Step Five: Junk Food Addiction - Part 2

In my previous post, I talked about a study that demonstrated how quickly rats became addicted to junk food. What was most alarming was that once they were addicted it took more and more junk food for the pleasure centers in their brains to light up. When the researchers denied the rats their junk food, the rats preferred to starve rather than eat ordinary, healthy rat chow. Of course, human beings are not rats. However, we can and do become addicted to junk food. And, like anyone who finds pleasure, solace, comfort or relief from anxiety in a bag of chips or ice cream or fast food, we all know how difficult it is to break the grip of this powerful addiction.

When I was creating my own weight-loss program several decades ago, I asked myself many questions about my own behavior. I was loathe to call it an addiction. After all, I didn’t smoke or drink. I was a good student, a loving daughter, a caretaker and so much more. So, I wondered, how could an intelligent young woman who prided herself on her ability to think and reason seemingly go brain dead when it came to her next food fix? What had to change to break this endless cycle of momentary pleasure followed by disgust, sadness and despair?

The first thing I did was to note when I began to have cravings. What drove the cravings? I realized that stress and anxiety were the main culprits in my life. But, fatigue, family celebrations, loneliness, boredom and many other things drove them, too. In fact, any powerful emotion would drive me to eat. Well, I could not go through life feeling nothing, could I? I was always a very empathic person, very caring, but it seemed that the more I felt, the more I ate. I was literally at war with myself. I wrote all of this down in my journal. At the time, I felt both confused and overwhelmed.

If feelings of any kind drove me to seek out junk food, what could I do about it? I decided that each time I had a powerful emotion, I had to be prepared to do something else besides eat. I had to go for a walk, clean, dance by myself in my room, read a book, call a friend, be helpful to someone else. I had to force myself to choose another coping mechanism other than food. I had to keep at that activity or switch to another engaging activity until the craving wore off. Yes, eventually, the craving would pass. But, it was very hard to do this. At times, it was excruciating. I’d be dancing around in my room, but my heart was pounding not only from exertion, but from the desperation I felt. I wanted to eat so badly. But, I told myself, no. I’d say, “Dorothy, you are a prisoner in this room. You will keep dancing until you can’t stand up anymore. If necessary, lie down on the floor and feel the beat of the music. Stay focused. Concentrate on your breathing. Think of something else. The craving will pass.”

Does what I just wrote remind you of a withdrawal scene on reality TV or in a movie? Haven’t we all watched the horrible physical and emotional withdrawal of an addict who goes cold turkey and completely stops his or her drug of choice? I realized that my brain made a beeline for food in so many situations that it was clearly overpowering and overwhelming. No wonder I couldn’t sustain weight loss. The angel on one shoulder had the best of intentions. But, the devil on my other shoulder was whispering in my ear that I needed to “Eat. Eat. Eat!”

At first, I admit, this challenge was agonizing. But, I had strategies in place, and I kept to my strategies. Like Little Nell in the Dicken’s novel, I sometimes trudged through the snow and ice just to get outside and keep myself away from the cozy warmth of food. I even ironed sheets one night. The ironing board was in the basement and, therefore, away from the fridge. I tutored people for free, which made them happy and kept my mind focused on something else. I memorized poems. I even wrote a bad play, well, two of them. It didn’t matter as long as I was forcing my brain and my body to focus elsewhere.

I realized that mind and body must work together for success. In recent years, there has been much written and discussed about integrative medicine, the mind-body connection. However, this was something I discovered on my own. My mind was craving junk food. My body was craving junk food. I, as a whole human being, was craving junk food. My revelation was that the mind and the body were connected. I could, if I worked hard enough, make that connection. If I succeeded, I would make myself whole again without overeating and without stuffing down junk food to feel better.

What gives you pleasure other than eating? Your brain is going to crave pleasure. Just like the rats in the experiment, you need to find a way to withdraw from your cravings. The rats had their researchers to keep them from the junk food until they completed their withdrawal. You don’t have someone to control your eating habits. And, even if you did, you’d only be setting yourself up for failure. My goal, as a weight-loss coach, is to train each client to create strategies that work for him or her. My goal as a coach is to train people to make the right choices on their own. I am not building dependence, although initially a client is dependent on me. Initially, the client needs my knowledge, my guidance, my demands for structure, my nurturing. However, over time, I am training a client to be able to live in the real world and be independent of me. Yes, they can always come back for a “booster shot” when they start slipping, but for the most part, I believe anyone who works with me learns how to care for themselves. They are armed with skills, with knowledge and insight.

