Many of us, if not all of us, have spent our whole lives fighting food addictions.  We all seem to crave something – whether that is a nice cup of tea, a chocolate bar or a large pizza with all the toppings.  These cravings set themselves apart from true hunger because we want those specific foods and nothing else will satisfy us the way that those foods do.  The need for them is urgent and it can send us into a bingeing frenzy if we are not careful.  True hunger on the other hand lends itself to patience.  You can be hungry but it will be patient hunger.  There will be no urgency to it and you may be able to go a good few hours without it being a bother.  True hunger is peaceful in a way and won’t leave you overly sensitive emotionally or leave you wanting to gnaw your hand off – or so that is my experience of it.  However, not many people experience true hunger.  They experience digestive distress or addiction, but rarely the hunger that I am talking about above.  It is unfortunate and it can take a good few months or years to reach a place where true hunger becomes the norm for you if you are fighting cravings, binge eating or overeating.  It is possible though but takes patience and time to heal all.

I started out on my journey to better health cutting out things such as dairy, meat and then wheat.  This helped me dramatically improve my well being and I overcame the grips of asthma.  I then discovered the 80/10/10 diet by Doug Graham and this became a bible for me in a way.  I have always enjoyed simplicity and so embarked on adding more fruit into my diet and cutting down on cooked foods.  As my journey went along I discovered a lot about myself and the way I used food.  Food really was something I used to numb myself from emotion and even though I was becoming aware of this I still chose on occasions to allow myself to numb.

Emotionally it has been a roller coaster and as time went by I was able and willing to feel as opposed to being numb.  When you let yourself feel and get over the emotional wave that is taking over you in the present moment, it can feel wonderful afterwards: a beautiful sense of relief and renewal that one does not get from stuffing your face full of food.  It does take time though to be willing to feel each and every time a stressor or a problem arises in your body and mind.  My first few emotional experiences were very intense and I attribute this to years of ignoring them and bottling them up.  Those buried emotions were breaking free and it was a very difficult time when it happened.

As time has gone on and I have felt my feelings more and more and they are very easy to deal with now.  I think though that it is very important to get some support when you first start realising how much you are numbing yourself.  Getting support and being able to rely on someone to help you through an emotional episode can help you feel secure and help immensely in pushing through.  As you experience these bursts more and more, you WILL be able to deal with them alone and they won’t be so bad.  You may even start seeing them as a joyous time.  Negative feelings are good things – they let us know that something is wrong and that we need to take time for ourselves.  You will also learn a lot about yourself and will be able to determine what your feelings are telling you.  In the beginning I used to get fairly frustrated that I couldn’t work out why I so was so upset or so stressed out – something was niggling at me, but I had no clue what it was.  It would take a few days before the real issue would surface but I found it frustrating that I didn’t know myself or hadn’t been present enough to know what really was niggling me.  As time has gone on and I have been through these situations more and more it has become easier and I usually address the issue before it manifests itself – i.e. I am no longer bottling my feelings.

Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, being present and allowing yourself to feel, all are great steps to overcoming food addictions and bingeing.  However there is one experience of mine that I would like to share in regards to food.  When it comes to the 80/10/10 diet, one can feel quite desperate to make sure they are getting enough calories in.  For me this meant I would buy lots of potatoes and store them, every week, just because I was nervous I might not have enough to eat.  On top of this I was breastfeeding (and still am) so I worried on that level that I needed enough calories in order to have a good nutritional milk supply.  It took me a very long while to let go of the need to hoard food and to overeat it.  One day I just decided that I was going to just eat when I was hungry and not eat for the sake of making sure I got enough calories in.  I simply let go of the fear that had been consuming me the past 2 years and the funny thing is that is what turned me around and pushed me onto a new level of overcoming addiction.  After that one day I started to eat less and feel better.  I ate huge meals still but I didn’t wake up feeling like I had been hit by a train because I had piled in a huge vegan curry with potatoes (no salt) worried I hadn’t eaten enough fruit.  Instead I was raw and eating huge salads everyday as well as mountains of fruit and I felt fantastic.  This shift away from fear was my biggest obstacle and one I seemed to conquer very easily when I just decided to let go of it.

As well as letting go of the fear, I also think that eating a very large salad everyday – without fail – has also helped me overcome the fear of not eating enough.  Fruit is nutritious and wonderful, but without my daily bowl of romaine, peppers, cucumber, sweetcorn and carrot I don’t think I would feel so balanced and light.

My digestion has improved tenfold because I am not stuffing food in anymore and I feel so much better.  This has been a journey for me over 3 or 4 years and only over the past few months do I feel sane about the way I eat.

I am sharing this because I feel it is important for others to know that overcoming cravings or bingeing doesn’t happen overnight for the majority of us.  It can take us years to overcome habits and patterns.  We can make things easier for ourselves by educating ourselves, reading others experiences and being good to ourselves – i.e. not beating ourselves for making a choice to eat something that we want to avoid, or giving into a craving.  We aren’t perfect and we shouldn’t try to be.  Live each day in the present and learn from everything you do, including your food choices.  This is the only way one can overcome addiction and bingeing.

Of course though, it is always good to remember that food isn’t everything but it can be a problem.  Just be aware of that and don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t perfect.  Life is a journey of learning and overcoming food addiction is just one aspect of a much bigger picture.