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Wed Jun 26, 2013 1:11 pm  |
Anybody here suffer from food * spam alert *?
I'm overweight. Losing weight is a key piece of the puzzle in my quest for rejuvenation.
But I'm a food addict. I got overweight from stress and overeating and antidepressants in my '30's, and have never managed to lose it. I don't overeat so much any more and have cleaned my diet up quite a bit. I know much more about being healthy than I look like I know, if that makes sense.  But I just get the most horrible, compulsive craving for crap food after a week or so of being good. It just knocks me off my high horse in the worst kind of way.
Food is my last * spam alert * and it's kicking my butt. I've kicked cigarettes, alcohol, various illicit substances unwisely indulged in my youth...but this is something else entirely. Really getting me down.
Anybody else here facing this problem? |
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Thu Jun 27, 2013 8:54 am |
I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject, but food * spam alert * is something I've been thinking about lately. I have a quite overweight friend with diabetes who like you, has beaten all his more illicit habits but seems unable to stop himself from indulging in his food cravings. This is the week he stops going for urine tests, so his habit of * spam alert * has been on my mind.
Though probably not the same way, a lot of us with far less health issues crave junk food and can't stop at just a small amount. So couldn't this be a health issue where the craving may at least in part be due to some health/diet deficiencies or blood sugar imbalances? My ex's mom craved dirt (soil) when pregnant, til diagnosed with a mineral deficiency.
Pardon me for my speculating... like I said, I know little about the topic.
Anyway, about it getting you down, I'd recommend trying not to make a big deal about it if you do give in, and focus on the way you aren't giving in today, just today, and try to feel good about that much. Its NOT kicking your butt if you don't overeat so much anymore, you've cleaned up your diet quite a bit and know about being healthy, and you're able to "be good" for a week. It sounds like you're doing great. Don't forget to give yourself credit where credit is due. From what I see here of you kicking all those other things, you are a success.
Don't look at it as all or nothing, its a process.
All the best. |
_________________
Olive, normal/oily skin. Using rinse-off ocm, Vit C, Tretinoin since Nov/10, GHK since Feb/12, Niacinamide & glucosamine, alternating, & now skipping nights! Concerns include oiliness, hyperpigmentation from occasional zits, 11's & nasolabial folds. |
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Thu Jun 27, 2013 9:11 am |
Yubs, I'd love to know about your re - mineralising your body and how you did that and what it has done for you.
I tend to think that craving foods is two things.. one a nutritional deficiency, and two, an emotional pattern.
I also think, following on from that, that emotional patterns can be broken with nutritional changes.
I come from a family of antacid eaters and ulcer medication takers and GERD sufferers, who have constipation.
The whole digestive picture there results in an emotional picture of tension, irritability and anxiety, discomfort in the body that results in a desire to soothe the irritation , generally with bland carb comsumption. Lots of comfort eating of pasta, rice dishes, dairy products. And ensuing fatigue and crashing on the sofa!
In fact it is enzymes that are needed in the root position, to rectify the whole thing at source. Taking enzymes allows calm digestion, and that facilitates a calmer emotional picture.
I dont know if any of that was helpful at all, I just wanted to show support and reiterate that the word '* spam alert *' covers a lot of stuff, the way foundation covers our sun damage and pimples! |
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Thu Jun 27, 2013 2:07 pm |
The only time I suffer from food addictions is the 2-3 days leading up to my monthly.
I've been thinking about the nature of * spam alert * a lot lately and I imagine food and sex addictions must be the hardest to break because those desires are so deeply ingrained in our DNA. My deepest respect goes to those who have managed to get it under control. |
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Thu Jun 27, 2013 2:37 pm |
All addictions share a component...mostly a compulsive type personality. For instance, I've been compulsive about posting to this forum lately. I have to stop or I'm going to lose my job.