So, if you are determined to stop being a junk food junkie, here are my 12-Steps to Break Your Junk Food Addiction:

1. Write down what drives you to eat junk food. What is happening around you when you get the urge to eat junk food? What are you feeling? What are you doing? A food journal is a necessity. Refer to it often.

2. Identify you bad food habits. Write down your bad food habits in your journal. For example, do you always stop off at a fast food place after work because you drive past it on your way home? Is this your daily routine? Or, do you stop at the local donut shop before work or school because it’s a habit? Are you on automatic pilot? The good news is that bad habits can be replaced with good habits.

Once you have compiled a list of your bad food habits, you can begin to make changes. Tackle one bad habit at a time. Replace that bad habit with a good habit. For example, if you eat at night, find something else to do with your time after dinner. Take a walk. Call a friend. Read a book. Play with your kids. Spend time with your spouse. Take up a new hobby. Do volunteer work. Once you have substituted your new and productive good habit for your old bad habit, move on to the next bad habit until you have completed your list. This takes time, effort, trial-and-error, and patience with yourself. Always forgive yourself when something doesn’t work. Always praise yourself for your focus and determination to succeed.

3. a. Write down your emotional triggers. An emotional trigger is any powerful emotion, such as sadness, happiness, anxiety, boredom, fear, excitement, etc., that leads you to reach for food as a coping mechanism. When you feel the emotion, you reach out for food. Write down your feelings in your journal and note the link between your emotions and food. Then, analyze your journal. Get a clear focus on what triggers are driving your addiction.

Once you identify your emotional triggers, you can begin to change them. For example, in many families, food equals love. The more you love people, the more you want them to eat. Therefore, if all family celebrations center around food, what strategies can you put into place to resist the temptation or family pressures to eat? Can you explain that you need your family’s support to succeed in your weight-loss program? Can you explain that you don’t want to die of a heart attack at an early age? Can you share your concerns about your health and wanting to be around to see your children grow up? Can you ask your family to understand that sharing time with them is what counts? If you are consistent, people will eventually accept the new you. But, do expect your family to try to pressure you to conform and return to the old you. Have the courage of your convictions. Stand your ground because you need to nurture and love yourself first before you can truly nurture and love others.

b. Write down your food triggers. A food trigger is usually high fat, high sugar, high salt or some combination. A food trigger leads to a binge of overeating. For example, if you eat ice cream, can you only eat one serving? Do you keep going back for more? Do you eat a whole bag of chips even if you start with a few? Are you unable to resist fast food if you see it, or smell it, or drive by your restaurant of choice? Do you reach for these trigger foods when you feel strong emotions?

List all of your food triggers in your journal. Initially, you will have to keep these foods out of your house. You need to keep yourself safe and avoid the temptation.

When you are in supermarket, for example, avoid any aisle, if possible, where these foods are displayed. For example, in my local market, all of the chips are in one aisle. I never go down that aisle unless I’m looking for a jar of popcorn once a year. If you can’t avoid going down one of those aisles, keep focused on your reason for being there. If I have to go down the cookie aisle to get to the herbal teas, I keep my eyes focused straight ahead. I know it takes me 10 seconds to get to the right spot.

Create your own strategies for keeping yourself safe from your trigger foods while at home, at the supermarket, at work, etc. There may be circumstances, such as parties or get togethers where you’ll be confronted by your trigger foods. Have a strategy in place whereby you remove yourself from the temptation. If you work with someone who brings donuts in daily, try to come in 10 minutes early to get your coffee and move on before those tempting treats arrive.

4. List strategies that you can realistically employ to start changing your brain. For example, can you take a different route to work to avoid the fast food place or the donut shop? If not, can you take other healthy foods with you and wave good-bye to your former “junk food connection”? I had a client who had to drive past her favorite fast food place every day, so she’d wave and say, “Glad to see ya, but I don’t need ya!” It was empowering.

5. Enlist the support of family members, coworkers and friends. The more support you have, the better. This is why people in Alcoholics Anonymous have a sponsor, who is a person who has worked the 12-Steps of Addiction. That person is there for support, understanding and advice. They are living the program, and they want to help the recovering alcoholic to do the same. They know all of the games and the pitfalls.

