Food Addiction - October 15th thru October 31st

[LoraJR72]

Aboard.

[Looweewoo]

Ah HA!

I wondered if it would be proper for me to start one of these, but you removed that worry from my mind. Thanks!

I'm doing good, carb free, my cravings are minimal even though this week was an emotional shipwreck. Child Custody/visitation issues. Never simple and clean.

At one point I caught myself trying to find ways I could have some of my worst temptations in the house for when he gets here for Christmas. But you know what? I live downtown, if he doesn't want to eat what I have, I can send him to the corner diner. I'm not going to try to change what his mother feeds him, nor proselytize my WOE to him, nor sabotage my progress.

So now that decision is made and I can turn my mind to something else. Good thing too, I was way in the future trying to fix things that are out of my control. I have things in my own head that need work.

Getting ready for a late breakfast and then a Noon Meeting.

[Looweewoo]

Another day clean, sober and carb free.

I've been thinking about the illusions we often have about self-control. Not that we never have any, but where the limits are in our behavior on average. For instance, you can stop breathing for a while if you want to, but after a few dozen seconds, you will make an excuse to start up again. It's not because you have to, obviously, because you are still conscious. It's because this is too hard or someone said something funny or you realized you need to pee... anything at all, and as the seconds pass, the reasons become less important than your simple desire to breathe.

Now obviously we need to breathe. We also need to eat. We don't need to eat carbs but what if our brain is telling us that we do? Don't we respond in much the same way? First we search for rational excuses, then we search for any excuse, then we just grab the Oreos with no thought of an excuse.

Perhaps it was always about the brain over-riding our conscious thoughts, and our mind making excuses to allow us the illusion of self-control. We did it because we wanted to, not because our actions are often guided by instinct.

I like to think that I have final say over what I actually do. But what if that's not true? What if I only have a 49% vote? The other 51% going to my silent partner brain and it only votes when it feels like it. I would be sitting in the big chair, thinking I was the top Executive of my life, when all of a sudden I get a phone call telling me that my plans were scrapped and we were moving forward on a different agenda now.

What if, like sailors pulled down in the ocean, struggling for oxygen, my behavior is completely out of my ultimate control. I will climb on the shoulders of my crew mates, tear my arms out of my sockets, do anything it takes to get what my brain tells me it wants, no matter what my mind likes to think when I am all satisfied and comfy.

That would explain a lot.

[LoraJR72]

The weekends are killing me but I'm so addicted to the fun.

[Looweewoo]

I have two pot lucks and a Football/snacks/male bonding thing this weekend. Not looking forward to them, since I know there will be a couple of goofs who will have to point out that I'm not eating this or I'm not drinking any of that....

Yurgh....

[DelhiBelli]

This weekend was a little hard. I was having a difficult conversation with my mother and as soon as it ended, I wanted to stuff my face. After having a nice lunch of duck and veggies, I still wanted to pig out, even though I was full. It seemed like the only thing that could help my sadness, anger, etc. My husband and I had a long talk and that seemed to help a little. Sometimes this is just so hard...

[Looweewoo]

Good morning everyone!

DelhiBelli, it is hard. When I try to compare this addiction to others and realize that this is one that most people still refuse to believe it even exists! ... makes support very sporadic. It's so good you can talk to your husband about it.

I posted the section below somewhere else thinking it was this forum.

Went to bed at 337, woke up at 333.... again. Survived the various temptations of yesterday. One pot luck instead of two because the traffic was so bad near the second one I just turned around and went home. Some kind of craft fair.

Went to the Football watching event, even though I don't enjoy televised sports at all. It was my home Alano Club event so I wanted to support it. There were some meatballs there, along with all the chips and cake and candy and pizza, but I had suspicions about the sauce. So I didn't have anything but coffee. Dinner of Chicken Leg Quarter before going helped a lot. At least thirty people tried to get me to eat whatever it was they were eating, bless their hearts, but truly none of it looked like food to me.

Chilly cold morning here, I will probably go for a walk in a few minutes.

[Looweewoo]

Well, after only a week, my hour long walk has turned into a 40 minute walk. I guess I will have to start going around the library and university instead of just too the library and back.

I'm cutting back on coffee in preparation to do a stint without to see if it affects my Blood Sugar and weight loss. But I still get to have my second cup this morning, here in a minute.

I'm newly disabled and retired, so I'm still learning about having a lot of time on my hands. If I don't watch out I will spend too much of it here, typing random thoughts... really seems to help me stay on plan though.

[DelhiBelli]

Looweewoo,
Is it easier being carnivore and dealing with the cravings? I tried all meat for 1.5 weeks and it felt great. I didn't have any cravings. I had been low carb (meats, low sugar veggies, fats, nuts, coconut) for about 4.5 weeks and the nuts and coconut weren't so nice to my digestion. I decided to go all carnivore to treat to heal what irritation existed and I thought meats would do the trick. Like I said, I felt great, but wasn't sure if it was something I should stick with so I introduced veggies back slowly and since then have had no real problems with my digestion (almost 4 weeks now which is amazing for me).

[Looweewoo]

Originally Posted by DehliBelli

Looweewoo,
Is it easier being carnivore and dealing with the cravings?

First of all, to me, "Carnivore" doesn't mean meat only. I believe that most mammals who are true carnivores eat a small amount of vegetation, even if only in the guts of the animals they devour.

But after the first few weeks, most of our cravings come from our culture. You might get an occasional physiological craving if you get a few too many carbs from your veggies, but the rest is just our minds remembering old tastes and feelings. It helps me to learn the difference and respond to them differently.

For instance last night as I was getting ready for bed, I had a sudden strong Glutamine craving. That's the desire for rich, creamy or savory foods. I wasn't sure where it came from, but I knew it wasn't part of my habit pattern. Usually at bed time I crave nuts and grain. So instead of just trying to ignore my craving for a thick clam chowder, I had a small block of hard cheese (high Glutamine). By the time I finished it, maybe 2 oz, I had forgotten about the craving until you mentioned something this morning.

Then, while writing the first few sentences of this post. I realized where it came from. I had just spent two days resisting high spice, high carb, high glutamine foods. I went to a potluck where I only found deviled eggs to eat, and I went to a football watching thing where there was really nothing I could eat. It was a lot of potatoes, meat with sauces, pasta salads and baked goods. Of course I craved carbs, but I wasn't ready for the glutamine craving too. I hadn't really analyzed the temptation.

Sorry if that doesn't make a lot of sense. The point being that my cravings sometimes seem to be a difficult case of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does my physiology control my psychology, or does my psychology regulate my physiology? Sometimes it's a little bit of both.

But to finally answer your question , Yes, it's easier.