Notes from a WLS Support Group

Apr 07, 2010

I was unable to attend my local support group due to a doctor's appointment, but I received the notes from the meeting and thought they might help someone else.  Take Care!

Our discussion material came from an article called "Eating Healthy and Overcoming Food Addiction" by Linda Lowen, and lead to our exploration of questions and thoughts such as:   1) Do we or should we avoid foods we can't handle?  Chocolate for example. One shared about buying a small chocolate bar and it last a few days...good example of controlling the food.  But what if we buy it and then eat it in one setting.  This is a good example of the food controlling us.  Taking the high road to stay away is hard because we "want to eat what we want to eat".  We often feel that it is not fair that others can eat what they want and we can't.  Accepting who we are and what works for our bodies is the first step to having the control we need over the food.   2) Do we look at food as entertainment for our mouths?  Food is the fuel for our body...It is what gives us life.  But more times than not, we turn to it for our entertainment, our comfort, our friend, and love.  We get into situations of boredom and start thinking about what we can eat.  We turn to healthy snacks but instead of eating one we eat all we have on hand!!!   3) Where does the emotional connection to food come from?  Everyone agreed that it is from how we were raised.  We have family events, birthdays, holidays, weddings, funerals, and everything is centered around food.  Often times we want fulfillment.  An article by Jennifer R. Scott, "Top 5 Emotional Eating Triggers" lists the top 5 emotions as: 1) Stress & Anxiety, 2) Loneliness, 3) Anger, 4) Hormonal, and 5) Sadness & Depression. Change our attitudes and thought processes to focus on the good we have accomplished, not the bad.  Take time to look at where you are emotionally BEFORE putting the food in our mouth can lead us to breaking the emotional connection to food.  Food will then become our fuel and NOT our entertainment.   We also discussed information from an article by Phylameana Lila Desy, called "Four Stages of Breaking an Addicition".  STAGE ONE: Resisting Change.  We are comfortable in our habits.  We know what we have been doing doesn't work, but we don't want to change because the new habit will be scary and uncomfortable.  Our "Addict Pea Brain" tells us that we will have a negative result even though we don't know what the result will be...we justify our behavior this way.  STAGE TWO:  Begrudging Attempts.  "I will make an attempt to change...I don't want to...but I will try".  I don't want to journal my food, I don't want to exercise, I don't want to eat healthy foods, BUT I will try.  STAGE THREE:  Surprise, I enjoyed it!  I am journaling my food, I am exercising, I am eating healthier, I AM SURPRISED!!  I feel better...I did not think I would like doing this BUT I feel good about myself!!!  STAGE FOUR:  The HABIT becomes the COMFORTABLE and PREFERRED WAY!!!  Over time we change our habits and rituals. Our relationship with food is not about how much we "love" the food but (AND THIS REALLY SPOKE TO ME) how we NUMB OURSELVES WITH THE FOOD.  WE SELF-MEDICATE OURSELVES WITH THE FOOD.  Wow!! What a powerful, powerful statement!!  If we can't get our food, our anxiety increases. So we eat the food to ease our discomfort "caused by not eating the food".  It is a vicious cycle like a hamster on the wheel...a dog chasing its tail     Accepting who we are is the first step on the ladder to success in breaking the cycle of food addiction!! This journey we are on is not easy and is never ending, BUT it is a journey shared.  SUPPORTING EACH OTHER along the way will make the journey easier!!

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