How To Break Up With Your Fast Food Addiction
Fast food addiction is very real.
Its when eating at home isnt appealing at all because your mouth is watering thinking about a burger or fries.
Unfortunately, this isnt uncommon.
My husband and I both had a fast food addiction and we didnt even realize it!
But that all changed and fast food actually tastes gross now.
How did we get to that point?
Have A Lot Of Green Vegetables
I know, not everybody likes vegetables or eats them every day. Maybe you dont think they taste good. Sure, maybe plain vegetables arent too delicious. I personally avoid having them plain because I just dont like them. But there are various ways to prepare them and make them taste awesome!
Personally, I always add some olive oil, garlic, onions or salmon to my salad to pump up the taste. I also like to bake my vegetables sometimes. For example, baked zucchini with olive oil and seasoning tastes amazing!
The reason why you should have as many green vegetables as possible is that they have close to zero calories but keep you full which really helps to avoid overeating.
Just add some vegetables to every meal or have a salad in between meals when you get hungry!
Fixation On Certain Addictive Food
Many people have favorite foods and might spend several minutes gushing over particular aspects like its taste or uniqueness. But with food addiction, that gushing will start to sound more like adoration. Think about the way self-identified coffee addicts talk about the importance of that morning cup. Food addiction can make fast food, ice cream, or soda take on an importance that will dwarf even the most obsessed coffee fixation.
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Work On Stress Management
Theres almost always an emotional component behind cravings. Sure, you really need the brownie because you like the flavor. Or your blood sugar is low and you need an energy boost. Youre more likely to grab the Cheetos or leftover cookies when youre upset or stressed by something.
Consider how you may be eating as a way to stuff feelings, distract yourself, or procrastinate. Try to be compassionate to yourself and do some gentle exploration. Practice redirecting yourself when you feel the urge to reach for food instead of doing what needs to be done, or saying what needs to be said.
Healthy stress management tools include:
- taking a walk or run
- yoga
- talking to a trusted friend or family member
- doing something creative like painting
- journaling
Experiment and find what works best for you. If your stress feels overwhelming, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional. They can offer emotional support and suggest other effective, healthy, non-food coping methods.
How To Get Rid Of Food Addiction
Some people eat when they are not hungry. Some people in fact eat until they are way past the point of being full, and when not eating they fantasize about eating.
They may also be preoccupied with getting their next food fix. Oftentimes this is a form of comfort for people as well.
Controlling the Addiction
Part of getting rid of a food addiction is in identifying your personal triggers, or what most causes you to want to eat. The triggers for some people are usually certain comfort foods that people eat when they get stressed out.
Two of the hugest contenders include pasta or cheese, but chocolate, ice cream, or rich pastries and deserts could also be huge triggers. Fast food-like fried chicken or French fries also are addiction foods.
Caffeinated beverages such as coffee, soda, cappuccino, and other beverages also can be a trigger. Caffeinated beverages can cause a person to gain weight, especially if an avid coffee drinker needs to accompany that addiction with dunking of donuts, cookies, or other deserts.
One way to deal with trigger foods is to write a list of them in one column on a piece of paper. Then, alongside that column to the right you should write another list of replacement foods, such as apples, carrot sticks, and other fruits and vegetables.
You can also cut up smaller bite-sized snacks and space out the number of snacks you eat in a days time. In general, you can also eat on smaller plates that are filled up instead of eating on a bigger plate.
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Start With The Acceptance Of The Fact That You Are Addicted
1. After youre done reviewing your diet, determine whether you have a serious addiction to fast food.
At any kind of addiction the most important thing is to accept the fact that you have it. As long as you are not aware and dont want to admit it, it will be difficult for you to overcome it
2. Accept the fact that you will need to change your food habits.
3. Recognize that your problem is much more serious than youve expected. For most people this addiction is both physical and psychological. Great effort is needed to accept the fact that you have an addiction rather than to change the diet and food preferences.
How To Stop A Masturbation Addiction
This article was co-authored by Natalia S. David, PsyD. Dr. David is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a Psychiatry Consultant at Clements University Hospital and at Zale Lipshy University Hospital. She is a member of the Board of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, the Academy for Integrative Pain Management, and the American Psychological Associations Division of Health Psychology. In 2017, she received the Baylor Scott & White Research Institutes Podium Presentation Award and scholarship. She received her PsyD from Alliant International University in 2017 with an emphasis in Health Psychology.There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 13,373,022 times.
