Are you a food addict? How can you tell?

The inner fat girl lives on within me and I realized a long time ago that I was and I still am a food addice.  I often tell people "My name is Faith and I am food addict because I am in love with food."  Thank goodness the Lap-Band for the most part allows me to control my food addiction. 

 I don't think I was ever a food addict.

by having foods that are trigger foods.  For me that is pizza.  There is no such thing as enough pizza or one piece of pizza.  Even with lapband I still cannot stop at one piece of pizza, even though I am full.  I physically have to have someone take it away from me and keep me from getting any more.  I avoid pizza as much as possible.

Teri

I knew for sure I had an addiction when, I thought about food all the time, snacked (grazed !) all the time and could not stop the destructive eating patterns even in the face of huge weight gain and multiply health issues that the Doctor told me would be ending my life sooner than later. The RNY was the first step to getting myself on the right path. Its been 3+ years and 110 # weight loss. I'm still looking for another 20 to30 # loss but its slow going. But most of all everyday it takes work to eat right, exercise and not fall back into the self destructive patterns.Today I am thankful to be a happy, healthy ,active, 53 year old woman that works 12 hour days as a hospital based EMT. I am a recovering food addict taking it one day at a time, and today I'm winning.

Surgery doesn't change how we think or feel about food. Yes it will dim your appetite and can help you with portion control for some period of time. But, there's a reason why many WLS patients stretch their new smaller pouches. Why, even though we're told to measure portions, we eat to feel full. Why do RNY patients continue to eat sweets even though their surgery causes dumping?

I really believe that it's extremely difficult to change decades of eating behaviors in a relatively short period of time. We can use our surgery as a tool and lose a significant amount of weight but keeping the weight off for a lifetime requires real change from the inside out. Changing our relationship with food, how we deal with emotional issues and replacing emotional eating with new healthier ones in their place.

This all sounds really easy but it's not. We all can be on a honeymoon phase for a few years but the reality is that the #1 issue that all WLS patients face in years 3+ post op is weight regain. This is because we don't make permanent lifestyle changes. Many of these issues relate to being able to control our portion sizes. Being ABLE to plan healthy meals instead of eating what sounds tasty at the moment.

Learning to be brutally honest with yourself about what you eat, why you eat and what you are feeling and thinking at the time you are desiring those foods, goes a long way toward making changes. Seeing a therapist has been very helpful for me but I cannot expect to move mountains of change in 3 years after surgery considering I had an unhealthy relationship with food for 3+ decades. Every time I make a healthy eating decision, it builds a foundation of positive choices that make it easier to continue upon.

I wish you all much success on your journey regardless of the specific path you take to get toward a healthy weight.

Nice response!
I was wondering... what would you say about the statement that the addiction is permanent? (Can't get rid of it, but can only hope to manage it)?

I am hardly an expert on addiction. If you think of other types of addicitons, it is extremely hard to manage or regulate them. When someone is addicted to gambling, they probably don't go and play one or two hands of blackjack. Alcoholics tend to not try and drink one or two shots of whiskey or convince themselves that they can have a beer or two after work with the guys. Well, the funny thing is these addicts DO this all the time and find themselves back in the cycle of addiction, right?

I think the same thing is true with food addictions. The biggest difference is we MUST EAT TO SUSTAIN OURSELVES. There are foods that I can eat and MODERATE without problem. Example-- a handful of walnuts. I can eat them as a snack and I am fine. Make that a handful of Planters Salted Nuts (mixed, cashews, peanuts, whatever) and I will keep going back to the can until it's gone. Maybe it's the salt, the nutty goodness or some wierd chemical thing in my brain. I've learned that it is more effort for me to moderate salted nuts than the joy I get from eating them. I have the same issue with sweets. I really do enjoy them but... I have the hardest time moderating them. Is it an addiction? I don't know. I just know that if I buy a box of cookies, they don't seem to last very long in my house.

Some of my "issues" are emotional-- eating when bored, lonely, stressed or anxious. But, there are other times when I eat ONE and it just triggers a cycle of eating that seems to continue or at least "the desire to eat" until the item is gone. That seems to me to be addictive.

Could therapy fix that? I don't know. Maybe they'd have to hook electrodes up to me and shock me everytime I look at a Snickers bar! I have no idea. I just know after 3 years post op, I still have the same tastes for certain foods, I just avoid them because I have difficulty moderating the quantities. It seems once I start, i want to keep eating them.

 "I realized I was a food addict when...my day revolves around when and what my next meal or snack will be.  In other words, when I allow food to dictate my daily routine."

I finally realized that I tried to solve all of life's problems with food.  When I was sad, I ate.  When I was depressed, I ate.  When I was stressed, I ate.  When I was happy, I ate.  Food has ALWAYS been a "huge" part of my life!  Food addiction is FINALLY recognized as a disease and can get professional help for it.

Tammy Parker
Shelbyville, TN
OH Leader