Your supporters may not be experts on weight loss. They may not have lived your challenges. But, their support, understanding and encouragement can help you to make it through the rough spots and achieve your goals. They can comfort you when you’re struggling and cheer you on when things are going well. Their energy will lift you up and help you to work toward successful weight loss.

6. Accept that breaking the cycle of addiction takes time and effort. You may not succeed the first time, just like the smoker who is trying to quit. You need to keep focused. Do not give up on yourself. It’s hard, but you can do it. Keep the faith. Each time something goes wrong, write it down. Think about it, but do not punish yourself by overeating. Instead, praise yourself for attempting to change. Praise everything you’ve done right. Keep making good choices for yourself. Every positive change is a victory. Be patient with yourself. Again, enlist the support of family, coworkers and friends.

7. Make your house a food fortress. Keep your trigger foods out of the house. If you are addicted to chips, no chips in the house. If your kids clamor for chips, you can explain to them that you need their support. As a family, go shopping for substitutes. Remember, your kids may also be addicted. Break the family addiction together. You are not nurturing your kids by feeding them high fat, high salt or high sugar foods. Give your children fruit and vegetable choices. The more colorful, the better. If there is no junk food in the house, the kids will become part of the team.

8. Keep physically active on a regular basis. Exercise produces endorphins. These are the “feel good” chemicals in our brains. Endorphins are a substitute for junk food. Exercise, as you know from reading my blog, is an essential component of weight loss and weight maintenance. Be consistent about exercise. Get your children involved in regular physical activities as well. Can you take a walk? Go for a jog? Put on music and dance? Do a fitness video together? Set a good example, and your children will follow.

9. Be a true believer. Talk about your program to anyone who will listen. Talking about your positive choices serves to reinforce them. Sharing with others will often inspire them. Being positive keeps the brain active and keeps you motivated. It staves off the depression that comes from junk food withdrawal.

10. Break old patterns of thoughts as well as actions. Write down at least 3-5 positive thoughts about yourself each day. Sometimes the very things you take for granted about yourself are really the best things. Do you hug your kids and tell them you love them? Do you make time to share with your spouse? Do you call a sick friend? Praise yourself for everything you do right. Forgive yourself for your mistakes. Remember, you are human. You cannot be perfect. If you are too strict with yourself, you will eventually break down and make poor choices again and again. Accept the fact that you are involved in an ongoing, lifelong process of weight loss and weight maintenance. You are working on your program to improve your health, your overall well-being and the well-being of your family. Believe in yourself. As your thoughts and food choices become healthier, you will see the positive results. In time, this will all become routine. Exercise coupled with healthy thinking and healthy food choices will be your way of life.

11. Accept that there is no cure for addiction. There can be a lessening of addiction over time. The brain can be retrained, by force of habit, to make healthier, more life-enhancing choices. However, the cravings can, will and do return, especially during times of stress. That is why people who haven’t smoked sometimes start again when they are going through a divorce, a job loss or an illness. Know that this may happen. Have strategies in place for dealing with possible stressors. Keep focused on how you broke the junk food addiction in the first place. Those strategies worked. They will work again. Always ask for support if it is available.

12. Accept that you are human. Eventually, there comes a point when you realize that your healthy exercise habits, healthy thoughts and healthy food choices have become second-nature. You don’t have to keep writing down what you’ve eaten in your food journal. You don’t have to keep track of your exercise routine because it’s exactly that, routine. You don’t have to worry about heading down the chip aisle in the supermarket. You shop according to your list, look for sales and weekly specials, and then you leave for home.

Once you are certain that you are living your program on a daily basis and have truly withdrawn from junk food, you can indulge cravings on an occasional basis. There are times when you will find yourself having a food craving. If you keep having a craving, satisfy it once and move on. If you absolutely must have that ice cream, buy one container with the understanding that you can eat it, enjoy it, but then, you have to stop. You can’t live forever without some treats. Ice cream, a bag of chips, a box of cookies won’t hurt you unless it begins a downward slide toward your addiction. Trust yourself that, yes, some cravings will surface again, but you will go right back to your program of healthy eating and healthy exercise. That is why it is essential to be certain you truly have withdrawn first. Then, you can indulge once in a while, but that’s it. Otherwise, keep these foods out of your home and ask those who love you to respect your wishes.

You are worth this journey. It is difficult, but I am living proof that it can be done.

If you are someone who has broken the junk food addiction cycle, please feel free to share your own thoughts, strategies and ideas. If you are struggling, please ask for help. I’d be happy to respond to your questions.

