food addiction – Here's What I Think…

Could it be Food Addiction?

While “food addiction” per se is not yet recognised by the establishment as an actual thing, those of us who know, KNOW!

You are a high achiever in every other area of your life but food continues to defeat you. Despite your best intentions, you find yourself eating in a way that runs counter to what you really want. You berate yourself with talk of “I wish I had more willpower” or “I lack discipline” and shame and guilt define your relationship with food. And check it: what are the foods that you crave? Why do they fit neatly into one big category?

If it is addiction at play, then talk of willpower and discipline must fly through the window. Addiction means something happening in the brain, and therefore SKILLpower is what is needed, not WILLpower.

Food Cravings & Emotional Eating: Practical Approaches for WINNING: Part 2

In my last post “Are Cravings and a Snacking habit getting the better of you?” I explored why we crave the foods we do, why we snack and what giving in to said cravings and a snacking habit could be doing to your health and your livity. If we’re keeping it a buck fifty, the foods we crave all tend to be high-carb, highly processed foods: chips, cookies, ice-cream, bread. And we established that there are valid physiological and psychological reasons at play. You’re not weak neither are you greedy. These hyper-palatable carbohydrate rich foods trigger pathways in our brain that simply make us feel good and when we remain in constant search of that feel-good place we simply repeat the behaviour that led to it in the first place: dependency or addiction.

This dependency on high-carb, hyper-palatable foods for many, many of us negatively impacts our health (we gain weight or we have difficulty taking and keeping off weight), we get bloated and live with various gut-issues like acid reflux & general discomfort, and we are simply trapped in a vicious cycle of having to be constantly thinking of what next will we eat in order to avoid “hangry” states throughout our day. Sounds familiar? Ok. So what next? Do we simply cut out these carbs and flourish? Easier said than done, right? If there is an actual factual dependency on these foods at play, HOW do we break the dependency and how do we meet the need that gave rise to this dependency in the first place?

Are Cravings & A Snacking Habit Getting the better of You? Part 1

“I do well all day and then at night I go off the rails!”
“The children’s snacks are my weakness”
“I do well all week and then weekends I just can’t seem to stick to the plan.”
“I need a snack after dinner when we’re watching TV.”
“I get hungry mid-morning and need a snack.”
“At about 4pm I need a little pick-me-upper.”
“I say I’ll just eat 2 cookies and I end up eating the entire pack.”
“If it wasn’t for this sweet tooth I know I could lose some weight.”

Could any of the above statements been made by you? Are any of the above impacting your quality of life? Put differently, are you struggling to lose weight? Are cravings getting the better of you? If not, great! You don’t have to read any further unless you’re simply curious or unless you know someone who is struggling to lose weight and for whom cravings seem to always get the better of and you want to understand what’s going on better. But if you’re like very many of us, trying to lose weight, trying to unshackle yourself from the lure of cravings that you know are unhealthy, read on!