Seriously, I have balanced out most of my nutritional problems. I don't have much problem with mood or sleep any more, except, as Chlorophyll noted, around a certain few days a month. My hormone problems are almost whipped...I haven't had to take analgesics in years (used to go through bottles of them at "that time"), and the monthly thing only impacts my life a couple days per month. But I just get this crazy urge to eat crap that seems random. There's nothing I can figure that triggers it.
I don't really know what I'm going to do. I always used to think food and weight problems were just character issues, and although gawd knows I've got enough of those, it's clear to me now that for food, at least, it's beyond character flaw. Eating problems might start out psychologically as a lack of discipline and a need to fill an emotional hole, but if it goes on for a while it becomes physiological. The only time I've ever been able to get rid of the cravings is when I was on the Zone Diet, but on that you basically have to eat all day. You get tired of chewing. Plus it can take quite a bit of time to prep the food and then clean your kitchen afterwards.
Thanks for the support, everyone. I'm taking a second look at Ray Peat's stuff (as gretchen frequently recommends). I have tried him before and it didn't really agree with me, but his science is sound so maybe with some mods to his recs I can stabilize to the point where the cravings go away. I've read good things about his approach from lots of people. Worth another try, anyway.
Anybody want to form a support group, PM me. |
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Thu Jun 27, 2013 5:35 pm |
| Morty Lefkoe has an excellent blog and he wrote an article about food * spam alert * and obesity. From what I remember it had to do with food being a reward when you were a kid so it became imprinted on your psyche. He had a procedure to overcome it. Don't remember but if you google 'morty lefkoe blog' it should pop up. You have to subscribe and will get a link to the newest blog post about once a week or so. I don't read half of them but some have really been helpful. |
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Thu Jun 27, 2013 11:17 pm |
It might be worth doing some EFT on it. You can learn to do it via youtube.
( Emotional Freedom Technique)
There will be a trigger for the * spam alert *. Just so ingrained it's a job to detect it.
Self destructive behaviours that we perpetrate on ourselves without knowing why are evidence that unconsciously we have some unresolved distress. |
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Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:24 am |
catski and SoftSkin--thanks for the suggestions. They are good ones.
Worth noting is that I have tried EFT off and on over the past few years, and frankly, after a week or two, I get the urge to start tapping with a hammer.
Seriously, I do think EFT did help me with this, as did taking a long honest look at family patterns with food and other stuff. Food is a big reward (or consolation) with us.
But the problem is not nearly as bad or self-destructive as it used to be. I've actually managed to shed a lot of the emotional associations with eating. What troubles me now really feels like a physical component, not as psychological. Like it may be body chemistry not psyche that's driving it. In fact, if I wasn't overweight and having such a hard time losing the weight, I might not be that bothered by the degree that the crap eating happens now, if that makes sense. It's not runaway any more, but it still is seriously impacting my ability to become completely healthy.
I'm even wondering if it may be some microbial issue driving the behavior, in the same way that (for example) the toxicoplasmosis (sp?) microbe has recently been shown to drive human behavior. Only this is some poor microbe that thrives on Steak-n-Shake.
I also wonder if the human body gets addicted to transfat, and if it does, when the supply gets low, drives a person to get some more, in the same way cigarette smokers want nicotine until it works out of their system. The problem with transfats is that if you've been eating them for a while it can take years not days for the body to eliminate them.  |
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Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:36 am |
Hmm.maybe a good idea then to do some clearing out of the body of residues.
Oxy cleanse is a good bowel cleaner.
Magnetic clay is terrific as a series of baths that pulls gunk out of organs.
Maybe go for a nice lot of daily fresh juices with beetroot, carrot, spirulina, lemon , apple and ginger, and spinach.
I do these things myself, so know they really have helped me. |
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Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:38 am |
| Would it help to make sure yourbody is getting enough good fats? I use coconut oil all the time and take udo's oil. |
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Fri Jun 28, 2013 5:41 am |
I do coconut oil, too, and have chelated, done all that stuff. Well, not the clay. But I've don't A LOT of stuff over the past couple years, in part to try to address this issue.
