The Things Food Addicts Think & Do (does it sound like you?)

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A while back I had the pleasure of interviewing Victoria Moran, author of The Love-Powered Diet (Lantern Books). I really liked Victoria'a message because, unlike nearly every other trendy or fad diet out there, her love-powered diet starts from within and rebuilds the follower into a happier, healthier individual.

What I want to share with you today are a pair of key passages from The Love-Powered Diet -- "Things Foods Addicts May Think" and "Things Food Addicts May Do."

See how many of these remind you of yourself.

Things Food Addicts May Do

• Hide food

• Sneak food

• Go on diets, usually on Mondays

• Make promises, vows, and deals with themselves, others, and God about eating less and losing weight

• Lie to themselves, others, and God

• Avoid scales or weigh themselves compulsively

• Dissociate from their bodies - live from the neck up

• Put off living-shopping, swimming, vacationing, making love - until weight is lost

• Detest physical exercise or become addicted to exercise (but may still detest it)

• Feel unattractive or conditionally attractive based on a scale number or clothing size

• Hate fat people (or hate thin people)

• Have special binge foods as drugs of choice (chocolate, sweets, salty snacks, cheese, and rich, creamy foods are favorites) but could binge on almost anything in a pinch

• Vomit after a binge or even after a moderate meal or snack (bulimia)

• Eat others' leftovers, unthawed frozen foods, or nonfoods (e.g., the paper from around a muffin, used tea bags, chewing gum)

• Diet successfully for a time, then gain back as much or more weight than was lost (the ability to diet eventually ceases altogether)

• Find it easier to fast than to eat moderately

• Push food on other people, especially when depriving themselves

• Cook and bake - though in later stages of the disease, these may fall aside in favor of ready made, instant - gratification items

• Please people, be sweet

• Make jokes, be jolly

• Be defensive, feel put upon, take up the cause of "fat lib"

• Deal inappropriately with anger, either denying ("stuffing") it or having attacks of rage, usually toward someone powerless, such as a child or companion animal

• Switch compulsions, such as giving up food for a time and becoming addicted to drugs, sex, working, or spending

Things Food Addicts May Think

• This time will be different

• I ate too much (or gained weight) so I'm a bad person

• No one else eats like I do

• If you really knew me, you wouldn't like me

• I'm fat and disgusting

• I broke my diet so I'm a failure

• Since I ate that cookie, it means I've blown it and have to eat a quart of ice cream

• I've lost weight now so life is supposed to be perfect

• I've lost weight now so I'm cured

• I'll just have a little bit

• I'll get back on my diet tomorrow

• Eating will make me feel better

• I have to eat something to get through this tragedy/term paper/telephone call

• A venti cappuccino is really just a big cup of coffee

• When I lose weight, I'll be beautiful

• When I lose weight, my husband/wife/lover will love me (or I'll find a husband/wife/lover who'll love me)

• When I lose weight, my mother/father/other significant person from my past will love and accept me (even if they're dead)

• When I lose weight, I'll do everything I ever wanted to do

• I feel fat (in response to being full, depressed, premenstrual, or constipated, or as a response to rejection, disappointment, or presumed failure)

• If I eat while I read, it won't count (the same goes for food sampled during cooking)

• I deserve a treat (euphemism for extra food), or I deserve to be punished (food can do that, too)

• Eventually, I'll just have the surgery and lose weight that way

Sound familiar? If so, you may be a food addict too. And if that's the case, Victoria says no trendy or fad diet is going to help you slim down and stay slim.

What you do need is to come to grips with the fact you are powerless over food and need inner strength and guidance to help you overcome the issue.

You can learn more by getting a copy of The Love-Powered Diet or by checking out Victoria's website http://www.victoriamoran.com/

Author: John McGran

Archived posts 2010

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