Struggles, solutions, motivation: Interviews with Food Addicts in Recovery:

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Byron Fleming
7 years ago
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1 What is Your Relationship with Food? Struggles, solutions, motivation: Interviews with Food Addicts in Recovery: By Jo Levy, New England Fitness Examiner This examiner had the opportunity to interview two members of FA. We will call them Cathy and Barb. The following questions were asked of Cathy and what follows are her answers. When did you first realize you were a food addict? I think I crossed the line into being a food addict in my early 20's when with all the diets and good intentions I couldn't stop eating and gaining weight. What does being a food addict mean to you? Being a food addict to me means the inability to stop eating an excessive amount of food. More than what is healthy for me or what my body requires. Although wanting to not eat a substance I had to eat it. It was beyond my control. What steps have you taken to break the cycle of addiction? I have tried just about all the diets and self-help plans there are to try out there and they got me to 210 pounds. I finally had to admit I was a food addict and joined Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous and gave it a real try.

2 Will you share what form your addiction takes? My drug of choice is food (sugar and flour products mainly but also quantities). Is exercise a part of your food addiction i.e. you exercise to excess? If yes, please explain. If no, do you exercise at all and what do you do? No, exercise was not a part of my addiction. Today I try to exercise regularly in order to maintain my healthy lifestyle; If you were to tell, suggest, or advise our readers in any way you want, what would you say? Take an honest look at your life. Is eating or lack of eating, or bingeing or purging a part of your life? Is it affecting your life? Are you overweight and not able to stick to a healthy food plan? There is help out there for you. The following are Barbʼs answers to the same questions: When did you first realize you were a food addict? I first realized I was a food addict after I went to a few FA (Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous) meetings and heard people explaining how they used food in their lives and what it did to them. I resisted identifying with the group. I had no 12- step experiences prior to then, and the meetings felt foreign and the solution seemed extreme. What does being a food addict mean to you? Being a food addict means that I use food for reasons other than nutrition. I used to like to have something to eat before tackling a project. I used to have something to eat just about every time I read the paper. I would have food in the

3 pockets of my clothing so Iʼd be prepared when I felt the need to nibble on something. I used food to calm the feelings I had of frustration over everyday life occurrences such as my children not doing their homework properly or taking too much time getting ready for school. Or the feelings I had when I visited my mother as she got older and of feeling sad that she was aging and getting frail. Often I needed some kind of food to assuage feelings of inadequacy in my marriage or while doing some project. And the bottom line is that I really loved to eat flour and sugar products desserts, candy, breads and pastas. I liked to eat most fast foods. It seemed like once I started eating candy or breads or any snack foods, I couldnʼt stop. I needed to finish it all so it would be gone and I wouldnʼt have to think of it any more. Again, eating was not a form of taking care of me nutritionally because those foods didnʼt appeal to me. I thought they were a waste of calories. I would eat a regular meal only so I could justify having something sweet after. What steps have you taken to break the cycle of addiction? What has been a huge benefit in breaking this cycle is having found the 12-step program of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. I had tried many, many other ways to try to lose weight. I had paid for food programs since I was 22 years old. (I found FA when I was 47.) I was always buying magazines with diets in them and I was a sucker for the newest weight-loss book. So when I was at my first meeting and was encouraged to get a sponsor, without knowing what I was signing up for I asked someone to help me. She helped me with a food plan that I would stick to and guided me with ironing out the problems I would encounter trying to stick to the plan and helping me with finding out why I used food in the way I did. Will you share what form your addiction takes? Well, my addiction makes me fat. I am 5ʼ3 tall and my highest weight was 180

4 pounds. What it did was made me ashamed of my body, hate myself for what I thought of was a lack of will power, and it made me feel inadequate and angry. I felt impatient and got down on myself because I couldnʼt stop eating when the thing I wanted most was to be thin. Getting into a healthy body size consumed my thoughts but the results of all that thinking and reading never got me into a right sized body. It got me buying new clothing every season because slowly and gradually, I ate my way up the scale, and grew out of the clothing I had. It seems I was uncomfortable most of the time- both physically and emotionally. Is exercise a part of your food addiction i.e. you exercise to excess? If yes, please explain. If no, do you exercise at all and what do you do? I donʼt know that I would call exercise part of my addiction; however, I did exercise a lot when I was battling my weight much more than I do now. Before program, Monday through Friday I would get up early and take a very fast walk in the hills with a friend that lasted 45 minutes to an hour. I would play tennis 3 to 4 times a week; I belonged to a gym and tried to work out 3 times a week with weights. And I would also try to run a couple of miles many afternoons. I trained and walked/ran in a marathon, and I ran in a 6-mile race. I did this primarily so I could either eat more or try to take care of the calories I had consumed. The only exercise I truly enjoy is to play tennis. I would definitely say that on some days I over exercised in the hopes that somehow I would melt the calories off. Now the exercise I do is to still playing tennis 2-4 times a week. I take walks now for enjoyment as well as to get some exercise and fresh air. I do lift weights occasionally in my home and do some general workouts to strengthen my body. If you were to tell, suggest, or advise our readers in any way you want,

5 what would you say? I would suggest to anyone who might relate to anything Iʼve said is that there is a great solution to obsession around food and weight issues. One thing that got me in the doors is that I heard that FA is free. I was tired of paying for solutions that didnʼt work for the long term. I would tell your readers to give FA an honest try. It is not for everybody. But the relief, freedom and fitness I feel today, both mentally and spiritually and physically cannot be described. I have been doing this for 11 years now and have kept the weight off. I have weighed 115 pounds for 10½ years. Never before would I have believed that to be possible. This is really not a diet. It is a life style that brings freedom from selfloathing and freedom from obsessive thoughts about weight and food. Thank you for your time, honesty, and inspiration. To readers: You may want to read the article written called Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA). If you cannot find a program close to you, FA can help you find someone who can guide you through the program. Please the FA office and they can help you get started. You can also connect to someone close to you by calling the contact(s) at the meeting nearest your location. Find locations in New England: Massachusetts Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont

YOU WONDER. What s a food addict?! How can anyone

CHAPTER 1 Perhaps You re a Food Addict? YOU WONDER. What s a food addict?! How can anyone be addicted to food? We all have to eat. Perhaps the term sounds extreme. No, you think, even if I lose control