As someone who’s proven to have addictive behavior’s in the past, it came at no surprise that when I decided to go substance free, I replaced it, unconsciously, with a new addiction: food. In this article i’m going to go over what i’ve learned about over consumption and how i’ve started the process of breaking food addiction with fasting.
Break food addiction with fasting
The older we get the less time we seem to have in a day. I think this comes with the accumulation of responsibility inevitably attached to adulthood.
And with less time, it’s harder to do things like shop at the market for fresh produce, meal prep, and cook healthy meals.
Its easy to fall into the trap of junk food, drive throughs, and pizza nights, and once you start a processed diet, it’s not so easy to just switch it off.
There may be a scientific reason for this:
According to Web MD, research shows that the same parts of the brain activated with highly addicting drugs like cocaine and heroin are also activated when people eat foods that are really high in sugar’s, fat’s, and salt.
So in the moment, it feels good to eat these types of foods and it’s hard to realize we are becoming addicted when we eat them.
The article goes on to say that these signals may veto the bodies true feeling of fullness. This override is what can be a leading cause to overeating or food addiction.
Some signs you may have food addiction are:
- Emotionally and compulsively eating
- Eating way more than you should at meals
- Struggle saying no to sugar
- Eating past the point of being sick
- Going out of your way to buy certain foods
- Excessively eating certain foods instead of socializing or working
- Eating behind closed doors
- Avoid certain places or experiences for fear of over eating
When I read this it solidified my theory that food controlled me at one point in my life.
What was the reason I decided to change my diet?
I wish I could say it was this information alone or sheer will that drove me to the point, but the truth is, it was my health. My diet was so unhealthy and processed it physically made me ill. I developed acid reflux and digestion problems, my weight was causing joint pain and high cholesterol, and my migraines started becoming more unbearable and frequent.
I realized if I didn’t make drastic changes, my quality of life was going to be on the downfall.
So the diet re-vamp began.
This is what my diet re-vamp looked like:
First few weeks: Cut out the excessive snacking but still allowed myself to eat more calories than should at meals, with no changes to food types.
Next few weeks: Cut out the sugar but still allowed myself the same amount of calories and food types.
Next few weeks: Allowed myself the same amount of calories but switched to healthier foods at meal time.
Next few weeks: Got stricter, removed almost all processed snacks, and applied slight calorie deficit (still, not to the point where I am now)
New few weeks: Applied the full calorie deficit (for my height, age, and body type, I calculated I should be eating about 1300-1400 healthy calories a day to be at a loss)
At this point I had no recollection or sense of breaking food addiction with fasting.
Next month or so: Maintained the calorie deficit, and occasionally (like once a week, if that) did a work out
I would like to disclose that my job as a bartender keeps me pretty active. If you work at a desk or are sedentary during the day, a 45 minute walk would probably be comparable to what I normally do at work.
Next weeks till now: 4 or 6 hour fasting.
The 4-6 hour fast:
The 4-6 hour fast is the window I chose to consume all of my calories for the day, in the calorie deficit. So depending on what i’m doing will determine which window I go with.
I don’t do it 7 days a week, some weeks it’s 3 days, others 4, and it really depends on how i’m feeling and what i’m doing. If there’s a week where I don”t feel 100% or I have dinner plans, I don’t harp on my fasting regime or calorie intake.
Embracing my bodies needs and becoming aware has been a tremendous part of this journey.
So how does fasting actually break food addiction?
This is from my own observation, but when i’m in the fasting window, my body reaches this neutral state. It’s like a reset point and mind is able to observe clearly, what good hunger is supposed to feel like.
When i’m in this window I have time to become internally aware of my bodies needs.
One of the reasons I struggled with over consumption in the past was because I didn’t understand what hunger was supposed to feel like.
I thought if my body was hungry then I was supposed to eat. I didn’t know it was the addiction from the sugar and salt.
I hope some of the information in this article was helpful! I am not a clinical nutritionist or MD but I do my due-diligence before reciting information as factual. I am confident in this theory because I have successfully applied it to my life.
If you are suffering from food addiction, I promise there is a way to permanently break it. I would like to disclose that fasting may not be for everyone. And just because this method worked for me doesn’t mean it will work for you.
Stay present. Sending vibrations of reinvention your way <3
xO
Ariana