Masturbation happens in every culture, across every period of history, and it’s the way most adolescents discover what they enjoy before embarking on adult sexual relationships. Masturbation is a healthy and natural part of human sexuality and development. However, if you are unable to control your urge to masturbate or if frequent masturbation is interfering with your school, work, or social life, then it’s possible to gain control.
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Breaking The Food Addiction
If food addictions are real, how difficult is it to break them? Clinical psychologist Douglas Lisle, PhD, says that at the TrueNorth Health Center in Rohnert Park, Calif., where he is director of research, patients have had the most success through “therapeutic fasting” — in essence, rebooting the “hard drive” in their brain through a period of water-only fasting in a medically supervised setting, followed by the introduction of a diet emphasizing fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. .
But if your stomach is already growling at the mere thought of a total fast, try making a complete break just from the foods you crave — a process that Barnard says works much better than trying to eat them in moderation. He argues that staying completely away from a food item for three weeks often resolves the problem. “At the end of three weeks, your tastes will have changed,” he says. “You won’t want the food as much anymore.”
When you get rid of the sugar or chocolate from your diet “cold turkey,” don’t expect any of the withdrawal symptoms that are often associated with other addictions. “Occasionally, a person does say to me, ‘When I stop consuming sugar, I feel lethargic and depressed,'” says Barnard, an adjunct associate professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine. “But withdrawal symptoms are not essential to the definition of a food addiction.”
Understanding Fast Food Addiction
When people hear the word addiction, it often calls to mind additions to alcohol or drugs. While these particular substance abuse disorders account for a significant percentage of addiction struggles nationwide, there are several other behavioral challenges one may struggle with, which ultimately qualify as addiction. People may struggle with addictions to technology, gambling, sex, shopping, exercise, and even eating. Although not the case for all of the above, some of these other addictions meet the criteria for listing and diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, Fifth Edition .
In many cases, treatment for any of these specific addictions is available at addiction treatment centers like Meadowglade. In the addiction treatment setting, trained therapists can help you examine the root causes of addictive behavior, including fast food addictions, to help you develop better coping strategies and attain long-term recovery. If you are concerned about fast food addiction, it is essential to reach out for help. Ongoing addictions to fast food can cause other physical and mental health effects, including significant weight gain, new or worsening heart conditions, new or worsening respiratory conditions, and challenges with your muscle or skeletal system due to potentially increased weight.
Resources
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What Causes Food Addiction And What Are The Signs
People with food addiction struggle every day with a loss of control or inability to stop eating foods that are high in carbohydrates, fat, salt, sugar, or artificial sweeteners. They also suffer from painful feelings of shame and embarrassment when it comes to their food behaviors.
Food addiction is a relatively new topic. But, its a complex condition that has similarities to other types of addiction, such as drugs, alcohol, shopping, or gambling. However, help is available.Understanding the causes and signs of food addiction can help you lower your risk and change potentially problematic behaviors.
Drink Water Before Your Meals
This may sound silly. It sounded a bit silly to me when I first heard this, too! But drinking water before your meals is a very important thing to do in order to avoid overeating.
This is because thirst can actually easily be confused with hunger. And if you start eating when youre thirsty, youre very likely to just eat and eat Until you realize youve eaten too much.
So just have a glass of water before every meal to make sure youre eating because youre hungry and not because youre thirsty. This way youll be much less likely to overeat!
And make sure youre having enough water throughout the whole day. Everyone has their own personal water intake needs, and you can calculate your own
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Keep Sweets Out Of Sight
Move your food farther away so that if you want more, you have to deliberately as opposed to mindlessly go for it. Research published in PLoS ONE in 2017 found that people were more likely to snack on grapes, crackers and chocolates that were placed at arms length compared to when they were placed 20 feet away.
Easy Ways To Get Over Food Addiction
Alcohol addiction! Drug addiction! Even love addiction! But what about food addiction?
People apprehend all other addictions to be justified, but when it comes to foodit must be just a hunger pang!
Wrong notion that is carried away in waves! After all, we do not visit a doctor for getting rid of food addiction, we do not get withdrawal symptoms, and most importantly, it is not a registered illness. But what about its adverse effects?
People forget the atrocities of overeating, which is obesity and the chronic diseases that are associated with it.
Did you know: Over 100 million people suffer from obesity, but people suffering from alcohol addiction are only 17.6 million, and we all know what obesity is capable of, right?
