Are you a food addict? How can you tell?

Wonderful idea for a topic. Addiction, yes, I will admit that I am addicted to food. Planning, preparing, eating, storage of leftovers, planning healthy snacks to take with me when I am away from home. I wish our worlds did not revolve around food. Sometimes I wish that I had been addicted to anything else besides food. The other addictions can be dropped and never touched again and you will continue to live. Stop eating and live will eventually stop. Invent a nutritional supplement that is encapsulated, small, and does not involve planning, shopping, storage, preparation and I will be in line for purchase.

Our lives have revolved around food, from the moment we are born to the last breath we take. I am thankful for my RNY, now at least portion sizes can be controlled due to the small pouch. I am finding that other activities, including exercise can soothe my soul as well as food did in the past.

I am Kathy and I am a recovering food addict.

Hiding food and eating in secret! 

[email protected]

I finally accepted (could tell) that I was a food addict when......I realized that when my family came for a visit, the only thing I could think to do to entertain them was eating! Everything centered around where we would eat and what new resturaunts I could show them.

Hi Eric ,
As a SG Leader I hear all sorts of responses  on this subject .But I will speak from my own experiences. , 
For me ...  I knew I was a food addict when every Thursday night ( Family night ) I would hoard 4 pieces of pizza ... take them upstairs and hide them . Then sit down with the family to eat. Then when it became time to serve the Pepsi’s..  I would also run upstairs and take one and hide it.. Go back down and finish our meal ... It hit me then.. OMG ... I am an addict ... how in God' name can One eat this much? 

The there was the day when I stopped at Mickey D's and ordered not 1 but 2 meals .. Thinking.. Ok... one for lunch and the other for snack.. They both were the double quarter pounder with cheese meal deals. I ended up eating them both for lunch,. Embarrassing.. but my work load was much easier to deal with ,, at least that is what I tricked my mind into thinking ,, and that is what it is all about ,. Our
minds tricking us to think we need it to " FEEL GOOD: that the pain will all go away with that first bite.
 
It is sort of like drugs, that first use and the pain, the sorrow is all numb, Food is no different.
For me , that first bite of that Whopper ... I was numb , I gave no more thought of how my father hated me , how going home was going to end up with abuse . So I ate another one ... and OH how good it felt. But then comes the guilt . The guilt of losing self control, of letting something like a Whopper controls you. And the fact that still waiting for you is that abuse and the pain. So Food Addiction is no different than drug addiction in my eyes.  

I have been so fortunate to have great mentors in my Life Coaching her at OH. . Teaching us how to DRIVE BY that Burger King and to ask ourselves why did we want to eat that food anyway.? What was it that drove us to want to be numb? Once we can get a grip on what it is that makes us want to get numb or forget for enough time to woof down that meal.. We can conquer Food Addiction. It is going to take a lot of practice on each of us who suffer from this. As for me, I am 6 years post op and have it all under control now.  I have faced my demons that drove me to eat like that. I have put their nasty words, their demeaning lies of how worthless I am away. I now know that I am worth every great food choice I make and NOTHING WILL stand in my way of being Obese ever again.

Thank you for letting me share,

Natalie Blaum
“Tink"

Food did at one time drive me, it no longer drives me.

You knew that food drove you when you were at a drinner or a buffet that had a number of desserts and you would bring back one of each, "a sampler platter" and you thought that was funny.

For me acknowledging that I was a food addict didn't come until around 1 1/2 years after surgery.  Yes my life revolved around food before surgery always wanting to know where there the next meal would be eaten.  After surgery my life still revolves around food but in the sense of planning for my meals so I do not self-sabotage. 

What I realized was that I was powerless over food.  It has this unbelievable hold over me at all times, which affects me mentally, physically and spiritually. 

I am not one to eat everything in moderation, one bite would lead to two which leads to a handful and so on.  I would eat til I felt sick, lay down and few hours once my belly calmed down do it all over again.  It's like the M&M's where you can't eat just one, or the alcoholic who can't just have one beer.  I can't just have one french fry.

The conversation finally came up in therapy and I was truly shocked that the words "I'm addicted to food" actually came out of my mouth. 

The real eye opener for me was when I gave a casual presentation with my dietitian to a neighboring group of professionals in our building and someone asked me why I just couldn't stop and I said out loud because I'm a food addict, I'm truly addicted to food.  That was the WOW moment, the I fully admitted it and talked about it in public moment. 

It's almost a feeling of liberation once I said it out loud and it has given me a clearer understanding of my past history.

I'm a food addict who is currently working on my recovery and always will be!

seeing an old favorite really made me want to indulge.. but i kicked myself in the rear and went for a walk instead... YEAYYY

I realized I was a food addict when both my husband and my brother both gained weight from all the food I shopped even though I could not eat it.

I realized it when I woke up with containers on my nightstand where I had "eatten'" myself to sleep and then got right up and started eating breakfast.  Food had become a 24 hour obession.  That's when I went to ST. V for my RNY.

I went back and forth from wanting something salty to wanting something sweet. After a while, it didn't matter what it was or how much it was, as long as I could satisfy that need.