That's one thing that makes me think maybe there's some kind of pathogen/microbe involved. None of the normal things that people say help them kick their food problems have helped me.
I just bought Danny Roddy's ebook "The Peat Whisperer" and am going to try to give Peat another try. His ideas have always appealed to me even if I don't necessarily agree with him about fish oil, but I got discouraged because I didn't do well on the diet when I tried. But after looking again there are some things I can eliminate without affecting what the eating style is trying to achieve. It's supposed to help with hormone balance and gut dysbiosis. We'll see what happens. If it doesn't work in a month then back to the drawing board. |
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Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:19 am |
I know you say you've tried everything, but there are some good natural appetite suppressants on the market if you think they would help.
If you can get your portions under control and you eat healthy the majority of the time I wouldn't really worry about the occasional indulgence. As females we tend to beat ourselves up over having perceived unhealthy habits while our men are eating red meat and smoking every day. I bet it's not even as bad of a problem as you think it is! But if it is that bad, just keep trying until you find something that works for you. |
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Fri Jun 28, 2013 9:43 pm |
Yubs,
I'm impressed with your desire to learn and to search for ideas. Ray Peat was always synonymous with Gretchen to most of us  but I'm happy to hear of another level of respect for his methods. I sure hope you'll keep us updated. The menopause thread talks about a 5/2 method for weight control. this seems to have been successful for the menopausal girls who are trying to keep weight down or lose 15. It's a concept that can work in any weight loss capacity.
The main reason I chose to write was to cheer on the great suggestions from the thread.  |
_________________
Enjoying dermalogica with my ASG and Pico toner ** Disclosure: I was a participant without remuneration in promotional videos for Ageless Secret Gold and the Neurotris Pico Emmy event. |
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Sat Jun 29, 2013 7:08 am |
| Chlorophyll wrote: |
I know you say you've tried everything, but there are some good natural appetite suppressants on the market if you think they would help.
If you can get your portions under control and you eat healthy the majority of the time I wouldn't really worry about the occasional indulgence. As females we tend to beat ourselves up over having perceived unhealthy habits while our men are eating red meat and smoking every day. I bet it's not even as bad of a problem as you think it is! But if it is that bad, just keep trying until you find something that works for you. |
Thanks for the suggestion and encouragement, Chlorophyll. I'm leery of appetite suppression, though. It never really worked for me, and it typically contains caffeine, which isn't good for fibroids. This is beyond appetite, anyway. Or it seems to be. And if I weighed 110lbs, believe me, I just wouldn't worry about it. I'd be all "Cheeseburger? Bring it on! Yes, I'd like some fries with that!" But I weigh much more than 110. I'm heavy, and I'm not naturally this way. I did this to myself (with help from stress and SSRI's) and really want to undo it. If I was naturally this way I probably would have come to acceptance at this point. But the weight is a fairly recent development in my 50 years on this planet and I simply can't accept that this is it for the rest of my life. If you think about it, lack of acceptance of the status quo is the primary reason we are *all* here, right? 
sister, I can lose 15 pounds pretty easy, even now. A little calorie cycling (which is pretty much what 5:2 is) and some high intensity interval training and it would melt off in a month or two. A calorie cycling approach can even benefit from the occasional junk food binge, as the extra calories tell the body to stay in calorie burn mode instead of retreating into starvation/conserve mode. But [very] sadly, I need to lose quite a bit more than that.  The craving/compulsion worries me because that is what sabotages me after I get past that relatively easy first 20lbs. My bod gets stuck at the plateau and the cravings seem to escalate and I can't seem to find the right strategy to shake out of it. Then I get tired of trying and probably many of us know how that story ends.  |
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havana8
Moderator
 
Joined: 09 Sep 2005
Posts: 3449
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Sat Jun 29, 2013 8:18 am |
| catski wrote: |
It might be worth doing some EFT on it. You can learn to do it via youtube.
