Here’s Why Food Addiction is the Hardest to Beat…

This post is actually an update to the one I posted earlier today.  I received a question that I feel deserves a bigger answer than I can give via a blog comment.  That question is, and I’m paraphrasing:

 

If I have overcome all the reasons that caused me, in the past, to be overweight and stress-eat, then why can’t I lose the weight now?

 

The answer isn’t as easy as you might think.  First, I’m 48 years old and that means that for over 35 years I have been addicted to food.  A 35 year addiction won’t be kicked in a day, or maybe even a year.  And it’s even harder if your addiction is for food.  Why?  Well, that brings me to my second point.

 

Second, food is something that EVERYTHING on the planet needs.  Everything “NEEDS” food to live.  You don’t need drugs…. you don’t need alcohol…. you don’t even need sex to live;  but you do need food.  I think this is one of the reasons that the devil targets people with a food addiction…. because it is the HARDEST addiction to overcome.

 

Think about it.  Just STOP and think about it.  If you are addicted to alcohol, and I’ve known people that were alcoholics, you cannot have even one drink.  One drink can send you right back to square one.  Same with drugs.  Some drug addicts or alcoholics cannot even be NEAR drugs or alcohol.  The smell alone will bring about a temptation that this too strong.  Now, I’m certain there are some that will say that’s not the case with everyone.  And yes, there will be some that can get through and not be tempted.  But I knew someone that had to ask if alcohol is going to be served at a wedding or birthday party or whatever, and if alcohol would be there, he absolutely could not come.  It was a DIFFICULT struggle for him, even on good days.

 

Now, let’s say that the same alcoholic MUST take one sip of alcohol 3 times per day.  Could that alcoholic beat the addiction?  Or, would it get harder and harder until they were broken?  That is how it is for me and food.  I can’t just quit cold turkey, as some do with alcohol or drugs.  I HAVE to have food to survive. It’s NOT A CHOICE;  It’s a fact of life.  So they tell you to eat right and eat smaller portions or take in only so many calories, etc.  But for me, I feel like an alcoholic who can only have one sip.

 

I realize there are always exceptions, and weight loss is not like this for everyone.  Some have 30 pounds creep up on them over the course of 3 years, then they go on a diet and everything’s fine for another 3 years.  THAT IS NOT ME.  And that is not how it is for many with a food addiction.

 

The very last diet I was on was 3 years ago and I lost 50 pounds.  I spent another 2 years gaining it all slowly back.  I’m done.  I’m tired of fighting for something that doesn’t matter to me as much as it matters to everyone else.  I don’t want to live the rest of my life going up and down.  I’ve taken all the drugs that help with weight loss.  They work… for a little while.  Then you stop taking them and gain the weight back.  The surgeries… I’ve read about them all.  I couldn’t afford any of them, even if I did want to have surgery.

 

I’ve lived long enough to see so many people’s lives utterly destroyed by alcohol, drugs, shopping, gambling, sex, and even workaholics can destroy their lives.  But food never made me lose my job, my spouse, my home… being overweight means I might not be able to do as much as a skinny person can, but it has not destroyed my life.  Every person that tells me that I am “unhealthy” has been a life-long skinny person who has NO IDEA what they are talking about.  At age 25, I weighed 200 pounds and I exercised.  I used to have more stamina and out-do my skinny girlfriends who didn’t exercise.  My doctor took some blood and couldn’t believe my cholesterol was so low and my blood pressure was normal.  WHY?  Because they are all taught that fat people are unhealthy and in my own experience, that is simply NOT TRUE.  (Today, at age 48, my cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure are still good.)

 

Look, the general public is so OBSESSED with being thin and exercising… being “beautiful”…. that they can’t believe anyone would want to be fat.  So they fat-shame and fat-bash.  I don’t “want” to be fat.  I heard Oprah Winfrey once say something to the effect that she felt God made people who they are, and some of us are Saint Bernards and some of us are Chihuahuas.  I’m HAPPY… I realize that is impossible for skinny people to understand, but I AM HAPPY as a Saint Bernard and am not ashamed.  The Lord made me and I will continue living for Him.  And that, I can do, at any size.