Introduction
       The Food Addict   by T. Burker Sr.

My Story

Are You A Compulsive Overeater?

Understanding Your Triggers

The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous

Recommended Health Management Software

Updates To This Help File

Just Need To Talk?


Just Need To Talk?

Sometimes just talking with someone helps.  Feel free to leave me email anytime!

You can also visit my webpage to obtain the latest version of this file.


tomtron@ncweb.com


http://www.ncweb.com/biz/tomtron


Updates to this file

Updates

The ZIP file naming for this file is OEA0000x.ZIP where 'x' is the revision designation.  If you have filename OEA00001.ZIP, then OEA00002.ZIP will be a newer release.


Recommended Software

Life Form by Fitnesoft, Inc

Type: Commercial Software

Approx List Price: $49

Rating: Excellent

Features:

1. Food database

2. Measurement and progress features

3. Medical history - doctor visits - test results etc.

4. Body chemistry - blood and urine tests

5. Graphs and reports

6. Personal health care provider information

7. Health conditions and symptoms

8. Too much more to list here!


Understanding Triggers

Understanding Your Triggers

In order to make a personal assessment of your own triggers, you must first understand them.  When I first worked on my trigger list I broke it up into three segments:

1. Trigger Foods

2. Trigger Moods

3. Trigger Situations

Get three pieces of paper for this exercise.  On the first page list 4-8 of your absolute favorite foods.  These are foods that you feel you cannot live without. They are foods that send you over the edge when you try to just have a little bit.  In my case, these are foods that more often than not result in a binge, resulting in the consumption of one (or more) of these foods at one sitting.  OK, label the first page as Trigger Foods.

I have listed mine simply for discussion reference.

Trigger Foods

cheese

chocolate

peanuts

puddings

chip dip

After you have made your list, try to categorize your items as to what food group they might fall in to, i.e. are they sweet, sugary foods, are they salty foods, are they high fat content foods, etc.  Do the best you can. When you talk about craving a food, the food you crave should be on this list!

When I looked at mine I quickly realized that it was the fat that I was craving.  Every one of these foods are high fat content.  At first I thought that the chocolate was due to the sugar content, but I really don't like candy (especially hard candy) and I don't really care for cake, cookies and all that.

Remember, these are the foods that made you fat!  They are not your friends.  If we could control the intake of these (like we think we can), we would not be in the situation we are in.  Can you solve your overeating problem and still include these trigger foods in your diet?  Good question. I think it is up to the individual.  Personally, I cannot... Trying to have just one piece of pizza with gobs of cheese on it is much worse (for me) than having none at all.  I guess time will tell for you, but don't be surprised if you find that you have to re-train yourself to do without some of these trigger foods.

I know that you will try to convince yourself that 'you cannot live without these foods' and that this whole concept is crazy.  Think about it though. These are the foods that made you fat, depressed and miserable.  If you have ever quit or failed on a diet, what did you go back to?  I can almost guarantee that you went back to the same foods that put you there in the first place.

Trigger Moods

There are also certain moods that make us more inclined to eat out of control and these belong on your second piece of paper.

Once again, make a list of moods that seem to cause eating binges, snacking, or just simple cravings.  Here were mine.

1. Bored

2. Tense

3. Anxious

4. Angry

I even listed mine from worst to best (if you can call it best!) This simply allows us to understand when we are likely to fall prey to compulsive overeating. It is quite common for trigger moods to include 'depression'. Depression comes in all forms, and depending on the nature of your particular situation, you may be able to help yourself and you may not.  Enough said.

Trigger Situations

The last page you have should list what I call trigger situations.  These are clearly different from trigger moods.  To assist you with your list, I have jotted mine down again.

1. Watching television

2. Business lunches

3. All you can eat buffets

4. Parties (free food situations)

5. Weddings

6. The first 15 minutes after I get home from work.

Any combination of trigger moods and situations make the situation that much worse!  For example, using my lists, you can see that if I am bored AND I am watching TV, I am going to have a problem.  Or if I am tense because I am with a customer at a business lunch, I could have a problem.

Combating Your Trigger Situations

So how do we combat these trigger foods, moods and situations?  If this were easy, I would be modeling tux's in Paris! <g>.  You have to develop your own methods.  One of the best things to do is keep the lists that you just made handy.  When you feel a binge coming on grab it and start reading it.  It is a proven fact that if you can delay your actions for as little as 15 minutes, you have a good chance of weakening the craving.

Work up your own combats for each of the three categories.  Here are some of the things that I have done for all three categories.

Foods

1. Attempt to find substitutes for my trigger foods (the hardest of all!)

2. I do not try to have just a little - I stay away from them!

Moods

1. If I am bored, I do not participate in a boring activity, such as TV.

2. If I am tense or anxious, I take a walk.  Exercise releases tension!

3. If I am angry, I turn on the comedy channel or a comedy VCR tape.

4. Pick up your favorite book and make a hot drink like tea.

Situations

1. Do not sit close to the pastry table at weddings!

2. Do not go up to a buffet and research what is there before eating!

3. Do not return for seconds, no matter what you missed.

4. Forget the bread basket and appetizers at the restaurant!

5. Do not tell people that you are on a diet - they will only try to convince you that you 'should have some' and go back on your diet again tomorrow!

