Weight Watching - An Addiction?

I can understand the cravings, the not being able to stop, the hunger.

Part of this need made me realize early that I was probably prone to addictions. I happily embraced not liking the smell of cigarettes (and later, marijuana). I was glad that I didn’t like the smell of beer or alcohol. Any tastes of those “vices” just confirmed what the smell told me: yuck! I was happy because I felt that if I had liked them, I would have taken up smoking or drinking and I would become addicted; I would be the chain-smoker, the alcoholic.

(Another big factor that kept me from drugs and drinking was that I didn’t want to lose control. I had fainted too many times as a pre-teen, and it’s an awful feeling to regain consciousness and not know what has happened. Worse was after surgery, where I couldn’t remember getting dressed or speaking with the doctor – so, to not remember things I had actually done! This loss of control may, or may not, bother you!)

So perhaps I became addicted to eating. I used to be gung-ho about things. About running, cooking, gardening, cleaning. Some would say I am obsessive-compulsive about such things. So did I become gung-ho about eating? The only problem is, I didn't want to be gung-ho about eating. Why can't I be gung-ho about not eating? (Well, first of all, it is equally as dangerous to starve yourself.)

And then what happens when you do eat the right things and exercise, and still you gain weight? That is a conundrum the medical world has not yet figured out.

In a normal world, you can listen to your body and it will tell you what you need. But these days, our bodies are so out of balance, that it begins telling you that you need more fat or sugar or ...

What can we do?

Step one: can you figure out why you are eating so much, or eating the wrong things?

Are you eating because you are bored? If you are simply bored and find yourself going to eat, that’s when you should substitute another activity, like going to the gym or knitting.

Are you eating because of association? You can get into a bad habit by reading when you eat, which becomes eating whenever you read. So you should eat at a dining room table and do nothing else, and then you’ll want to hurry and finish eating to get back to your reading! Also, do not eat when watching TV.

Are you eating to stay awake? Instead of eating, chew (sugarless) gum.

Are you eating because you are depressed? Sometimes you don’t really feel depressed or sad. Maybe anxious, or frustrated. Maybe angry or irritated. And you eat to feel better, and often you do feel better, and that makes you want to eat more to feel even better, etc. This is the hard one to solve. A good night’s sleep is the best thing to deal with a normal immediate depression, anxiety, anger, fear, etc. Your body repairs itself and gets itself back into balance during different sleep phases. All these feelings are normal if they last a day or two. It is not normal if they last weeks. That is when you need medical help to get things back in balance.

If you can figure out a specific reason for eating binges, then hopefully you can find a solution. But when you can’t figure it out, it sure makes it harder.