Have you ever felt like you are addicted to certain food?
Have you ever felt like when you start eating the food you must finish it all without any awareness to your fullness?
Have you ever felt like certain food has a hold over you?
Do you feel guilty after eating these foods?
Blame yourself, conclude you must be addicted…
Listen, I get it, I was once the same, the giant buttons and hobnobs got me every time.
The minute I was exposed to them it was like they had a voice,
“Come here my precious” in that creepy tone you all know so well.
I had a level of urgency, a pull that felt unmanageable.
I’d eat them all, sometimes I was fully aware, others I wouldn’t realise until I got to the end.
“What is wrong with me?” I’d question.. 🙋♀️
Looking at my friends in envy, how can you eat food and just move on.
How can you stop and not feel like you’ve got to eat them all.
Of course I concluded, just like you, I was addicted. The only rational reason for it.
I was wrong, and I hate to admit it, but former dieting me, in her late teens, early 20s got it all wrong.
My Dad even commented this weekend “you did used to eat loads” 🙋♀️ (he meant well, and he was right)
I had an uncontrollable pull to these foods, not because of my willpower, or my self diagnosed addiction, but because of a few factors.
I was craving these foods, my brain was literally receiving signals to eat these foods.
Cravings are that addiction like feeling, they heighten, become more impulsive and strengthen depending on the factors.
Emotional dysregulation
Food avoidance
Labelling foods as “bad”
Trying to convince yourself you don’t like them 👀
Sleep deprivation
Over exercising
Under exercising (this has a greater response than actually over exercising)
Fasting or going long periods of time without eating
Lack of stress management
Extreme restriction with calories
Zero autonomy
Lack of food satisfaction
Dehydration
I could go on….
Cravings rise with all of these, due to some level of dysregulation.
Cravings are your bodies way of telling you they are lacking in something!
Try telling yourself you can’t have something now and listen to that innate desire that wants it more.
(I want nothing more than smoked salmon right now but preggo is not allowing, hi craving)
You feel out of control because you’re banning so much from your diet,
You’re finding food is meeting several needs because you struggle to rest, to ask for help, to slow down.
You feel compelled to eat all the food because you convince yourself you need to avoid it.
You have an urgency to some foods because you’re overly restricting your diet.
You have an intense drive for all the food because you’re pushing to extremes with your output.
Physiologically it’s your bodies way of telling you something, but you believe you’re “flawed” in some way.
You are not.
You’ve just had exposure to a handful of ludicrous diets that have had you create a bunch of beliefs about your health goals.
Instead of battling with yourself, blaming yourself, concluding it’s a you problem, comparing to others and trying to ban food I want you to try something new.
Something positive in the direction of health.
Listen to the latest episode of the Nutrition with Rebecca podcast 🎙️ where we explore deeper why you crave certain foods, and how to end the addiction like feeling to begin your journey to food freedom 👇🏻
Happy listening, let me know how you get on ❤️
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