself eat everything I want, I'm giving up.
It suddenly occured to me, very recently, that this will never work.
Giving up will simply never work.
So, the past 5 weeks, I have refused to give up. Even when I eat half a box of chocolates at once, even when I know I should not be eating toast and Nutella at 3 am. No matter what, I do not give up.
Not giving up is the only thing that will work.
It'll be slow progress. There will be slip-ups. There will be times where you feel like there is no progress. But the ONLY thing to do is to keep trying. After all, slow progress is better then giving up.
For example, I lost 3 pounds last month, but got sick this week, and didn't have the chance to exersize, and didn't eat very well, so i wouldn't be surprised if I've gained it back. But I can't let that cause me to give up.
We need to be easy on ourselves. We need to care for ourselves the way we'd care for our friends, or kids, or boyfriends, or girlfriends. Gently, and with love. We've been struggling with these things for a long time - of course, all our habits are not going to stop overnight.
Even if I gained the weight back, I will NOT give up. Because I still feel like a sucess - I've began training myself for the habits (exersize, yoga, eating less, etc) that will last me the rest of my life.
I hope all of you never give up, either.
I totally understand what you mean....I'm in the same boat. I haven't binged for about 6 weeks now, but I only weight like a pound less! Which is pretty much like not losing anything!!!
I guess exersize really plays a bigger role then I thought in weight loss. I had lost around 3 pounds, but I got the stomach flu, and laid around for a week, with no exersize at all, and gained a couple pounds back. Argh.
It is so discouraging!!! But I remind myself that I have stopped binging, and I'm eating way less sugar, so I'm curing my sugar-addication, and that that has to count, too!
I tell myself, again and again: quitting will not work. I think it's become my mantra. :-)
I tell myself that I'll eat perfectly one day, slip, but keep telling myself that TOMORROW will be the day I eat perfectly.
But the reality is, no one eats perfectly because no one is perfect. I think we just have to understand that yes there will be those down times. Like what you said, we've got to be easy on ourselves. I think maybe then we'd start to let go of our stress and start to focus on the good things.
One quote I keep in mind all the time is: "If you believe in yourself, have dedication and pride and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards."
WE CAN DO IT.
Sometimes, I think we have this problem with food mainly because we are all perfectionists!
Becuase I have tried for years and years and years to get over this problem, and nothing worked in the long term. The only thing that has worked is what I've been doing the past 6 weeks or so - never giving up, and eating like a normal person.
This problem of ours is all our minds, I think....so that's where the problem is also solved - in our minds.
And what we have to tell our minds is two things:
1. Perfect doesn't work. In fact, it doesn't even exist. So how can you aim for something that doesn't exist??
2. Never give up. Because giving up will always fail. Always. It's that simple.
I realize, more and more, how much of a mind-set I've been in my entire life about eating perfect, and what a grip it had on me. The past 6 weeks, I feel I've begin to really get out of that grip.