There are certain foods that offer the same adrenaline rush to our brains that drugs or alcohol do. Of course, you know all about the sugar rushers and chocolate devourers!
What is food addiction?
Going by its term, food addiction is getting addicted to food the same way a person gets addicted to any other addictive substances or even gambling.
Food addiction is similar to other eating disorders like binge eating, bulimia, and compulsive overeating.
What causes food addiction?
Symptoms of food addiction-
- Cravings for certain foods and not being able to abstain from them despite being full.
- Gobbling down palatable foods without having any break to it.
- Consistently eating even when you are stuffed up.
- Repeated unsuccessful attempts to quit eating.
- Exercise-
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Annoyed Of Food Addiction Habits
Food addiction refers to unhealthy eating habits which are not safe for the human body and may lead to many diseases like bulimia, compulsive overeating, etc. symptoms of getting food addicted are having so many and instant cravings and have overeaten. This unhealthy habit may lead to fatigue, mood swings, stress, unmanaged body weight, which will lead to demotivation, etc. lets talk about how to get rid of this unhealthy habit, which is named food addiction.
- Focus more on Healthy Food: Set your mind to eat and focus more on healthy food. Intake tasty and healthy food and learn how to develop a relationship with healthy food. However, one with food addiction might crave more for junk and unhealthy food but start controlling to keep yourself healthy and disease-free. Go for more proteins, vitamins, nutrients, etc. Fruits like apple, banana, orange, and many more contain these.
- Indulge yourself in Other Activities: Other activities like reading books, running, exercising, singing, or anything according to your interest will lead to distract you from your cravings and make you more focused on other tasks. This habit will help you in different ways as it will maintain your body figure and lead to weight loss by exercising, making you active, and improving your immunity system.
Using Fasting To Break Addictions
Fasting is a great way to clean house and it can be the basis for changing a range of habits for many. When I make a commitment to undertake a fasting regime I find it easier to make other changes in my life at the same time. The tough thing is sticking to these changes.
To stick to the changes you choose to make you will need a string reason, or why as your motivator. Want to be fitter? Then choosing to exercise a little while cutting out certain foods can be a winning combination.
Adding a few smaller changes as you go along will make it easier to stick to these changes.
For example, if you are planning to lose weight through following a Keto Diet you may have an end goal to introduce more vegetables and cut back on your meat consumption.
I know this can sound like its an easy for you to say kind of thing, but Im human too, and I can give in at times when it really isnt the best thing for me.
Fasting to break addiction is something I find easy to follow, and there are a range of steps that I take to get to my end goal. Its not just about changing what I eat its about changing how I think about and respond to the motivators around me.
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Moving Past The Shame
The self-blame or self-anger that comes after indulging in fast food can lead to eating even more fast food to ease the negative feelings. But you can break this cycle by showing yourself some compassion, love and acceptance. Accept that you ate a fast food meal. No, it wasn’t the healthiest option, but it’s done and that can’t be changed. But change the way you think about it afterward. Reflect on why you ate it . And then use that reflection to make your next choices positive and healthy. Do activities that care for yourself or choose food that fuels your body and keeps it healthy. Continue referencing this thought process to lower your reliance on the fast food.
Why We Have A Mental Fast Food Addiction
The problem with cravings is that a lot of it is mental.
We created a habit to eat certain foods, so of course, that is what our body is used to.
When we do something often, our brains store a memory of what you are supposed to do next time you are in that situation.
So do you tend to crave fast food when you are working late?
Maybe thats because the last few times, you got fast food when you were working late!
Do you tend to crave fast food when you notice your fridge getting low on food?
Its because your brain associates a little bit of bareness of fridge shelves to fast food!
Do you crave fast food as soon as you start thinking about the task of actually cooking or feel like fast food gives you comfort?
Its because you associated a pain point with the actual task of cooking and good feelings with fast food!
You see where I am going with this.
To stop the mental addiction, you need to break your thinking habits. Make new habits, so you can make fast food a pain point in your mind.
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Why Do We Crave Unhealthy Food
As explained in a New York Times Magazine piece, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, theres no denying that junk food cravings are powerful, physiological reactionsand, apparently, carefully and strategically developed by food manufacturers. Many of our favorite supermarket snacks are made with the perfect amounts of added sugar, salt, fat, and other chemicals designed to make us want more. Steer clear of processed food by eating as many healthy, whole foods as possible. Why? The less you eat, the less you want. Try the following tips and see if they work for you.
