The Addictive Nature of Some Foods

January 4, 2012 By

Chocolate. Diet drinks. Sugar. Caffeine.Cheese. Meat. Do these foods and others really hold us in their power, or is it all a figment of our imagination?

I’ve been very interested in this topic for a long time, as I jokingly call myself a chocoholic. Once upon a time it was the unusual day when I didn’t consume at least a pound of chocolate every 24 hours, if not more. If I wasn’t reaching my hand into the back of the pantry to snag some hidden Oreos, you might see me driving my minivan down my winding neighborhood road to make a quick stop at the convenience store for some candy. I convinced myself that my love of chocolate was an “addiction,” and as such couldn’t be conquered. But was I right?

To tell you the truth, that day many years ago, when I had my “aha moment,” I realized that conquering my obsession with chocolate was one of the first things I needed to take care of. Even if I made good food choices all day long, eating candy bar after candy bar wouldn’t help me lose weight, or improve my health. So I banned chocolate from my presence for a while. I gave myself a “time out” from chocolate until I felt I could better control myself around it. Looking back, I realize what I did was very similarto what people who are struggling with a nicotine, drug, or alcohol addiction do. They remove the offending substance from their homes, their offices, and their lives.

It sounds easy enough, but it was really difficult. I threw away the candy I had hidden in my dresser drawers, the car, my purse, and the pantry. I even went as far as to get rid of cocoa powder because I knew I could easily combine cocoa powder with other ingredients to make brownies. I actually felt a pang in my heart as I watched the food go in the trash. I was sorely tempted to pull it out of the trash and save it. But I resisted.

Realizing how hard it was for me to get rid of the chocolate made me wonder if it was in fact addictive? And what of other foods? Can a food have an addictive quality? According to research, the answer is a resounding yes. Just read Dr. David Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating. He explains much more thoroughly than I can, how food additives can trigger a “bliss point” that makes it hard for us to resist eating certain foods.

I lost my weight long before this book came out, so actually learned the hard, unscientific way, that there were certain foods that I found very difficult to resist. For me, the main food was chocolate, but I also had a hard time learning to eat proper portions of foods that contained a lot of sodium, like crackers and chips. To break the addiction cycle, there were some definite steps I took.

  1. Got rid of the food from my house and car
  2. Stopped buying those foods
  3. Gave myself a specific period of time before I allowed myself to eat those foods
  4. Tried to reintroduce them in small quantities – as a test run
  5. Took time to really savor the flavor of the foods I loved
  6. Found alternative foods

I didn’t eat chocolate for about two months when I first started losing weight that last time. The first couple of days were hard. Really hard. Not only was I trying to make healthier choices, but I also gave up a love of mine. I can’t say that I went through withdrawal from chocolate, but I certainly missed it a LOT! After the first week, it started to get better, and I didn’t think about it all the time. After a month it was pretty easy, and the second month was a cinch.

When I reintroduced chocolate into my food variety, I did it by buying a little candy bar, and sharing it with the family. We all had a tiny piece and I loved it like I always had. But this time I felt proud of myself for just having a bit rather than frustrated with myself for eating 10 of them.

As the months went by I realized that I had finally broken my affair with chocolate. I could enjoy it – yes, but I didn’t have to eat pound after pound of it. Where are you on this subject?

Do you think that certain foods hold addictive qualities for you? How do you handle them?  Diane

Filed Under: Choices, Weight Loss

Saying No to Yourself

September 21, 2011 By

Let’s face it. Saying no to yourself isn’t really popular, or a lot of fun.

It’s not fun to tell yourself “no” when you want to buy a new pair of shoes, a new laptop, or a new outfit. But, if you are working on reducing how much money you spend, you have to learn how to tell yourself “no” and mean it.

Likewise, if you are trying to lose weight, there are times when you have to tell yourself a big “no.”

Not surprisingly, telling myself “no” was a major failing of mine as I tried to lose weight during my obese years. I didn’t want to say “no” to fast food meals, chocolate milkshakes or chocolate chip cookies. Instead, I wanted to have all those things and still lose weight.