( Emotional Freedom Technique)
There will be a trigger for the * spam alert *. Just so ingrained it's a job to detect it.
Self destructive behaviours that we perpetrate on ourselves without knowing why are evidence that unconsciously we have some unresolved distress. |
Here's a link on EFT from the Mercola website that might be helpful: http://eft.mercola.com |
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Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:22 pm |
I never deprive myself. Decide which foods you crave and allow yourself to have a treat once a week or a couple of times per week and just count it as part of your daily calories.
Someone had a birthday at work and there were two delicious cakes. I am a sugar addict so I had a piece from both. That evening I ate a big salad for dinner. Calorie wise, the damage wasn't that bad. It all balances out.
MyFitnessPal.com is a good calorie counting site. |
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Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:01 pm |
I think the bodymind associates certain foods and the chemistry they set up as 'solutions' to problems, if those foods have been programmed in that way.
The 'craving' is the bodymind trying to be helpful and say 'this worked for you before, you liked it.. lets replicate the experience!'
Reframing the 'cravings' might be helpful. They arent your current desires and wishes.
ReFrame those feelings as 'ghost suggestions' from an out of date bodymind. Bodymind needs to be brought up to date, it needs to be trained like a junk filter on a new mail application. enough times of pressing 'no thanks' and the programming wises up.
There's no one to fight, nothing to 'resist', just reprogramming to be done. |
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Sat Jun 29, 2013 5:20 pm |
| catski, that's a great way to put it! I think we've all heard similar, but until it's put in a way that resonates (whatever that resonance is), we don't "get" it. Those words resonate with me. I love "'ghost suggestions' from an out of date bodymind." That's an idea I can use. I actually have used similar thoughtforms to rid myself of the other addictions, but that way of putting it kind of reframes it for this situation. This weight is nothing if not out of date! Thank you! |
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Sun Jun 30, 2013 9:01 am |
| Pertinent to this thread is this article. I do one of the recommended things -- carb cycling, although I didn't know it had a name, just did it naturally. If you listen to your body, when you crave goodies and pig out, the next day you want healthful and nutritious foods. If you eat a lot one day, you don't want as much the next. Most people comfort eat, which is an emotional problem. They make their problem worse by taking antidepressants for the symptoms of emotional problems, which makes them fat, instead of going to the root cause of the problem. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/newsmakers/chris-powell-extreme-weight-loss-shares-tips-took-150213578.html?vp=1 |
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Wed Jul 03, 2013 8:31 pm |
Not sure if any of you here have read it yet, but the Jaminet's Perfect Health diet makes complete sense to me.....also looking at calorie cycling.
BFG |
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Thu Jul 04, 2013 11:52 am |
Ray Peat seems to be doing me some good this go-round. I cut the recs that I think caused me problems, and so far so good. I have insulin resistance (not diabetes but could possibly get there in the future if I don't change some things) so check my sugar regularly. It's been consistently lower this week in the a.m. (fasting) than it was before I started peating. That's encouraging. And I haven't wanted to junk out since I started, which is even more encouraging since this was the week before my period. This is often a time when I will abandon all restraint.
We'll see how it goes. It's still early yet. But encouraging so far!
Happy 4th of July, everyone! |
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Thu Jul 18, 2013 6:08 am |
| PERRICONE MD Blog have some healthy diet, you can focus on |
_________________
anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old |
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Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:07 am |
We generally don't crave meats or veggies, but often sweet or crunchy things....made from processed carbs.
I have yet to find something to kill that sweet tooth...but I need to.
I just try to give it a little bit, so it doesn't trigger bigger cravings later.
BFG |
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Thu Jul 18, 2013 10:38 am |
| How's Ray Peat coming along for you Yubs? Rooting for you. A woman with your obvious brains and ability can do anything. |
_________________
Enjoying dermalogica with my ASG and Pico toner ** Disclosure: I was a participant without remuneration in promotional videos for Ageless Secret Gold and the Neurotris Pico Emmy event. |
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