Food Addiction - Biological, Emotional, Learned?

[countof3]

I'm sitting here only ... wow almost 7 months into this. For the first time in my life food isn't a compulsion.

Like I dont' think about it 24/7. It doesn't haunt me, I don't analyze it constantly. I eat 95% on plan, I don't graze and have the occasional off plan item.

For the first time sweets don't call my name. I get stressed and I verbalize or clean my house LOL. Thankfully the verbalizing changed from barking at people to talking with friends.

But seriously, if I didn't follow a meal plan (like pack my lunch, eat at a certain time, etc) I think I'd probably not eat....

At any rate this has me thinking. If it was all emotional - where'd it go? I mean yes I've been in counseling working on this for a ocuple of years but before surgery, it was still something I fought. And I suspect it will return in some form, in some level.

But if emotion was 100% of it, wouldn't it still be an issue for me? Because hunger did not fuel my sweet tooth, that I can assure you. I still like sweets but they don't go down well at all and one bite at a time I'm eliminating things I used to like. So far I could go my whole rest of my life without ice cream, cookies, brownies, cake, pie and chocolate......

So it's making me think there has got to be a biological component. First, I learned to eat a "balanced meal" as a kid of the 70's (meat, starch, veggie) and despite having that beat into my head most of my life, I unlearned the starches overnight. So I don't think it's learned either.

I think emotions fuel it, but I think that article talking about the bodies attack on us to get back to fat - bears a lot more thinking than in passing. I think they ought to really dig that out. If they could find a way to turn off that switch, I think we'd have something.

It got me thinking because as I'm sitting in a meeting with a box of sees candies under my nose I barely gave it a thought. At the end of the 2 hour meeting (snore) I realized it hadn't even crossed my mind once. In the past, I wouldn't have even been able to listen to the meeting!!!

I do take a bite here and there of special treats but it just doesn't float my boat anymore and generally a couple of bites actually makes me feel a bit nauseous so most times I find for instance I ate one bite of apple pie about 4 months back - I couldn't care less if I ever ate it again. Let me tell you apple pie was my hands down favorite food of all time... I have zero desire for things like cookies, cake or brownies. Something about those and bread give me this internal reaction of like "blech".

So again back on point because yeah I have ADD... LOL ... if this were entirely emotional, there would be something going on here. As for stress, yes, I have a life that will be forever plagued with stress. I just got threatened with jail by my ex because my 15 year old refuses to see is alcoholic abusive dad.... and I didn't eat. I sat, talked through it with my mom and a friend and decided to just let it go.

And I do not look forward to that component returning in my life. That is where the rubber is going to meet the road and I'll have to further change my lifestyle to probably 99% on plan. I'm ready for it, I'll handle it, I no longer allow myself the all or nothing thinking. If it's not causing an issue currently, I'm simply going with a severe overhaul in my diet (which has already occurred even before surgery), and I consider the change from 95 to 99% minor adjustment.

Anyone else completely lose the whole "food on the brain 24/7" thing after surgery?

[Brandilynn]

I think the answer is yes, yes, and yes :}

I am less distracted by food. But if I am tender, hurt, angry, lonely, overly joyed, blahblah, or off kilter somehow, I have more of a tendency to want to turn into a piehole stuffing zombie *insert zombie emoticon here*

I think its so different for us all, and some days its nothing I even think about, but when my boat gets rocked, it would be sooooo easy to find the path I trod for so long. It only *looks* grown over, for me, its still there ready for the taking, once I crash thru the bit of brush that has hidden it a bit. :}

But, I too had done a lot of therapy, and work, a long time before I even considered surgery. My handsomeface fella says it was the perfect storm and surgery/tamping down my extreme hunger was the last peg.

But he also is not privvy to the conversations that TrixyBich and I have in my head, and he wont be because he just cant understand - and that is a-okay.

He's a freak, but he's my freak.

Anyway, RIGHT ON for you girlie!! I say take a blessing any way you can and always know things can change. Your relationship with you, food, your sleeve, work, children, everything can change at a moment's notice and as long as we know where to reach out for help *if we need it* and are WILLING to do the hard work, before, during, after, whenever, then you know.. we just keep on trucking. Hopefully your aversion to pulls before will stay! Some folks say it does for them, and I think that Roxx Soxx!

Its all just another day in paradise, huh?

[mizdel]

Let me say that right now you are getting a lot of biological help. What happens to us after surgery is not normal for us. If it is normal for people that don't think about food 24/7, then maybe a large component of food addiction is biological.

There have been very few times in my life when I wasn't obsessing about food. I have been very ill a few times and I had no appetite, right after surgery, extreme depression...rare, head over heals in love, these are the times I didn't obsess about food.

