Confessions Of A Food Addict

 It’s true. I admit it. I am a food addict.

I love its flavours. I love its textures. I love the way I can feel saliva secreting from my salivary glands when a piece of food enters my mouth first thing in the morning. I will eat well past feelings of fullness if a meal is particularly tasty, just because I can’t get enough of the flavour. And, there is ALWAYS room for cheesecake.

When I had my Gastric Sleeve, they removed my hunger glands along with 85% of my stomach...but that didn't change my addiction. It has taken many years to combat and retrain my brain around food.

I often thought about food. When I heard about people who had “forgotten” to eat, I couldn’t fathom how that was even possible, food was always on my mind. I envied those who become so engrossed in a task at hand that they literally forgot to eat, for hours. Maybe even all day. Food would never let me forget about it for that long.

I would check my clock religiously every day, wondering, “is it time to eat yet?” God forbid I didn’t eat at certain times everyday.

I didn’t really realise the extent to which food held me hostage until my surgery. I remember lying on the operating table having a full on panick attack, because I wouldn't be able to eat anymore! I almost cancelled there and then! But the nurse who was sitting with me holding my hand had seen this before and reassured me that everything was going to be fine.

I’ve often heard it said, but never applied it to my life: once an addict, always an addict. I’ve heard so many first-hand stories. Drug addicts or alcoholics sober for months, years — yet they still refer to themselves as addicts.

That is because the struggle is a very real daily struggle. Addicts have to make the same choices every single day. If they don’t, they’ll very quickly fall captive to their same self-destructive habits.

Perhaps part of the reason why it has taken me so long to realise that I’m addicted to food is that food addictions seems so elementary and meaningless in comparison to drug or alcohol addictions — addictions that steal lives and destroy families.

But food addictions can, too.

Food addictions are a silent killer.

Obesity is quickly becoming the top cause of disease and death worldwide. I’m sure food addiction counts for a very small proportion of obesity, but with the current statistics, even a small proportion is a dangerous proportion.

We need to start treating food addiction as seriously as we treat other addictions. We run the risk of becoming the frog in the pot if we don’t.

That's why I'm taking steps to help those who suffer from this silent addiction. Weightloss surgery doesn't "cure" your addiction...I can't count the amount of times I've eaten and thrown up because my "eyes are bigger than my tummy" or I've eaten things because I didn't actually make a conscious decision about food but allowed my addiction to make the choice.

This is my journey to recovery.....here I will be sharing the recipes that help ease my sweet cravings as well as the tools I am using to help myself recover. Not every day will be perfect but everyday I will work at being my best.

Learning to control my addiction is a day by day struggle....I know others suffer from this and other food related problems (binge eating disorder, sugar addiction, carb addiction).

I am so excited to now be able to help those who are struggling through this....