I have re-joined this site because of my food addiction. I know HOW to eat clean, and how to cook healthy meals, and how to eat small meals throughout the day, how to set up the meals to meet daily needs.. That's not the issue. I am seriously addicted to bad food. I have only ever made it 2 weeks MAX without processed crap. I start off feeling good about it, and then I guess it's some sort of withdrawal I go through. I get less and less motivated, more depressed feeling, and finally I'm miserable before 2 weeks are up and then I cave in. And then I make excuses for myself. "Oh, I didn't gain weight, I guess that means my body can handle junk food." "Oh well, I have forever to eat healthy, I can just do this for now." Things like that. And then I binge eat. It gets worse every time. I successfully completed two weeks of a super low carb diet a few years back, and then instead of trying to add in healthy carbs I just went back to old habits. I actually get the depressed feeling during the sugar and junk withdrawal period, and I've always at the time taken it as "obviously eating healthy makes me depressed, so it's not the right choice for me." Which is completely stupid. I am aware of what I'm doing, but I lack serious self-control. I have no idea how to overcome this. It's funny because I am 4 years clean from drug addiction, but I can't kick FOOD addiction. How ridiculous is that? Everyone in my family has horrible eating habits too. I don't know anyone in my life who is interested in eating well. I just have people who complain about their weight and do nothing. I was raised on a diet of lots of sugar. I do not want to live this way or eat this way. I have one child and another on the way and I do not want them to grow up watching me eat like this. I want them to see healthy eating and think that's the norm. I don't want them to have these issues. I am really at a loss. I love exercise, and I can do that daily with no issues. It's the food that really gets me. I need to find out how other have kicked this, because this is bigger than it should be for me. I have become so desperate recently that I've considered going through my pantries and just tossing EVERYTHING processed. But I've been working to get out of debt, which is another reason this is so hard. Healthy eating is expensive, and I can barely afford to eat much at all right now. I've made use of food banks a lot recently and well, they give me cookies and cake and such..
Serious Food Addiction Anything processed or containing added sugar. I would ideally like to be eating fresh fruit, vegetables, beans/legumes, lean meat, whole grains, low fat dairy.. Nothing frozen, or canned, or boxed. I just want to be able to eat clean and not be sad about it. I get that 2 weeks isn't enough time to even adjust to the change and be able to feel good about it. But I've just been unable to make it past that.
Serious Food Addiction It's not food addiction, it's your common sense trying to come out. You are obsessed with clean eating, making up arbitrary rules as to what is clean and what isn't, when in reality - any food can be good and healthy in moderation for a healthy individual. There is absolutely no need for small meals all day, no reason to avoid processed foods and so forth. Please read this article: http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-n...-clean-eating/ Sugar is fine. Processed foods are fine. All in moderation. Fat is fine, no NEED for low fat dairy. Nothing wrong with frozed, canned or boxed foods. Please start learning how to reduce the level of fanaticism concerning "clean" eating. It's a perfectly normal reaction to find such a restrictive diet extremely difficult to follow. It's no wonder you end up binging. The vast majority of people would. Cause it's a stupid way to eat.
Serious Food Addiction No. They are not fine for me. That is the issue at hand here. I've tried portion control, everything in moderation. I binge constantly. I've tried eating clean, healthy meals all week and having one day of whatever I want in moderation. That turned into "Hey, I ate all that yesterday and didn't gain weight and feel fine, might as well eat whatever I want all the time." As soon as I taste unhealthy foods, I binge. I don't mean I eat a big meal. I mean I eat until I am beyond full. I've eaten to the point of making myself sick many times. I eat when I feel depressed, when I feel angry, when I'm bored. This is not an obsession with clean eating, or perhaps I'd actually be able to eat healthy. Perhaps eating whatever you want in moderation works great for you, but it doesn't work at all for me. Try eating all day, nonstop, cake, cookies, pizza, etc, out of compulsion. 8 cookies in one serving doesn't make someone a healthy individual. 4 bowls of chili in a row isn't okay. Sorry, the everything in moderation lifestyle isn't for me. I came here because I was aware of many people who've made a good life change and given up unhealthy foods. That's what I wish to do. There is a huge eating compulsion that needs to be overcome. I actually love eating healthy. I have an OBSESSION with JUNK food that manifests itself in my mind until I give up too soon on being healthy and go back to being unhappy with everything about how I eat. It is not healthy eating that is the problem. I think about junk food from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep, even if I'm not eating a single healthy food all day. The binging doesn't occur from the healthy eating. The binging occurs every day of my life regardless of what I plan to eat or even what I do eat. In fact, the more unhealthy food I do eat, the more I want to eat until I am so full I can hardly breathe. Please tell me how that is in any way healthy.
Serious Food Addiction Well then, I suggest psychiatric help from a professional, as this might be far beyond what a simple forum post or two by random strangers can help you with. But I also believe that educating yourself on proper nutrition is the first step in realizing what healthy nutrition really means and why not all junk food is immediately bad.
Serious Food Addiction In the past I could never stick to a diet. Then one day I started counting calories/macros and eating whatever I wanted (within reason of course) to fill those and it's been six months. Not a binge or "cheat" since. I eat pizza, fatty hamburgers, burritos, etc. every week. I eat at least 5 or so servings of fruits and vegetables per day, enough protein and fat, and pretty much fill the rest with whatever I desire. Currently a frozen pizza in the oven as I type this. 1,200 calories, 72 g protein, 54 g fat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthorexia_nervosa http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/orthorexia/MY00768/
Serious Food Addiction Ha, thanks for that. Very helpful. I was actually hoping to find others who'd had food addictions and could share tips. But I guess this forum has turned from helpful to judgemental in the year and a half since I closed my old account. Yes, it's called binge eating disorder. People do overcome it, and support helps with that. But apparently I won't be finding support here. BTW, any "professionals" tend to just say eat healthy and keep a food journal. I was looking more for personal stories and support here. But thanks.