As I rejoined Weight Watchers, or tried a new diet book, I found it very difficult to resist the foods I loved. Believe me – I tried the “moderation” thing, but in the beginning stages of my diets, I wasn’t so great at moderating anything. That came with time and practice.

The lure of sugar-filled doughnuts, or the yellow package of M&M’s seemed to call my name more strongly than the salad or brown rice did. And I heeded the unhealthy call, and passed up the opportunity to make the right choice.

Telling myself “no” was part of the process of self-regulating myself in order to succeed at losing weight. Other facets of the weight loss process involved developing strategies to combat bad habits, committing to an exercise routine, controlling emotional eating and retraining my cooking skills.

When I started to lose weight that last time, I found it easy to say “no” to myself for the first few weeks of my dieting experience. But even though I saw pretty heft weight loss totals those first few weeks, after about three weeks, I began to feel sorry for myself. I still had the desire to eat a lot of junky foods, and telling myself “no” when it came to cakes, cookies, etc. was tiresome.

Instead of succombing like I always had in the past, I gave myself a lot of pep talks about how miserable I was as a 300 pound woman, how tired I was of being constantly tired, and how much better I’d feel (and look) if I weighed less. In addition to pep talks, I also refused to buy those foods, walked away from dessert tables at social functions and chewed a lot of gum.

Over time, I didn’t mind saying no to most of those unnecessary foods, but instead relished in the fact that I could now say yes to smaller clothes, more energy and compliments from my husband.

As my weight loss progressed, I learned to say “yes” to the occasional treat that rated a “10″ in my book, but still said a lot of “nos” along the way.

How are you at saying no to yourself? Or do you believe that you shouldn’t have to say “no?” Diane

Filed Under: Choices

Is This Really Hard?

August 26, 2011 By

Are you a math person? Even if you aren’t, you probably remember these little symbols from 2nd grade math class:

=

<

>

Let me take a minute to ask you what’s equal when it comes to weight loss. Which number statement rings true to you?

  1. Weight loss = Living with Obesity (Translation: Weight loss is as difficult as living with obesity.)

  2. Weight loss > Living with Obesity (Translation: Weight loss is harder than living with obesity.)

  3. Weight Loss < Living with Obesity (Translation: Weight loss is easier than living with obesity.)

My thoughts on this when I was 305 lbs. would have been to gravitate toward number two. Weight loss, in my mind, was definitely harder than living with obesity. I felt that way for a lot of years. However, as things in my life started to get more complex, I started to realize that obesity wasn’t just about weighing a lot on the scale. No, obesity was about life.

Why? When I was obese, things in my life changed. Sure, I technically could walk around the mall all day long, but I didn’t because I hated how tired I felt at the end of such an adventure. I came to realize that heavy breathing during a 10-minute housework chore wasn’t normal or fun. As the years dragged on, I understood that my life was being sucked into a vortex of feeling badly about myself emotionally, running to food to fill the void and trying all kinds of unsuccessful diets.

Because I was relatively young (very young when I realize that I just had my birthday this week!) when I was obese, I hadn’t started down the road of health problems that often plague the overweight. I didn’t have serious joint problems, no dangerously high blood pressure, my cholesterol was okay and I hadn’t developed serious health conditions often associated with being morbidly obese.

I was lucky. I have friends who are in the midst of struggles with obesity. They have been obese for a long, long time. Their list of problems include diabetes, cellulitis, high blood pressure, joint problems, inability to fit in some cars, limited employment potential because of their poor health, emotional struggles with physical relationships and feelings of shame and frustration. (This is just a partial list, but I don’t want to belabor the point.)

Going back to my initial little math equations.

My feelings changed during the time I was obese. On some level I realized that even though weight loss was legitimately difficult, being obese was harder on me emotionally, spiritually and physically.

That self-realization didn’t make me magically successful at weight loss, but it did help me get started once again. And that realization that losing weight had to be easier on some level than staying overweight helped me get through some tough times.

So what’s harder to you? Weight loss or living the overweight life? Only you can make that decision, but for me, the trials of the weight loss process were short-term, while the realities of living as a severely overweight person could have been lifelong. Diane

 

Filed Under: Choices, Weight Loss

Take It Literally

February 28, 2011 By

Who in the world would dust the leaves on their garden plants with a feather duster that looks like this?

