For people who suffer from obesity, food is a constant thought. Questions arise such as how to stop eating, how to follow the guidelines of a diet, or how to manage emotions without eating. In the health care field, we rehearse the same rhetoric we have been rehearsing for years—make better choices, eat only when you are hungry, follow a low low-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, adapt a healthy lifestyle, and get more willpower. These comments, at best, are mantras obese people can replay in their head, and, at worse, are constant reminders of personal failures in their life.
I run several groups at Methodist Weight Management Center and one of them is a Food Addiction Group. What I found most helpful is not the reminding of what obese or overweight people should do, but rather what they can do. I have come up with 54 ideas of what you can do before you take that next bite of ice cream, fast food, chips, crackers or whatever your trigger food is. This list consists of only 54 ideas. There are 1000 more ideas. Take my list, put it up somewhere in your home, make copies for the office, and encourage your children to think of other ideas. If we can begin to help ourselves we can continue to help the next generation use activity and thinking rather than food to manage or cope with our emotions.
1. Open the freezer door of your refrigerator and breath slow while counting to ten (the cold air helps distract from the thought of eating).
2. Jump or march in place for ten seconds.
3. Open the door, go outside and find ten things that are beautiful.
4. Splash your face with cold water.
5. Write down five reasons this food will not help you cope.
6. Call a friend, mom, or dad.
7. Play a computer game.
8. Go outside and pull weeds for three to five minutes.
9. Be a walk-in for a pedicure.
10. Be a walk-in for a massage.
11. Go to the book store (one without coffee or pastries).
12. Window shop and write down one item you want to buy that will look pretty or masculine if you don’t gain weight.
13. Tell someone you love them.
14. Ask someone why they love you.
15. Write down any and all people who have hurt you in your life. Next to each name write down why they still take up space in your head and heart.
16. Go to a store which sells make-up and try new shades of lipstick.
17. Look through magazines for a new hair-style.
18. Write down how your weight protects you.
19. Write down what is so scary that being overweight helps you manage.
20. Write down why everything else in your life is within your control but weight isn’t. (For those of you who tell me that you cannot figure this out…I believe you can.)
21. Write down why you refuse to take charge of this addiction to certain foods. Is it the food or is it you?
22. Be open and honest with someone regarding one truth in your life.
23. Throw out all of the “bad or trigger foods” in your pantry. You can also package them up and give them to someone who doesn’t have an issue with the same trigger foods as you do.
24. Do something small that someone else will appreciate. This includes picking up someone’s paper on the sidewalk and putting it up by their door.
25. Begin a plan for healthy meals at work. Write the meals down ahead of time so when you are in a hurry you won’t be able to use having no time as an excuse.
26. Walk a dog. If you don’t have a dog, find a neighbor and ask them if you can help walk their dog.
27. Don’t be alone anymore than you have to be.
28. Have a bag of carrots at all places you usually eat and chomp on them instead of other food.
29. When the urge to eat is strong, have a list of chores that you can do to replace eating. Make sure the list is nearby and immediate. You will feel so good completing something that needs to be done.
30. Have someone you can meet up with during lonely times of the day.
31. During times of boredom write down five ways you are going to give back to make someone else’s life better this next week. Begin the list during times you are bored.
32. Go to the library and look at interesting books.
33. If you have been hurt sexually in your past, get in touch with that. If it is too painful to think about, that is a sign you need to talk with a counselor—it is part of the reason for your out of control eating.
34. If your marriage is unhappy, talk to your spouse today. Try not to be critical but know it is underneath your need to eat. Stop sacrificing your health and put the focus back on the relationship.
35. If you are unhappy living alone, write an ad and/or tell friends you are looking for a roommate. Living alone is difficult and not healthy for many people. We are social creatures, we need others. Also living alone with a weight problem keeps it going as there is too much alone time and isolation from others.
36. If you are a single mom or dad, begin a babysitting co-op. It is a good way to meet other parents and will afford you the chance to get out while another parent watches your child in turn for you watching theirs.
37. Find other people who struggle with their weight. Talk to them.
38. Join or organize a group who will exercise, hunt, or play ball. Any activity is good.
39. Join a church. Churches offer support, community, and a place for spiritual enrichment.
40. Take a bible study course, sometimes accepting God into your life heals the food addiction.
41. Get a set of dumbbells for your home. When you are bored, you can lift weights in front of the TV which is usually on when we are bored.
42. Take a class from leisure learning or your local university. Learning new things reminds you that you’re bigger than the food addiction.
43. Hug your children, spouse, and friends more than you are used to.
44. Whenever possible, walk. Park your car further away, walk instead of emailing a colleague, and always walk with your spouse and/or children. Obese people who stop walking really do stop believing they can overcome their weight problem.
45. Get a Karaoke machine or sing to the radio. Sing, sing, and sing. Singing is magical and you cannot eat and sing. It doesn’t matter how out of tune you are, just sing. Sing in the car instead of stopping for fast food, sing when you are alone at night instead of eating, and sing when you are shopping so you won’t sit down and eat.
46. Drum to the beat of a song on the radio or your computer. You cannot eat and drum.
47. Carry a toothbrush and toothpaste and brush your teeth often. Your teeth will look better and food doesn’t taste as good after brushing. Brushing breaks the cycle of eating.
48. If you break down and buy a trigger food, take out one serving only and throw the rest of it away, or give it to someone else.
49. Add up all the money (every receipt from fast food too) you have spent on food and challenge yourself to plan a vacation in the next six months. Take the excess money from food and put it toward your vacation account. People are amazed at what they spend on food for a week. Many times they spend mindlessly. Just as smokers forget how much they spend on cigarettes, people who use food to manage emotions forget how much they are spending.
50. Rinse your mouth with mouthwash often. To eliminate a craving many of my patients are rinsing their mouths with mouthwash more than six times an hour. It’s okay, they are learning to manage a feeling with a healthier habit than eating.
51. Sketch a scene. Go to the park, the museum or sketch a vase in your home. Anything is good material.
52. Finger paint with a child or by yourself. Finger paint is cheap, freeing, and it is impossible to finger paint and eat.
53. Make something with clay or paper mache’.
54. Have at least one person who knows of your struggle and is there for you. This person is someone who loves you and, when you want to binge, this person will be able to tell you that food cannot love you, but they can.