6. Do not tell yourself that 'you have been good' and deserve a treat!

There are obviously hundreds more that can be discussed, but the idea is to recognize your own familiar situations and develop your combats to them.


The 12 Steps of OA

The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous®

Adapted from the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous®

1. We admitted we were powerless over food and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to other human beings the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely to have God remove all these defects to character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Before you say anything, I know that you are thinking "What's all this God stuff?  Where is that coming from?"

I thought the exact same thing when I first read through this.  But after reading through it for the fifth or sixth time, something dawned on me!  Here I was, struggling with my weight and eating disorder for years.  I have not been able to handle the problem myself, and other people havn't been able to help me.  I am miserable, and nobody I know can help me!  Ah ha, nobody I know.  You notice that the third step says "God as we understand Him. I take this as meaning the development of will that there is someone or something that can guide us through this situation ... not just from ourself and not from other people.  So is happiness attainable?  If it is, it HAS to come from somewhere else, not from me and not from other people. I don't mean to say that I am not happy with my family, my job, my life ... but total, and I mean total happiness will only come when I am once again under control.


I'll go first

I'll Go First!

I, like you, have lost several hundred pounds in my lifetime.  I have been on every so-called diet known to man.  I am 47 years old, a sales professional, with two great kids and a wonderful wife. My life is in very good order.  I am a well organized person and have most everything under control.  I keep appointments and accomplish most things on schedule.

I have weighed as little as 156 lbs. and as much as 233 lbs. and all of this has been in the last 20 years!  So I asked myself, "If I can lose the weight over and over again, why do I always gain it back?"  Should I be surprised?  It is well documented that 95% of all people losing weight on a diet put the weight back on. ( and unfortunately sometimes with interest ! )

So just what is the problem?  Is it me?  Am I a weak person? Am I a bad person? I don't think so.  So what is it?  Why can I control virtually every part of my life except what I put in my mouth?  I have known for the last 10 years or so that there had to be more to this than just a lack of willpower.

After years of reading books and articles, and listening to motivational tapes in the car, ( great if you're on the road selling ), I finally came to the conclusion that I was indeed a food addict, or compulsive overeater as they clinically call it.  It is, in short, a state of being where you are absolutely powerless over food and your life has become somewhat unmanageable because of it.  Yes, it is a disease, much like being an alcoholic and you have to admit to that as a first step.

Is this a tough situation?  My God yes!  I know what my problem is and I battle it everyday .... and I mean everyday.  I want so bad to be slim and trim, to fit into attractive clothes, to receive compliments like I remember in the past.  And yet with all of these goals in mind, I still eat out of control; binge late at night in the soft glow of the television set while the rest of the family sleeps.  Why I can even remember how upset I felt just the other night when my wife stayed up a bit later than usual ... she delayed my plans to binge on the cold pizza and Rice Krispie® Treats in the kitchen. I had to wait an additional 30 minutes before I could stuff my face until I couldn't breathe.

I knew that I was ruining a very good diet day.  To that point I was under my goal calories and fat grams.  It was 11:45 p.m. and the day was a success. So why did I consume an additional 1000 calories in 20 minutes?  Why did I do it when I knew that the guilt would invade me like a cancer the next morning?

Have you ever had what I term to be a "binge black-out" ?  No, you don't really black-out, but you manage to eat all that food before you even realize what has happened!  It's weird, and I havn't been able to figure out a way to control it yet.

What all this told me was that there was a lot more to this than just having a lack of willpower.  Heck, I quit smoking one day by just throwing the pack of cigarettes into the garbage at lunchtime.  That was 10 years ago and I have not fallen off the wagon once!  Why is controlling what you shove in your mouth any different?

I have come to realize that my compulsive eating problem stems from three factors:

1. Trigger Foods

2. Trigger Moods

3. Trigger Situations

These will be discussed elsewhere in this document.

I have also come to realize that no diet will ever solve my problem!  I alone must work this out ( along with new faith and belief that has been missing from my life for a long time ), and with the support of other food addicts.


Are You a Compulsive Overeater

A Short Self-Examination

1. Do you eat when you're not hungry?

2. Do you go on eating binges for no apparent reason?

3. Do you have feelings of guilt and remorse after overeating?

4. Do you give too much time and thought to food?

5. Do you look forward with anticipation to eating?

6. Do you plan secret binges ahead of time?

7. Do you eat sensibly with other people and binge when alone?

8. Is your weight affecting the way you live?

9. Have you tried to diet before only to fall short of your goal?

10. Do you resent others telling you to use a little willpower?

11. Have you told people that you could diet if you wanted to?

12. Do you crave to eat at a definate time, other than at mealtime?

13. Do you eat to escape from worries and troubles?

14. Have you ever been treated for food related medical conditions?

15. Does your eating behavior make you or others unhappy?

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions, it is probable that you have, or are well on your way, to having a compulsive overeating problem.

Reprinted with permission of Overeaters Anonymous, Inc®