Are You Addicted to Food? The Beginning Steps to Losing Weight

If you have battled the scale your entire life, you have likely attempted to lose weight on many occasions – with some occasions being more successful than others. In many cases, you have lost weight and then gained it back, and in some situations you likely struggled to lose the weight at all. You already know it’s a never-ending battle, but you may have even felt that it was pointless to even try. If you have ever made the statement, “I can even look at food and gain weight,” you likely fall in this category. It’s really not just as simple as deciding you want to lose weight and doing it, though. For those who struggle with weight on a long-term basis, losing weight involves a whole lot more than simply deciding to do so. Read on to learn some tips that can help you change your mindset to ultimately reach success in weight loss.

Change the Way you Perceive Your Battle

You don’t have to be bulimic or anorexic to have an eating disorder. The most common, and least talked about, eating disorder simply involves over-eating. You have likely heard the term “emotional eating.” But typically when you read articles or hear stories related to emotional eating, it is about people who eat when they are sad to feel better, or they eat when they are happy to celebrate. But what do you call it if you eat when you are happy, sad, thankful, lonely, excited, nervous, bored, etc.? Can it still be called emotional eating when the emotions are not relevant to the equation? By over-eating, it doesn’t even mean binge eating. It means simply eating more than your body needs to stay at a healthy body weight. And while that seems like it should have a simple fix, for those of us that have tried repetitively to change those habits unsuccessfully, it isn’t.

Are you Addicted to Food?

If you were to ask yourself this question (and no one else was around to hear your answer) what would you say? Most likely, the answer would be yes. If you have ever debated with yourself as to whether or not you should have a snack, or you have felt guilty when you went to bed about how you didn’t stick to your plan, the answer is likely yes. If you have ever forced the thoughts of weight and workouts and calories out of your head just long enough to eat whatever it is you are craving, only to immediately be angry with yourself after you eat it, the answer is yes. If you can determine whether food is an addiction for you, it will make approaching weight loss much easier.

Approach Weight Loss as if it Were an Addiction

If you had an addiction to something other than food, how would you approach the battle to overcome the addiction? Of course, avoiding the addiction would be the best method, but we simply cannot avoid all food for the rest of our lives. However, there are other ways to battle an addiction to food, and these are similar to the way one may battle another type of addiction. If you were addicted to alcohol, for example, you likely wouldn’t peruse bars if you were trying to kick the habit. In the same way, you can avoid your favorite restaurants that serve bad-for-you foods you can’t resist overeating.

Another key point in approaching weight loss as if it were an addiction is to face the realization that it will not be a quick fix. Just as smoker has to take it one day at a time when quitting, doing the same thing is key to long-term success. Know that there may be those occasions when your will is not as strong as the desire to eat a certain food.

Focus on the First Three Weeks

Because you do know that it will be a lifelong battle, it can seem so overwhelming that you may not be able to find the courage to begin. Instead, focus on the first three weeks. It is said that it takes at least 21 days to change a habit. If it is an addiction, of course, effort will still be required to continue the battle and be successful. However, the first 21 days will help you change your habits. If you change a few main things in your eating, such as eating low calorie snacks instead of high calorie alternatives, after the first few weeks this will become the norm for you. When this occurs, you won’t have to battle yourself on these things anymore, and can instead move on to focus on new changes.

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