Learning to control your food addiction
Jodi Davis
| 3 min read
I like to eat, which is not uncommon I suppose. In fact, I know that I’ve had an addiction to food for the majority of my life. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be completely free of it.
Thank God that I have learned to control my food addiction for the last 12 years. It’s not easy but it can be done.
Looking at my life before I was in control of my addiction, I realize that I wanted to eat more than doing anything else. Eating was on my mind from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed; even then I would think about food. Half the time I was dieting so I wouldn’t consume the ‘bad for me foods’ but let me assure you that I definitely wanted to. I’d think about it so much that it would cause me to end my “weekly diet” and in turn eat everything that sounded good. Nutrition wasn’t a concern at all. If it looked delicious, I ate it.
I still fight my addiction daily although it’s a hundred times better now than it used to be. It’s manageable but it hasn’t disappeared. I’m praying that someday that addiction will be gone for good.
Today, millions will agree that food addiction is completely controlling their lives. They don’t like it. They want it to end. Now many are learning how to control it.
I saw an interview with a woman on TV recently where she said that she enjoys eating more than the average person, claiming that eating her favorite foods is like pure ecstasy to her. She shared that her emotions are so intense when she eats that she can’t control herself. It is almost as though she is taken beyond rational thought and is emotionally consumed by the food.
I was surprised by her comment that she often thinks of the singer/songwriter, Barry White, who is known for his romantic image and can almost can hear his words “oh baby, oh baby” while on an eating binge. It was those words that caused her to realize that food is her love passion. She loves it so much that she just can not push it away. But she’s willing to learn how to try.
Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you love food so much that it’s almost impossible to push it away.
Trust me, you can push it away. It takes discipline. It takes self-control. It takes the desire to want to end the addiction.
When the love for food starts to overtake your emotions please stop, pause for a moment and ask yourself “Why am I doing this?” If your answer is because you are bored, anxious, lonely or frustrated then push the food away. Better yet, turn around and walk away from it.
Listen to your mind. Listen to your conscience and it will tell you, just like my conscience told me. Learn to quit turning to food to fix the boredom, anxiety, loneliness and the frustration. Learn to turn to others things instead. I walked. Your food addiction can be controlled, but only you can do it.
Photo credit: 3eyedmonsta
