"Yes" I am Addicted to Food

April 1, 2009

Shakespeare penned “As the night follows the day, to thou own self be true and you cannot be false to any man.” I am on the road to self discovery.

I have set up this blog to follow my journey through life. There will not be a lot of pictures, just my thoughts. I am not a writer, but I wish my family to understand some of my thoughts.

I feel that I am addicted to food, so my first blogs will be about food addiction and learning to control my eating habits.

I am reading “The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous”. This program is similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. The first step is “to admit we are powerless over food – that my life has become unmanageable.”

It is not about willpower. Lack of willpower is not what makes us compulsive eaters. The disease of compulsive eating is an illness that cannot be controlled by willpower.”

“The disease of compulsive eating is treefold in nature: physical, emotional and spiritual. Compulsive eating does not stem simply from bad eating habits . . . nor just from adjustment problems . . . nor merely from love of food, though all these may be factors . . .”

We must be aware that we have trigger foods that cause us to over eat. We will return to our compulsive eating habits if we are not aware of what triggers our need to eat, beside hunger.

We must turn to another power stronger than ourselves for help with this problem.

Why do we eat? Boredom, fear, stress, depression, tired, control, anger, loneliness, hiding from pain, entitlement, etc.

We must become teachable. Does that sound like a concept we have been taught in church? “Once we have become teachable, we can give up old thoughst and behavior patterns . . . “

My goal today is to admit that I am an over eater and to become teachable. I am studing my behaviors and attitudes and why I eat when I not hungry. This is my first step to change.