Food has NO power!

Disclaimer: This post will not apply to everyone. If you're like me and have strong reactions to sugar and highly refined carbs, it may apply though. I also want to be clear that my message is not to necessarily abstain from certain foods, but to understand there are ways to make informed choices in regard to eating trigger foods.

An on line friend posted that on another group/forum she wrote that today she had eaten a piece of Halloween. Some people replied to her post declaring that she was doomed, if she'd already started in on the candy today.

What say I? That is utter nonsense and just plain defeatist thinking. She is no more "doomed" than I am a 6'2" beefcake underwear model (though I wish I were! LOL).

I believe we give food far too much power in our lives. When we logically think about it, food has absolutely no power. It simply exists. Food is nothing more than stored energy. An apple, a filet mignon, a chocolate chip cookie, a chocolate truffle have no power. They are simply different forms of energy with varying delivery systems and varying rates of energy delivery.

Wouldn't it be swell if that were where it ended? I know it doesn't for most of us, myself included. It's how the individual body processes a food that can be problematic for a person. It's how our own bodies react to particular types of foods that is the problem. It's the chemical and hormonal reaction within our bodies that urge us on to over eat. For some, like me, that chemical reaction can take place at the first bite. For others, it may come a bit later. It really varies for each individual. I think it is also so important to understand that once the process begins it can be very hard to stop and you may feel like you have no control - you need to eat X food. Believe me, I've been there. It's not your fault. It's not a lack of will power. It's your faulty leptin response that allows your brain to think you haven't had enough to eat. For me, this happens with high sugar foods - especially high fat/sugar combinations.

Am I splitting hairs? Well, a bit. However, I really believe that when we take the power away from food and apply our knowledge about food and our reactions to foods and take ownership of that truth we take give the power to ourselves. Knowing that you truly are 100% in control of making the choice can make your choice to stay on track that much easier.

We have to learn what foods set off our body reactions in a way that is not conducive to weight loss or management or our emotional health. It's so important to understand not just the trigger food, but also what it does to on a chemical level. When you understand how your body reacts to a food, you will have a clear choice to make. Do you want to go through the reaction or not? For the past 3 months my choice has been 9 times out of 10 to not go through the reaction. Sometimes I do make a choice to eat X, but it's my choice and I know what I'm in for when I choose to go down that path.

I want us all to remember that we have the capacity to be in the driver's seat this week. There will be a lot of chocolate, candy, and goodies to eat everywhere we turn. If you are tempted this week and truly do not want to eat some opportunistic Halloween treat, think through the whole process - eating it, the chemical changes you will feel, the urges and cravings, and the possible emotional distress that comes with making a choice you might later regret.

Now, if you want a piece of chocolate or a baby candy bar - go ahead and have it. Whatever you choose to do, just make sure it is your CHOICE.

Somebody asked me a while back how often I "cheat." I told them I haven't.

Then they said, "So you've never had a cookie, or anything like that?" I told them I certainly have, but it wasn't cheating. It was at times where I new it was available, I planned on it, and worked it into my plan. I didn't let it become a dozen cookies, or get me off track. As you say, it was MY choice.

I have never been able to stop @ just one piece of Halloween candy or one cookie. Food in the past especially high fat high carb baked goods and chocolate were comfort food to me. Coming from a family of overeaters food was love. Let's get together and eat. Oh your feeling bad, here have a cookie it will make you feel better. A lifetime of using food to soothe is part of the reason why I'm where I am now with my weight.

I worry about the day I decide that I've hit maintenance. Will I be giving myself permission to have that homemade brownie? Will I be able to stop at a single one. I was never able to before. Will I finally understand that the phrase 'one is good two is better' does not apply when it comes to dessert?

Do you know I have agonized over the past week about an idea I found on Eggface's site. She chops up her Quest bars and portions them into 8 then bakes them for a few minutes and makes protein cookies. I have debated with myself endlessly about doing this and finally I have decided I can't trust myself not to eat them all in one day.