The other day, my boys and I drove to one of the very tiny towns near our city to buy a second-hand garden tiller. When I was thanking the lady, who was originally from the Netherlands, she told me about her garden. She said one year she had an insect problem and a gentlemen at her church told her to “dust” the leaves. He meant with an insect dusting power like SEVIN dust, but she took him literally and went home and dusted every single leaf with a pink feather duster. Apparently it worked, because she said she never had an insect problem again.

You Must Reduce

I have found throughout the years that people asking for weight loss advice don’t always take what I say literally.

If I tell someone, “Well, you really must reduce how many calories you eat,” they might think that’s just an idea, but not what they should actually do. There are a lot of variables in weight-loss, but reducing the number of calories you eat really is something that has to be taken literally. (Disclaimer: The NIH says not to go below 1,200 and I agree.)

If you are like me, and easily ate 3,000, 4,000 or even 5,000 calories a day, you must literally reduce how much you eat throughout the day to successfully lose weight. You don’t have to do it all at once, or go on a drastic diet, but over time, your calorie intake must be at an appropriate level for your activity level.

I didn’t count calories per se when I was in the weight-loss mode. Instead, I was a portion-control fan and watched how much fat I ate. But that still worked, because I was reducing the number of calories I ate throughout the day.

You Must Move

Another literal piece of weight-loss/healthy living advice people often don’t believe is when I suggest increasing physical activity. They often look at me like that should be optional rather than mandatory because – after all – they are busy. They are tired. They don’t like exercise. But the fact is, unless your doctor tells you an absolute “no,” you really need to exercise. Literally exercise.

It won’t work to write down an exercise plan in your planner, but continually move your start date to the next week. Just watching a DVD of Jillian Michaels won’t do much for your fitness level and simply purchasing exercise clothes but never, ever using them will not help you get more physically fit.

I know that most of my great friends in blogland are already cutting excess food and moving your body – but I wonder if there was a point in your journey where you really didn’t want to take that advice literally. I know for me there was. I would say to myself, “Yes, yes – I need to reduce and move.” But my next thought would be, “There’s got to be some other way.”

Fortunately, I finally realized that there really was no other way to get where I wanted to be. I finally took the advice literally and cut and moved.

Was it hard for you to take sound weight loss advice literally?  Diane

Filed Under: Choices

Keeping Your Goals In Mind

December 20, 2010 By

I know it’s the week before Christmas and it’s a busy time of year. These past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of musical events, out-of-town company, holiday functions and quite a bit of cooking. As we countdown to the actual holiday, it can be really easy to just throw our hands up in the air and say, “It’s too hard to keep eating healthy food and watch my weight.”

No one is immune to the potential for holiday weight gain. I still have to be very diligent in watching my food portions and choices because if I don’t keep my goal of “never going back” in front of me, then I could easily begin to regain weight. When I bake cookies or dip pretzels in chocolate, I decide before I begin if I will have any, and then how many I’m going to eat. This often helps me because I know I can have one if I want it, and I understand in advance how many I’m going to allow myself.

Another way I avoid just eating whatever I want for a few days in a row is to remember that those cookies or cakes not only have the potential to add unwanted pounds, but they also contain ingredients that are not very healthy for me. Butter, chocolate and salty pretzels are okay every once in a while, but certainly not day after day after day.

It isn’t always easy to keep your goals in front of you when cookies and candies are beckoning you to indulge, give in and forget what you’ve been working for all these months or even years. Although I don’t think that losing weight needs to be your goal during this coming week, I do think that continued diligence is important.

As you get closer to, and eventually reach your goal weight, you will have years and years ahead of you to practice maintenance. What better time to begin preparing than right now for the hundreds of holidays that will occur throughout your life?

Focusing on your health, fitness and scale goals during these next few days can really help you make wise decisions when faced with the abundance of food.

How will you keep your focus over the next few days?  Diane

Filed Under: Choices, cooking Tagged With: , ,

Was There An Enabler?

