Session 24 October 2009

[Mrs. Peel]

Yeah this is a vicious cycle I hope to get out of soon. Sometimes I just don't want to think about food and start to abhor it. But we always come to that point where we get hungry and have to eat something.

It is a vicious cycle. I'll eat a lot of crap, then feel terrible about myself. I'll be good a few days, then something stressful makes me eat a whole box of candy (like tonight), and I hate myself again. After each episode I tell myself that starting "tomorrow" I'll change, I'll get control of my food addiction, but as we all know, tomorrow never comes. And slowly I'm putting on weight, which makes me hate myself even more. :(

 

[Meg]

Yeah this is a vicious cycle I hope to get out of soon. Sometimes I just don't want to think about food and start to abhor it. But we always come to that point where we get hungry and have to eat something.

It is a vicious cycle. I'll eat a lot of crap, then feel terrible about myself. I'll be good a few days, then something stressful makes me eat a whole box of candy (like tonight), and I hate myself again. After each episode I tell myself that starting "tomorrow" I'll change, I'll get control of my food addiction, but as we all know, tomorrow never comes. And slowly I'm putting on weight, which makes me hate myself even more. :(

I've done/do the same thing, Shar. It's some sort of self sabotage program, me thinks. I'm declaring war on it.

 

[Username]

The fact of the matter is that I was addicted to dairy - because I was allergic to it.

my 'love' of cheese, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, did I mention cheese? was a big indicator that I was allergic.

I don't understand how being allergic to something can be the cause of craving for that something. I've done a little search and haven't found the explanation. Does anyone knows where I can look for it?

Thanks.

 

[theos]

Hi Manuel,
Here are a couple sites that discuss the link between food allergies and cravings.

www.karinya.com/alrgies.htm

www.springboard4health.com/notebook/health_food_addiction.html

In the case of dairy... perhaps as a child one has a very recognizable allergic reaction to drinking milk but continues to drink it anyway. Over time the body adapts and in order to avoid withdrawl symptoms it starts to crave the substance it is allergic to. (Foods like wheat and dairy release opiod-like chemicals into the body producing a "high".) This is a simple explanation and just my understanding of it.

 

[anart]

In the case of dairy... perhaps as a child one has a very recognizable allergic reaction to drinking milk but continues to drink it anyway. Over time the body adapts and in order to avoid withdrawl symptoms it starts to crave the substance it is allergic to. (Foods like wheat and dairy release opiod-like chemicals into the body producing a "high".) This is a simple explanation and just my understanding of it.

Exactly! I was allergic to dairy as an infant and given soy formula :O - then my mother promptly 'forgot' (meaning she thought that sort of thing just 'went away') and had me on milk as a toddler and from then on out ... so it goes.

 

[Ollie]

I had an interesting experience this weekend, with the effect of food on the endorphines in the brain, specifically chocolate:

In the last weeks a sentence went through my head: "It tastes good, but does no good" (or something along that line) and this remembered me all the time, how subjective our feelings are, how our bodies get simply deceived by food.
And sugar is a great case in point, in deceiving our body-information-system-. For example I ate peanut-butter (added with additional sugar) and I ate more and more, because it tasted so good. Withoud the addition of sugar, I would have eaten much less, maybe 2 rice waffels instead of 5.

I was experimenting with different types of rice cake, and bought a variety covered with Belgian chocolate - it passed the biofeedback test - so I had one biscuit. Immediately I felt the need for another. So, quietly laughing to my-self on recognising the effect, I had another because 'it tasted so good'. In the end, I ate the lot (again laughing quietly to my-self), as it was only a small packet, and vowed that I would avoid chocolate coated goods in future, something I already knew, or at least be very wary of the compulsive, 'drug effect'.

 

[Nienna]

Yeah this is a vicious cycle I hope to get out of soon. Sometimes I just don't want to think about food and start to abhor it. But we always come to that point where we get hungry and have to eat something.

It is a vicious cycle. I'll eat a lot of crap, then feel terrible about myself. I'll be good a few days, then something stressful makes me eat a whole box of candy (like tonight), and I hate myself again. After each episode I tell myself that starting "tomorrow" I'll change, I'll get control of my food addiction, but as we all know, tomorrow never comes. And slowly I'm putting on weight, which makes me hate myself even more. :(

Shar, have you done the UltraSimple Diet, yet?

It's very simple and only lasts for a week. Once you get all of the nasty stuff out of your system, you WILL lose weight, and you may find that your body will decide that it does not like that crappy food. :)

 

[Helle]

I'm not sure about your equation of 'Real you' and 'body' here, since I think that's a complicated topic. Our Real selves inhabit bodies, they are not our bodies, so I think there is a lot of room to blur a lot of issues there when you say, "I can't see how the real you can 'love' something, that's not good for you".

By 'real you' I mean your essence /soul, which inhabits your body. So what I meant, and what you explained, is that it was your body that loved the food, and your false personality that was identified with it maybe, and not You you that loved it.

I still mean the real you, your essence, won't love something that's bad for the body you're inhabiting.

It's a nice idea to think that our body wouldn't 'love' something that isn't good for us, but until one is detoxed, it absolutely does (and when you add in things like parasites and candida - then, oh, yeah, your body tells you it loves/wants things that are really bad for you because it feeds the candida/parasites).

I totally agree :)

 

[vinny]

It's a nice idea to think that our body wouldn't 'love' something that isn't good for us, but until one is detoxed, it absolutely does (and when you add in things like parasites and candida - then, oh, yeah, your body tells you it loves/wants things that are really bad for you because it feeds the candida/parasites).