Step Five: Junk Food Addiction - Part 1

On October 20, 2009, Paul Johnson, a researcher from the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, spoke to the Society of Neurosciences at a symposium in Chicago. He told the audience how, in a recent experiment, he and his co-researcher divided rats into two groups. One group was fed normal rat chow, which is a nutritious, low-fat food. The other group of rats were fed high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt food. In other words, the rats were pigging out on junk food. After a mere 5 days, the rats in the junk food group were completely addicted. They loved it. How did scientists know this for a fact? Because they checked the pleasure centers in the brain. Gulp down the junk food, and the pleasure centers in the brain light up like a Christmas display. What was even more alarming to the scientists was the fact that after that brief 5 day feast, the rats didn’t get quite as excited by the same amount of junk food. No, they needed more and more and more for those pleasure centers to light up.

This addiction pattern in the brain is very similar to what happens to human heroin addicts. That is the reason people quickly become addicted, often after their first encounter with the drug. Sadly, it takes more and more heroin to have those pleasure centers in the brain light up. The need for more of the drug quickly escalates. These are the hallmarks of any addiction.

The scientists then took the first group of rats, the chow-rats, and gave them a shock when they went over to eat their food. The rats rapidly realized that if they wanted to eat their chow, they’d get a shock. What happened? They stayed away from their chow. However, with the junk food-addicted rats, the shock simply could not stop them. They did not care about the shock. Yes, it hurt them, but the craving to satisfy their addiction was much greater than the pain of the shock. No matter how much of a shock they received, they could not stay away. Just as a junkie will do anything, whether it’s legal or illegal to get to that next high, the rats followed the same pattern of addiction and cravings. They would not be stopped!

Finally, the scientists decided to see what would happen when they returned the addicted rats to their normal rat-chow diet. The rats shunned the food. For up to 2 weeks, even though the rats were literally starving, they would not eat the rat chow because that nutritious chow would not satisfy their cravings for junk food. The pleasure centers in their brains would not light up when they ate it. They experienced a painful and slow withdrawal.

OK, human beings are not rats. That is true. But, just like any addict, those of us who are addicted to food will struggle, mightily, to break our addiction only to fail time after time after time. In the drug world, they call it relapsing. And, isn’t that what most of us do? We try, really we do. We work so hard, but then, we slip back into our old habits, our old patterns. And, faster than the blink of an eye, we’re hooked all over again. Hand us the junk food, and go away, please. We want to enjoy our next food fix without your nagging!

Clearly, this is not about will power. This is about food addiction. So, what happens to people who have been eating junk food for decades? Their addictions have become literally hard-wired into their brains. They crave high salt, or high sugar or high fat, or some combination of all three. They need to get their daily fix. If they somehow resist temptation, they can become moody, angry, depressed, fretful, even disoriented. Family, friends, coworkers just wish they’d eat the donuts or the chips and calm down.

People who are trying to resist their cravings can really be a pain in the rear. Everyone knows the smoker, for example, who is trying to quit and keeps having meltdowns. Nicotine withdrawal is supposed to be worse than heroin withdrawal. Yes, people do quit, but it usually takes many attempts until they achieve successful withdrawal. Now, smokers have many aids for quitting. There are medications, patches, nicotine gums, smoking cessation seminars and a great deal of public support. However, ex-smokers sometimes say they miss smoking and the good, calm feelings, and pleasure they enjoyed. Are they glad they quit? Yes, of course they are. But, they also understand why they smoked for so long.

If food is used as a drug, just like nicotine or heroin or alcohol, how can people deal with this addiction? After all, we can make our homes smoke free, or alcohol free or drug free. But, we have to eat. We must go out and shop for food, which is our substance of choice. We must bring that food into our homes and consume it on a daily basis. So, is there really any hope?

The answer is yes. You absolutely can break the addictive cycle. Is it easy? No, it is not. That is why people fail to lose the weight and keep it off. While it is a lot of work, and it takes time and effort, it is possible to break the cycle.

What I tell people who are junk-food junkies is that their brains need to change. That is, of course, easier said than done because those hard-wired pathways are just that. If junk-food addicts even so much as think about their favorites, they will start to crave them. Why? Because those pleasure pathways light up in the brain just at the mere thought of them. They know if they seek out their foods of choice, they will have a feeling of inner well-being that is impossible to describe. It is as though, for a brief moment, all is right with the world. Therefore, once the cravings crank up, the hunt for the junk food begins in earnest. Once the chips or ice cream or pie are located, the food junkie needs to eat and keep eating until those pleasure centers in the brain light up. Over time, this process requires more and more and more food to satisfy the craving, unfortunately.