September 13, 2010 By

I realize by writing this post and publishing it, that this is a touchy subject – but I’ve really been thinking about the possible role of an enabler in weight. I have watched shows on Discovery Health about the struggles of the super obese and on every show I’ve seen, there was someone else “feeding” this poor, struggling person. Both literally feeding them as most of them were unable to walk, and emotionally feeding their inner struggles.

I’ve taught enough of my weight loss classes and spoken to enough people who struggle with their weight to realize that there is not always an enabler. However, in my personal experience – there often is. 

Darlene Albury, LMSW defines enabler as: ”A person who by their actions make it easier for an addict to continue their self-destructive behavior by criticizing or rescuing.”

John and I did some family therapy early in our marriage when we were trying to set boundaries with some family members, but I have never been in therapy with the purpose of learning about codependency, enabling behavior or an eating disorder.

I talked with John about this in terms of my decade long struggle with obesity, and we both agreed that he probably was enabling me by agreeing to go with me to fast food restaurants, bringing me home one pound bags of M&M’s when I asked him too, and never saying a negative thing about my weight. Technically, he was enabling.

But, I would not have reacted kindly to him telling me I could not eat certain foods or listening to his advice, no matter how sound, on weight loss and overeating. I think had he taken that tact, it would have harmed our relationship.

I’ve known people who rely on adult children to bring them fast food meals at all hours of the day. I’ve never spoken to the adult child, but I wonder what it feels like to be on the other side of the problem. I know what it feels like to be the obese, struggling person. It’s not a good place to be. I suspect there is a lot of conflict within someone who is enabling unhealthy behavior – whether it be through eating, smoking or another type of codependent relationship.

My husband is a genuinely nice person. He’s extremely easy-going and hard to “rile up.” He said he always “felt sorry for me,” and just wanted me to be happy. He knew I wasn’t happy being 300 pounds, but he also saw me feel happy temporarily after I ate too many M&M’s or cookies. I suppose living with me was a little bit like living on a merry-go-round. How coule he get off without harming our relationship?

I’m thankful every day for him, and thankful that I no longer have to deal worrying how John feels about the amount of food I eat. If you struggle with being on either side of these relationships, take heart in the fact that these types of behaviors can change, and you can grow together. Is it always easy? No – but how many things in life are? 

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on enablers in the weight loss arena. Complicated issue? Diane

Filed Under: Choices, Weight Loss Tagged With:

There Is No Glory In These

September 3, 2010 By

I admit that I am a bit on the frugal side. I enjoy the hunt of finding deals at yard sales, perusing the clearance rack for next season clothes for my growing boys and saving money using coupons. Sometimes though, being frugal isn’t a good thing.

Here’s my running shoes I was using up until Sunday.

Not so good. For the last month weeks I’ve been noticing that I could really feel the road when I was walking, and for me, that’s the signal that I need to get some new shoes. Feeling the road to me means that my shoes are done and finished. I also noticed that my knees seemed to be bothering me more and more. I put off shoe shopping 1) because I didn’t want to spend the money and 2) because I don’t like to shop for myself.

But on Thursday, I was walking and decided to jog for a few minutes, which I do almost every day. I started to jog and got this sharp pain in my foot. I immediately stopped and walked the rest of the way. I don’t know if the lack of support in my shoes caused the pain or not, but the pain was a wake-up call to me to stop running on those worn-out shoes and buy some new ones.

Yesterday, John and I went out and after much deliberation and walking around the shoe store, I found these:

Much brighter and shinier than my others don’t you agree? If you tend to wait to replace your tired exercise shoes, I’d encourage you not to wait. When you’ve traveled a lot of miles or just start feeling the road too much – get a new pair. It’s worth the investment to help you feet and legs stay strong.

Do you tend to put off buying new exercise shoes and try to make do?  Diane

Filed Under: Choices, Exercise, Weight Loss Tagged With: ,

This Is Going Back

July 26, 2010 By

As careful as I try to be I mess up all the time. Here’s a perfect example. I was planning our meals for the week and decided that we would have black beans and rice, homemade tortilla chips, green beans and fruit. Then I thought to myself, “We haven’t had yellow rice in a long time. I’ll get some at the store.”