I totally agree :)

not only that, but you can extend the same principle to the other centers: the emotional and intellectual 'games' that we (our 'false' selves) are addicted to until we can do the necessary detox with that part of our system too. Hence the importance of the psychological work, the emotional cleansing etc.

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Shar, have you done the UltraSimple Diet, yet?

It's very simple and only lasts for a week. Once you get all of the nasty stuff out of your system, you WILL lose weight, and you may find that your body will decide that it does not like that crappy food. :)

That's just it. I can't seem to discipline myself to do it, I've got the book. I have no willpower. I cannot sit in my cube knowing there are donuts in the vacant cube beside me without eating one, which turns into two, then three. If my husband orders a pizza, I "have" to eat some of it.

Even tonight, I threw away what was left of the box of candy I'd scarfed down yesterday. Later, I dug through the trash and fished out two pieces that were wrapped up! I'm like a junkie.

This time of year it's worse, all sorts of temptations at work with people getting gifts of food from vendors and setting it out for coworkers to eat (usualy in the cube beside me), department Christmas lunches, etc. Part of my job is ordering boxes of candy for holiday gifts for customers, and I always end up eating it.

I'm trying to motivate myself to recommit to detox, but currently stress is getting the best of me.

 

[SeekinTruth]

not only that, but you can extend the same principle to the other centers: the emotional and intellectual 'games' that we (our 'false' selves) are addicted to until we can do the necessary detox with that part of our system too. Hence the importance of the psychological work, the emotional cleansing etc.

Yeah, I totally agree. ALL the lower centers have detrimental habits/addictions/negative patterns accumulated over a lifetime. But there is a moment when a certain degree of detoxing is reached, that it becomes easier to break the addictions and the process of freeing oneself from them accelerates. And this goes for food as well.

 

[Laura]

That's just it. I can't seem to discipline myself to do it, I've got the book. I have no willpower. I cannot sit in my cube knowing there are donuts in the vacant cube beside me without eating one, which turns into two, then three. If my husband orders a pizza, I "have" to eat some of it.

Even tonight, I threw away what was left of the box of candy I'd scarfed down yesterday. Later, I dug through the trash and fished out two pieces that were wrapped up! I'm like a junkie.

This time of year it's worse, all sorts of temptations at work with people getting gifts of food from vendors and setting it out for coworkers to eat (usualy in the cube beside me), department Christmas lunches, etc. Part of my job is ordering boxes of candy for holiday gifts for customers, and I always end up eating it.

I'm trying to motivate myself to recommit to detox, but currently stress is getting the best of me.

Sounds to me like you are suffering a serious seretonin deficit. Try taking 300 to 500 mg of 5-htp throughout the day and increase your dose of melatonin at night until you sleep through the night and wake up even a tiny bit sleepy. That IS normal, you know!

 

[Nienna]

That's just it. I can't seem to discipline myself to do it, I've got the book. I have no willpower. I cannot sit in my cube knowing there are donuts in the vacant cube beside me without eating one, which turns into two, then three. If my husband orders a pizza, I "have" to eat some of it.

Even tonight, I threw away what was left of the box of candy I'd scarfed down yesterday. Later, I dug through the trash and fished out two pieces that were wrapped up! I'm like a junkie.

This time of year it's worse, all sorts of temptations at work with people getting gifts of food from vendors and setting it out for coworkers to eat (usualy in the cube beside me), department Christmas lunches, etc. Part of my job is ordering boxes of candy for holiday gifts for customers, and I always end up eating it.

I'm trying to motivate myself to recommit to detox, but currently stress is getting the best of me.

Sounds to me like you are suffering a serious seretonin deficit. Try taking 300 to 500 mg of 5-htp throughout the day and increase your dose of melatonin at night until you sleep through the night and wake up even a tiny bit sleepy. That IS normal, you know!

Also, it is recommended to take the time release melatonin if you can find it. This is something I need to find, too. I just haven't looked yet.

 

[Gaby]

Shar, try taking the 5 HTP (around 300mg, perhaps more if needed). It will build up your "will power" against cravings. Think it of it as a chemical imbalance and not as a matter of will power, so don't beat yourself up. Here is a rough guide on how to take 5 HTP:

http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=13241.msg102298#msg102298

L-glutamine can also be very helpful in eliminating carb cravings. L-glutamine should be taken on an empty stomach, 500–1,000 mg. twice a day. Higher doses can be used to fix up leaky guts, around 5000 or 6000 a day. Some even suggest to put some L-glutamine powder under your tongue when you have cravings.

 

[anart]

Shar, try taking the 5 HTP (around 300mg, perhaps more if needed). It will build up your "will power" against cravings. Think it of it as a chemical imbalance and not as a matter of will power, so don't beat yourself up. Here is a rough guide on how to take 5 HTP:

http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=13241.msg102298#msg102298

L-glutamine can also be very helpful in eliminating carb cravings. L-glutamine should be taken on an empty stomach, 500–1,000 mg. twice a day. Higher doses can be used to fix up leaky guts, around 5000 or 6000 a day. Some even suggest to put some L-glutamine powder under your tongue when you have cravings.

I think the 5 HTP is a great idea. As noted in that link, don't just jump in and take 500 HTP all at once without building up - that might very well give you a 'serotonin headache' (speaking from experience here). Build up slowly until you reach the level you need to be.

It's also easier to deal with these things when you realize it is a chemical imbalance and not that you have no willpower, imo.