Trouble with overeating
I've been having trouble with overeating. I've been doing it since I was nine years old. I used to sneak food from my parents' kitchen and eat it without their permission. Ten years later, I now have a part-time job which means I can make my own money and buy my own food. I often get cravings for junk food. I often give in to those cravings, instead of spending money on healthier foods. I usually eat most of the food I buy by the course of a week and a half. I should spend it on healthy foods but the problem is, they're kind of expensive. I've noticed that I often eat junk food when I'm bored, or stressed. I need to figure out how to resist the temptation to eat junk food all the time and figure out how to be smart about what I eat in between meals.
I'm also at risk for diabetes as well, which is one reason why I need to change my eating habits. Both of my parents have it and I don't want to be the third person in my family to get it.
(Sorry if this is kind of random. I'm new here so I'm trying to figure out this site still.)
@Pokefan46
I definitely can relate to this point in your life, where you recognize the choice, but are still struggling to make a different one. It's tempting to keep looking for an "answer" to the question, an answer that you think you don't already have, but this is the truth right here...
You already know what you need to do.
What you need to do is actively choose the path you state you want. You have to decide right here, right now, that in every decision point you have... Picking up items, buying them, putting them in your mouth, you have the opportunity to choose a different path. You do not have to eat it just because you bought it.
Healthy foods, per serving, are not more expensive. On average, healthy foods like fresh veggies and fruits, lean meats and such, they are actually more affordable than eating a diet of chocolate and McD's. We live in a world that perpetuates that conversation, that belief that healthy foods are expensive, but it's a misconception. The problem is not in the pricing, but in the packaging. It's in how we eat those items. It's picking up a burger from the dollar menu because it's "cheaper" without considering that it's 400+ calories that would be worth $7+ in grapes. It's looking at healthy foods with a unhealthy eating mindset.
I started my choice change with a very simple decision point, and one behavior change. Personally, I had a bit of a candy problem and I simply knew that if I wanted a change, I couldn't have a little here and there, I couldn't walk down that candy aisle at the store. At all. My compromise was to say that if I received chocolate as a gift, I could eat it... but otherwise, I did not walk down those aisles. I literally talked out loud to myself, telling myself "You don't need that" and forced my feet to walk on by.
Did it always work? Heck no. But the thing is, this isn't an easy process. It is HARD and it takes a ton of practice. It takes a commitment to the body and health status that you want. You know what decisions you are making that are going the direction you want, and which ones are not going that way at all. There is no magic answer. The answer for how to do it is stop looking for the reason and excuses, for the outside forces, and recognize that it's all yours.
Remember, just because you ate a donut at breakfast doesn't mean your whole day or week or month or whatever arbitrary time frame is screwed. It means you made an unhealthy choice at breakfast. Lunch is another chance to make a good choice for you and the you you want to be. Every opportunity you have to place a food or drink to your mouth is an opportunity to feed your needs over feeding your wants. As long as you feed more needs than wants, you'll be okay.
I could go on even longer about food choices and all that but at the end of the day, this is yours to own. You do have that power.
If you have a heart to heart with your inner self and recognize that you really don't have that power, that you're acting against your will and desire, in a way that you cannot control right now... Food addiction, compulsive eating and binge eating disorders are real things. They are conditions that benefit from professional guidance and group therapy support, sometimes medications, etc. I don't jump here though, because I know that the majority of people out there have simply gotten really, really used to that favorite treat.
Remember, treats are treats for a reason. They aren't treats if you eat them every day. It's okay to enjoy food, but it's even better to enhance that enjoyment with a little rarity :)
Point of reference: Former 500+ lbs female with a number of food/body relationship issues who has lost half a person and changed a boatload of life aspects to get there.