I was grocery shopping later that day and walked down the aisle with the Mexican foods. I grabbed two boxes of yellow rice and put them in my cart. I finished shopping, waited in line FOREVER and went home. Two days later I was getting the black beans going and grabbed the boxes of rice. I glanced at the nutrition label and this is what I saw.

I looked at the serving sizes to make sure that enormous sodium amount wasn’t for the entire box. No, that yellow rice really had 820 mg of sodium per serving. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t serve that to my family.

So instead of yellow rice we had a mixture of brown and white rice, which is how I usually make rice for black beans. I’m returning the rice boxes to the store this afternoon.

That experience made me think about how easy it is to assume that a food is healthy to eat but in reality it’s not very good for you. I falsely assumed that yellow rice would be fine but I was wrong. We have been really trying to watch the amount of sodium we eat and 820 mg in one serving of rice wasn’t fine for me or my family.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened to me. Even after I lost my weight I sometimes get lax about checking the nutrition labels and let extra fat, sugar or sodium slip into our diets. You’d think I’d learn!

Have you ever gotten something home and decided, “I’m not eating this!”  Diane

Filed Under: Choices, cooking Tagged With: ,

What Have You Gained by Losing?

July 19, 2010 By

Why is it that I always tended to focus on all the things I was giving up when I tried to diet? I would complain to anyone who would listen about the fact that my current diet didn’t allow me to eat chocolate  or chips. I would show them my little notebook full of forbidden food lists. Or, if I was dieting on my own, I’d talk about how good I had done by saying “no” to the bowl full of Hershey kisses at the party.

All I could focus on was what food I thought I could never have again.

I had it 100% backwards. Instead of focusing on what I perceived as missing – I should have been focusing on all the things I would gain when I was at a healthier weight. But through 10 years of dieting, I focused on the losses. That’s something that was different for me the last time I tried to lose weight. I focused on all the things I was gaining.

Here’s some things I gained or improved by losing:

Increased self-respect

Control over my choices

Better wardrobe

More energy

Improved health

Self-confidence

Ability to do physical activities I never thought possible – like ride a bike

As you travel your own journey – I wonder if you ever tend to focus on all the things you have given up and lose sight of the wonderful benefits to being healthier and more fit? If you do, I’d encourage you to sit down when you have a minute and make a written list of all the wonderful things you are gaining or want to gain on your journey.

Do you ever focus on the perceived losses or do you keep your eye on the gains?  Diane

Filed Under: Choices, emotions, Weight Loss Tagged With: ,

Any Benefit to Cheat Days?

June 21, 2010 By

I had never heard about cheat days until after I lost my 150 pounds. Then, I started hearing about them from friends and reading them about them in weight loss books. Now, I see them mentioned on occasion and it makes me wonder. I did not have cheat days during my journey. I messed up every now and then, but I tried to be consistent with my food and exercise choices. I did choose to eat dessert or candy on occasion, but never had a day set aside to eat whatever I wanted.

A cheat day gives a “dieter” the chance to eat anything they want to for a whole day or perhaps just one meal. You might save up your cheat calories and have a big restaurant meal or choose a special ice cream treat. Or maybe on that day you choose to just snack on foods you would not normally eat. However you might do it – is it a good idea?

Here are my thoughts:

♦In my mind, a cheat day might mean you are thinking of your eating plan as a temporary diet rather than a lifestyle change. If you are changing your relationship to food forever, then there is no reason to cheat, because you are just living life. Does that mean you can’t have the occasional brownie or piece of pie? No. If you choose to have those desserts once in a while, make it a choice that fits within your lifestyle.

♦If you are someone who struggles with controlling their sugar or processed food cravings, then a cheat day might set you up for failure. Oftentimes, if we crave those foods and then eat them to excess we might find ourselves on a “roll” and have a hard time stopping.

♦If you go all week eating a really clean, healthy diet but all you can think about is your cheat day coming up is that a healthy thing? Would it make you see that cheat day as a reward for good behaviour? It might, and when you do reach your goal you may still see food as a reward, which can hurt your maintenance efforts.

You can probably tell that I’m not a big fan of cheat days, but I’m very interested to hear what you all think.

Is there any benefit to having a cheat day while you are losing weight?  Diane

Filed Under: Choices, Weight Loss Tagged With: ,
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