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Need help with breaking a food addiction!

C

Cupcake01

Member
I need to lose quite a lot of weight and lower my carb intake however I am silently suffering with a food addiction, something I really do not feel comfortable addressing with therapists/GPS etc.
Has anyone been in my position? I really feel trapped in my little "food and hunger cycle" but I feel that I would benefit more from online/anonymous support than meeting someone and being confrontational.
It's a very sensitive subject with me but I need to lose the weight and I am well aware that I have a problem.
Any advice? Anyone in my position too?
Has anyone broken the food addiction cycle and want to share their story?
I appreciate the replies in advance!


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Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

I sympathise with you. Food has always been an issue for me. I've been a comfort eater for 25 years and I'm having to come to terms with the fact that, in all likelihood, I ate myself into Diabetes. I have however changed my ways over the last 5 months: I've lost weight and also lowered and stabilised my BG. However I'm acting out of fear as back in March my Retinopathy screening indicated my background retinopathy had advanced and that I needed to get on top of my BG and blood pressure. I still have intense compulsions - it takes discipline that has me in tears to stop myself eating badly (I'm a grown man). Most of the time it works. When it doesn't work I eat badly and I just feel guilt and disgust that I can do that knowing I could contribute to blindness. I am at the point of having to pay for behavioural therapy to address my compulsive eating.

If you have the money it may be worth looking at finding a therapist. If you don't feel comfortable doing that then it may be worth contacting an eating disorders support group to see if they can direct you to somewhere that can help you in a way that is appropriate to you.

I really hope you find a way to come to terms with your problem. The reality is that once you've felt the benefits of a better diet and weight loss - that's an nice feeling too.

Please take care.


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Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

Hi I do feel your pain and I know how difficult it is to feel helpless when trying not to eat because you know it is bad for you but on the other hand you just do it without control.
I am a big comfort eater and I binge. I am trying to control it but it is hard.

Please do not despair. If you want to pm me feel free. Support is very helpful

Take care

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Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

It's such a comfort knowing you're both in my situation. It is such a "taboo" subject because many people are ignorant and just brush it off saying we're selfish and that we can "just stop eating bad" however it's a lot harder and I'm so happy you can appreciate that.
I am eating myself to danger , but what I am sensing from your posts is that it gets easier once you put your mind to it.
So I think it's small steps but it will take a while to get there.
Thank you so much for your replies and please also feel free to pm me and we can be of support to each other.



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Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

I have the same problems!

I ate myself to diabetes. I grew up in a shop so had as much free choc and crisps as I wanted!

As an adult I eat a really healthy vegetarian diet, ( lots of wholemeal bread, pulse, fruit and vegetables), love cooing and baking, reading about food, shopping for food, watch food on tv etc.

However I could EASILY eat 6 bars of chocolate in a row and not feel sick

It's a mystery how I ended up 6 stones overweight! :lol:

Anyway when the diabetes started to give me symptoms I took action, began to low carb for weight loss and at the moment I am attempting my version of the Newcastle Diet.

I already feel so much better, higher energy levels and more positive attitude. I still have 'blips' but I just try again. I don't know if I will ever get over my food issues. But at this moment I can deal with it one day at a time. It is much more of a mind set. If your heart isn't in it, it wont work.

Feel free to message me if I can help

Cara
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

I am 62 and spent the last 40 years trying to lose weight. Been type 2 for 18 years. Blood sugars have never really been under control in all that time. Six months ago I started to follow a low GL diet, not too strickley but taking the concept and reducing carbs overall but focusing on carbs that release the sugar more slowly. I average a total of about 150 grams of carbs a day now. In six months I have lost 27kg and still going. I really don't feel hungry as the concept of a low GL diet is to keep blood sugars even during the day so I don't have the sugar highs followed by the lows that drive the need to eat. I have been able to stop taking Insulin and Gliclazide completely, halved the amount of Metformin and blood pressure tablets. My last HBA1C was 5%, yes right in the middle of the non diabetic range! I feel great and very confident about my ability to control my diabetes for the first time in my life. Take a look at a Low GL diet, it might work for you as well. Good luck.
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

It took fear and shock for me to lose mine, I wished I could say its easier once it's come off but not for me, it's a daily struggle, tonight I cooked pizza onion rings garlic bread and chilli chips for the kids dinner, I ate yogurt and fruit lol not because I didn't have anything else but because I needed to eat and fast once those smells started, my only advice would be to consider food a way of staying alive, not something that needs to be enjoyed, I'm not for a minute saying this a is long term mind set because I enjoy the food I eat, but in the beginning I ate fuel and medicine not food, I hated veg and everything else I now like and some of which love but at first each time I ate I considered it a treatment, sorry if this sounds weird, I am weird so I suppose my advice would be


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Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!