Food is still very much an obsession for me and I wonder if I will ever get to a place where food is just food and I will be able to choose to have one treat if I want to and walk away from further temptation.

I love Eggface's site. But I, too, avoid the sweet recipes. Sweets, no matter what kind of caloric or non-caloric sweetener they're made from, is a direct invitation to me to start (and keep on) eating sweets again. No criticism of Eggface intended here -- the sweet recipes are great those who can eat them with no adverse consequences.

psychoticparrot

Karik, thank you for your post. We bought Halloween candy a couple of days ago. I bought crap I didn't like, than my husband wanted some candybars, ugh! He has them in his car, but I know they are there. Then I remembered I need some candy for a skating party for the grandkids. I went to the dollar store and bought some more junk candy I don't like. But, I am going to copy and paste your post to myself so I don't get tempted this week. Thanksgiving doesn't bother me, but sugar stuff was my posion of choice. I will be successful this Halloween season.

What a great post, kairk! And just in time for "Eating Season is almost here." You're right, it never about the food itself; it's about the decisions we make about the food; i.e. it's not about the addictive substance, it's about the addiction itself.

When my husband and I go out to eat and he orders a dessert, I will often make a deliberate choice to take one forkful of it just to enjoy the taste. It never goes farther than that, and I enjoy my bit of sweet immensely. It does not trigger the desire to eat more. It also gets entered in my food log.

When I made the very bad decision to drink a McDonald's vanilla shake last week, it was the addiction at work, not the milkshake itself. I was definitely not in the driver's seat for that spectacularly bad decision.

There's a line from the movie "Traffik" (the British production, not the American). Two men, one a Pakistani peasant and the other an uptight British government official are debating the problem of heroin addition. The line went something like this from the Pakistani: "Nothing God creates is evil [the opium poppy]. There are only evil men [the drug traffikers]." The heroin addicts in the film are the saddest of victims. To extrapolate -- food is not in itself "bad." Only the choices we make about it.

psychoticparrot

@Kairk - Well said!

The universe has us on the same page today, Kairk. I was just thinking today that "Food isn't the problem, I AM THE PROBLEM!" Food, in and of itself, isn't good or bad. I've yet to see a cookie or candy bar jump up and punch someone in the face

My challenge has always been to control my thoughts about certain foods and my behavior once I eat them. Food doesn't change me when I eat it -- but I absolutely change when I eat certain foods, if that makes sense. I become secretive, selfish, *****y, lazy. That's me choosing to behave that way in response to the chemical reactions happening in my body because of choosing to eat a trigger food.

I may be splitting hairs too, but certain foods trigger me to behave like this and I typically make the decision to wallow in that behavior and maybe even eat more of those foods, denying that my behavior is connected in anyway to what I'm eating. But it is...

I want to be someone who takes responsibility for her actions instead of making excuses. If I choose to eat something then I need to be prepared to deal with the consequences, which aren't pretty. Can I accurately predict what I'll choose to eat this week when I'm surrounded by trigger foods? No...but I can plan ahead...and I can reduce my exposure to those triggers...and I can make sure tother choices are available in my own home.

Thanks as always for a very thoughtful post!

Not that you did anything wrong, Kairk, but what is with the funny symbols showing up in posts lately? Does anyone know? Yours has the trademark symbol, Euro symbol, a bunch of stuff. Lots of posts are doing this lately. I assume it has something to do with the latest "upgrade."

Anyone?

I tried sending a message to tech support about the issue and a few others like the email notifications with no content. The form wouldn't go through. So I posted to Kathy on one of her main forum posts. She said she would forward my issues to tech.

Yup, something has been definitely wrong since the upgrade. I got a sex solicitation spam today in my messages and couldn't even mark it as abuse or spam. I ended up blocking the person - and I've never, ever blocked anyone, but I didn't know what else to do.

I really hope OH figures out the tech difficulties and fixes them soon!