“Might as well face it, you’re addicted to…” FOOD

The dictionary defines addiction as “the state of being compulsively committed to a habit or practice or to do something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” When most people think of addiction, they think of drug use, or alcohol. In some cases, it applies to any type of habit or practice. For example, a person can be addicted to their phone/tablet, and have problems when separating from these devices. Can a person be addicted to food? Of course they can. I believe that I have an addiction to sweets, which leads to a multitude of health problems; obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and the list goes one. 

But, let’s face it. How many of us can live without food? Not me, and I’m sure you can’t either. I had a conversation with a gentleman about a month ago, who was telling me how impressed he was with my progress. You see, this man (who shall remain nameless), as well as many of my friends, has never known me to be thin/skinny. When he met me, I weighed more than 200 pounds. Because of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place, self-quarantine, days, many of my friends, including him, and his wife, we don’t always get to see each other as often as before. During our conversation, this man mentioned that he has great respect for the progress I have made. This man knows how difficult it can be. He has tried many diets in his lifetime (he is not a young man), and he was successful in quitting smoking more than 30 years ago. 

He said something that sticks with me, and will for many, many, years to come. While he admits that quitting smoking was very difficult, it is not as difficult as losing weight, and keeping it off. You see, as he pointed out, we can live without cigarettes, we can live without alcohol, and we can certainly live without drugs. So, quitting these things will improve our lives. But, try living without food. This is something that we need to survive. Sure, we can live a few days, even weeks, without food, but, the body (our internal organs) will react to the lack of sustenance, and cause damage, that could last a life time. 

So, what do we do to reach, and maintain, the perfect weight? And, how do we know what the perfect weight for us is? If we stop eating, our body will go into survival mode, and will likely be counter-productive, and cause more frustration. If we set too high of a goal for ourselves, it can leave to frustration, and we might give up, and might even gain more weight than we lost. 

Noom taught me that balance is important, along with setting reasonable, and small, goals. My take away from that, is face the truth. I am a glutton. That’s the truth. I ate too much food, especially too much food that is not good for me, i.e. junk food, sweets, manufactured foods. I have learned to leave those things at the grocery stores, and shop the outside of the store. Fresh veggies and fruits, instead of what’s in the middle/aisles of the store. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still will have the occasional sweet, which I call treats, but I have noticed that they really don’t taste as good to me as they did before. 

So, I mentioned balance. If you’re my age, you might remember the “balanced diet” term that was used in schools, and on TV. Gotta have your protein, grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy/cheeses, that sort of thing. Well, that’s not the only thing we need to consider when looking at balance. I think of whole foods, instead of processed foods. 100% whole grains, instead of “enriched” (after all, bleached, enriched flour, means that they bleached the wheat, taking away all of the nutrients from the grain, and then added back in the nutrients). Guess what, turns out enriched is bad for the body too. Our bodies don’t need to work very hard to process this enriched food, causing more damage. Whole, fresh fruits and veggies help our bodies as well, and make us feel fuller, with less calories, not to mention the water that comes with it. We also need to balance our diets with exercise/movement. Remember, we are balancing, not one more than the other. But wait, there’s more. We also need to balance all of this with our spiritual life. I am a Christian, and my faith is in God, and my Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Prioritizing my spiritual life, with family life, and getting my workout in, and being mindful of what I’m putting into my body, has helped me to be successful in my journey to good health, during the COVID pandemic. There are so many people who have complained of depression, weight gain, or other problems, and they blame the pandemic. 

So, it is possible to fight the food addiction, and control what goes into the body, as long as we are mindful of our actions. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. 

Please feel free to leave comments. Thank you for reading my blog. J