I am in the same position as you are, for the past couple of weeks I couldn't think of anything apart from having food and over this weekend I really over did it alot and just could not help my self but eat and eat until I felt sick and included having 2 bowls of spag bol homemade, a tub of betty crocker chocolate fudge icing on a flapjack cake, a pack of jaffa cakes for yesterday after I got dropped off at my halls in uni. Then today I had 4 bowls of crunchy nut, pack of chocolate digestives and then 4 hot dogs. I've had this problem for a long time and it only happens when I'm physically low on energy and it feels like my stomach is taking control and I over eat for 2 days, then eat normally until I feel the same.
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

I have been a comfort/compulsive eater most of my life and diabetic for half of it too. Now, I tend to veer between dieting and feasting still but ALWAYS take my insulin/ test my sugars since developing advanced retinopathy so whilst my weight may still fluctuate my hba1c does not (has been under 7 the past three years).

My approach only works if you are on insulin though so can match insulin exactly to carbs, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It's just the only thing that works for me. I'll always be a feast/famine kind of eater (although my feasts are no where near as bad as they were in the bad old days). I just don't seem able to do moderate. But at least it is not affecting my bgs now.

It took the real fear of complications setting in to get me to stop though. Before then I was always aware I could develop complications but it didn't really stop me, until those complications began to happen. The sad thing with diabetes is that you cant just switch the compliactions off the minute they start, I've been in control of my diabetes/eating 3 years now and still having problems with retinopathy.
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

I like to comfort eat and my weakness is Galaxy chocolate. My last visit to the diabetes nurse she suggested I added another meds to the ones I'm already taking. My BG aren't too bad, but it sort of peeved me off that I was being offered more meds.
So I decided to low carb again. I'm not really strict, but have found a few alternatives to bread, pasta, rice etc I've also started eating a lot more fruit and veg.
I've also stopped buying those special offer chocolate biscuits in Asda.
I now test most mornings and my fasting morning test has gone down from high 8-9 to 6.2
I haven't taken the new meds offered.
I've also started going the gym again and feel much fitter.
I have my next check up in a few weeks time and I'm expecting better results.
I think the more junk food you eat, the worse you feel, so you think maybe eat something to make you feel better. It doesn't work.
I've also lost 10 pounds in weight, which is a bonus. I'm no longer in the 'obese' category.



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Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!


Crikey ! what were your levels like after all that ? :shock:
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!


Well with what limited test strips that I have, the next morning they were at 6.1.
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

I've a type 1 diabetic over a year had a mini stroke just after being diagnosed I lost quite a bit of weight, but now I've gone back into bad habits and feeling very discouraged but reading this post I know I'm not alone.
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

Having read this post i felt that i had to register and comment. I am in the middle of a four month carb binge at the moment. Chocolate is the killer. From October last year i low carbed and exercised and lost five stones. From May this year i have gained 4 stones back. I am trying to get back into the mindset for low carbing again. I need to lose this weight. I know i need to be careful even when my feet sting and my eyes get a little watery when my bgs are going up. I know how you feel.
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

I am 17st , I used to comfort eat a lot , not only one biscuit but a packet with a cup of tea , I loved my chocolate and pepsi drink
when I got upset or stressed id turn straight to rubbish food , but the shock of being diagnosed as new diabetic, was a bit of a wake up call, now I have lost 10lbs cutting all the rubbish out I have started to walk which I haven't done for years , at the moment im coping , but xmas is coming up and I just hope I have willpower to not eat all the goodies or im back to square one

I hated veg , fruit , all the good things I didn't like , but its amazing when you have to change your way of eating how them foods become ok ,

good luck
 
Re: Need help with breaking a food addiction!

Reading so many posts of people in my position is amazing! So many people keep it "shhh" and are almost ashamed to talk about it. The talk about not just eating one biscuit but eating the whole pack is so me!!! I'm finding it so hard to break the pattern!
Food addiction is proven to be a huge issue, however breaking the cycle is so much harder than it seems.
I feel it should be addressed like cigarettes and alcohol, more help should be out there, BUT .. Non judgemental help! I find anyone I talk to about my weight looks down on me..


I'm a pre-diabetic and getting my glucose intolerance blood test in the morning to determine if I am diabetic or not but either way if I don't break this food addiction - I will be in for a shock!
But maybe the shock will be the wake up call? It's very hard..

I've been fasting for the blood test since 8pm and already my mind is driving me crazy about food!!!


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