I had a client tell me about eating until she fell into a food coma. She said she would eat to the point where she was in a stupor and could not move or think or feel much of anything anymore. This is very similar to what happens to a heroin addict after they shoot up. They feel the same momentary peacefulness and calm followed by exhaustion. They fall into a drug-induced stupor. How many of us have seen someone passed out drunk? They’ve taken in so much alcohol that they can’t speak or walk properly or even move much. Their minds and their bodies are quite literally overwhelmed by their drug of choice.

Once a heroin addict or an alcoholic comes around again, they feel sick. What calms the sickness? More drugs, of course. So, the alcoholic will pour another drink or pop open another can of beer or uncork a new bottle of wine. The heroin addict will rob or steal or lie or cheat to get the cash for that next fix. It is the only thing that will calm the pain and the sickness.

Most people who crave junk food do not see themselves as addicts. In fact, they might pride themselves on never drinking or doing drugs. They are clean living. The problem is that in many ways they are no different from the drug addict on the corner or the alcoholic staggering down the street just after the local bar closes. Only there are no social sanctions that prohibit the junk-food junkie from seeking ways to satisfy their addiction. They can stop at the supermarket or the all-night convenience store. No one is going to say anything to the overweight man or woman who buys two bags of chips and a quart of ice cream. No one is going to deny a double cheeseburger and large fries to a customer at a fast food restaurant. Why should they? It’s a free country, right? It’s all about choice, right?

Well, no. The person who is addicted to junk food is a slave to his or her addiction. They are about as unfree as they can get. Yet, the shackles of their slavery are unseen by others. Those shackles are in their brains. If rats are willing to starve themselves because they crave junk food after a very short period of time, how can any food junkie change his or her self-destructive brain patterns? Aren’t they set for life? Isn’t it hopeless? Isn’t this why people lose weight only to fall off the wagon and regain it time after time after time?

The answer is an emphatic no! It is not hopeless. Is it easy? Again, that would be an emphatic no! When I was working to develop my own system for weight loss, I noticed that I had terrible cravings. I was a high-sugar, high-fat addict. I loved cakes and cookies and sour cream or butter dripping off a baked potato. I had no weight-loss coach to stop me from eating those foods. They were readily accessible. I knew that once I started eating a cake, I’d eat the whole thing. One slice was never enough. I’d eat a slice, and then another and then another. I was like someone on automatic pilot. I’d return to the cake over and over and over until it was all gone. Then, I’d hate myself, berate myself, but I’d do it all over again the next time. Why couldn’t I stop? Why?

That was the question I kept asking myself long before brain MRI’s, long before all of the recent studies about pleasure centers in the brain. When I was growing up, it was all about will power. Alcoholism, for example, was not considered a disease. If people drank too much, they had weak wills, weak characters. The same with people who did drugs or overate. Smoking wasn’t even considered an addiction. In fact, smoking was considered to be sophisticated and chic. Believe it or not, some doctors even encouraged their patients to smoke during pregnancy!

Of course, this was 40 years ago when people simply were not armed with the kind of useful information that is readily available today. So, all I had at my disposal was my own determination to keep trying to observe what I was doing and why. But, on so many levels, I simply didn’t understand myself. How could I be so disciplined about studying, taking care of my sick father, taking care of a house, doing so many thing well, but continue to fail miserably to control my weight? Food was my downfall. When food was involved, my self-control inevitably flew out the window. My resolutions failed time after time.

I’d tried all the diets, but nothing had worked. I had tried the diet pills that did curb my appetite, but left me shaky, nervous and unable to sleep. I’d tried the fads, the diet prescribed by my family doctor, the liquids, the artificial sweeteners, etc. Nothing helped. Each time, I went right back to eating and the sweeter, the higher in fat, the better. Plus, I noticed that with each failure I not only gained more weight, but I needed more of my “foods of choice” to satisfy that emptiness inside of me. I ate until I felt better, calmer, more relaxed, less stressed. I ate to nurture myself, but then, I hated myself until the next time….

In my next post, I am going to continue the discussion of cravings and food addiction. I will be listing and explaining my 12-Step Program to Stop Junk-Food Addiction. Please feel free to add your comments or share your experiences.