I didn't get much of a bang out of my VSG as far as appetite control. If I did, I have been mostly ignoring it. I don't enjoy food as much, but I still enjoy the concept of food and eating.

Now, I do think there is a major biological element as far as blood sugar and refined carbs go. If one has the will power to stay away from sugar and refined carbs and to some extent any kind of starchy carb, then I think the cravings go way down.

The biological, emotional, and habit part of eating are so wound up together, it is almost impossible to separate what is driving the compulsion to eat. For someone who uses food to cope, there are a million reasons to eat.

Take advantage of your decreased hunger and cravings. Eventually you will be able to eat more and the ghrelin will return. Sugar and fat will not cause nausea like they do for you now. It can be a constant struggle, but work on putting yourself and your health first.

Your surgery gives you a major advantage because you can't stuff yourself silly if you eat healthy most of the time.

[countof3]

Good sound input I am sort of sitting here enjoying this stage and I do know it can't last forever.

I pray it's not as severe as before. I pray my new habits for stress will be my primary. And I will always keep my tricks of not keeping it in the house and not feeding it to my kids too. They don't even miss sides

[air]

i think it's a bit biological because since i was a kid i've always been hungry in my stomach. feeling weak and stomach grumbly if i didn't eat. i could pack it away at a young age and didn't have weight problems till i had kids. i also have a hyperthyroid (graves disease) and you picture those people all thin and stuff but i'm overweight and still have the appetite as if i was starving. i'm in remission but still have symptoms of it (increased appetite, anxiety, high heart rate etc).

[Happy966]

I am not sure what causes it, but I know I was definitely food obsessed at a very young age - like 4 or 5. It freaked my mom out because she'd always had a weight problem and that dynamic probably made it worse. But now that I think about it, the propensity to weigh X in the presence of an unlimited food supply must be genetic. I went to a funeral several years ago of a matriarch on my mother's side of the family, and was surrounded by 40 women between 5'4" and 5'6" all weighing at least 250 pounds. That was a sobering moment.

[pinklyfe]

Great thread!
Countof3' did you have VSG? I hope to return to that mindset you described in your first post here.

I didn't have eating/ weight issues till I was well in to my 30's Prior to that I was a " naturally thin " person with a thin person mindset. I can still remember how it felt when food wasn't occupying my mind and thoughts all the time. If there was food at the nurses stations at work I wasn't wanting to dive in and have my fill. I was naturally a size 5 and 7 till my 30's and gained 40lbs. I did my first diet. Nutrisystem. And it went from there....to here...I don't know what makes a persons mind " rewire" but I know my mindset, my relationship with food. How ever it's coined. Is different then the first 35 yrs of my life. I can remember being like what you describe in your first post. compared to how It is now. They call it will power but is it? To me it feels like its biologically driven. Like I'm wired differently. I never had cravings even with my pregnancies . I don't know. I just know I've been on both sides of the spectrum. I've tried to pin point what was "it". The turning point. That's where therapy comes in.

[countof3]

Yes I had VSG. And my last memory of a healthy relationship with food was back when I was about 6. After that I began hearing the messages from my mom that I was going to get fat "eating that", or that I was getting chubby, etc. Then I got put on my first diet at 11 and after that it was an entire life filled with food consuming me.

I am simply embracing my changes. First I have "food taste aversion" to most sweets. I'm good wtih that, it scares the crap out of me (quite literally) because the reaction is instantanous uncontrollable diarrhea. You think I'm willing to risk that at work or in public? It happened one day in public and I'm allowing that to be oK. So I have a couple of few "sweet" things I tolerate and eat in very small moderation.

As for the normal food relationship, I'm not willing to get extreme with my eating. Right now I'm a regular size 14/16 and I'm actually happy here. I know I will lose more and I'm glad but I am not doing this because I feel the drive to fit into someone else's idea of my ideal weight.

I look really good right now and I like my new lifestyle of eating (mostly protein). That's good enough for me.

Oh and found out flour tortillas are out LOL. The weird things being eliminated!

[Deleted]

This is a great example of why I take exception to compulsive and/or excessive eating being labeled an "addiction." Look at all the assumptions that come along with that label.

[grdngrl]

I really like not being hungry - I know this will probably change as I get farther out. There are times I want to eat when I am 'full' so I know there is a mental attraction to certain foods. It's not really strong now though - I am usually happy with a little cottage cheese or something so it's not totally overwhelming like it used to be. I have done so much dieting during my life, it's refreshing to eat because it's necessary and not just because of habit or cravings.

BUT - when visiting a friend a week ago, I ate things I have been avoiding because they were there . . . so I know it's not over for me. It's still hard to turn down a few M&M's if they are right in front of me, then I felt bad about it so I have some work to do around that.

Good stuff to think about and 'verbalize' here!!!