01-25-2015, 06:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-26-2015, 03:27 PM by Parsons.
Edit Reason: Minor Grammar / Typos
)
This is personally a very sensitive topic which I feel compelled (and qualified) to discuss.
I am a little under 5' 11" and just under 30 years old. By the time I was in high school, I was at my full height and weighed around 235 lbs. At one point after high school, I weighed around 300 lbs. I was extremely unhealthy, unhappy, and self conscious. I knew the primary contributing factor of my obesity was overeating, but I was so impoverished and depressed at the time, eating fast food / junk food was one of my few comforts.
Later, my wife moved out and separated from me due to my destructive and addictive behavior (marijuana, depression, arrested development). When I was alone, I was able to lose almost 100 lbs partially because of fasting one day every few days. I also stopped buying an kind of junk food / sweets. Eventually, because the junk food / sweets were not easily accessible, I stopped craving them. I also started eating much smaller portions of food and my stomach shrank. I felt so much healthier and happier at that weight (200-215 lbs).
After about a year and a half later, my wife and I got back together. I was able to keep the weight off for a few months, but then my wife started making huge platters of brownies and other baked confections. The smell and taste of them were too much for me to resist. I would eat my evening meal when I got home from work, then partake of one or two brownies. Once the brownies ran out, I would start raiding her stashes of chocolate and other sweets that were not hidden in any way. Once I got in the habit of having a sweet treat, I would want one every night because I am a creature of habit. Every time I opened the freezer / fridge, I would be greeted by ice cream, chocolate candy, and pie. Eventually, the supply of junk would run out after a week or two (sometimes longer). But then one day I would open the fridge and she would go bananas with sweets / carbs. Recently, she bought two half gallons of ice cream, a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin flavored cake, and several different varieties of candy bars. She then baked 'blondies' (similar to brownies). A few days later, she ordered pizza and ordered a giant cookie the size of a small pizza. Every time she went bonkers with buying carbs, I would gain 5 pounds and would keep it on. Consequently, I went from a stable 200-210 lbs back up to 245-255 lbs today.
My wife's intentions are/were are loving, but the end result is very unhealthy:
It was my time alone that brought me clarity on the situation: I was addicted to overeating / refined carbohydrates. I had all the hallmarks of addiction. Before this realization, I was in denial that what I was doing was addictive behavior. I had/still have no impulse control when sweets are easily accessible, especially when nobody is watching me. I intellectually know and also feel how bad these sweets / refined carbs are for me, yet I still consume them on a daily basis. I have had serious consequences to my addiction, yet I continue with it. Because of my motorcycle accident back in 2009, I have two very bad knees. The more overweight I am, the more painful walking or even simply laying in bed gets. Worse still, my disability makes it much more difficult/painful/dangerous to do any exercise involving my legs. I also suffer from sleep apnea, which worsens as I gain weight. Furthermore, I routinely get acid reflux from eating too many refined carbs which sometimes set off my panic attacks.
Before my accident, I had a job that was very physically demanding (loading heavy equipment into a van). Despite all the exercise I was getting, I gained a lot of weight because I was eating a ton of junk food at the time. The more weight I gained, the more it negatively impacted my job. One of my co-workers even commented on this, saying that I was slowing down at my job and would eventually be unable to do my job due to my obesity. He was right, of course. What I am getting at is I was no longer a high functioning addict because my addiction was effecting my job and personal relationships.
I have explained all these personal consequences to my wife several times and begged her not to buy all these sweets or at least hide her sweets, but she is a food addict herself that is deeply in denial. I even offered to purchase her own mini fridge/freezer that I could just train myself to never open so I would at least have some ability to control my impulses, but she refuses. Since we are addicts living together, we enable each other.
Growing up watching children's TV, I was constantly bombarded by advertisements for sugary cereal. I would then go to the supermarket with my mother and beg her to buy it for me. Every morning, I would start the day off with cereal that basically was just candy with milk poured on top of it. My mother would buy several 24 pack pallets of canned soda and I would consume several of those a day. The vending machines at school were full of junk food and soda.
Today, I have stopped consuming soda and cereal all together. However, I will occasionally walk down the cereal aisle at the supermarket when I go shopping with my wife and I just want to vomit. Nearly every box of sugary cereal has some cartoon character on it with brightly colored packaging with cereal drenched in food coloring shaped into stars or other attractive shapes. Its blatantly obvious the target audience is children. Its no wonder that heart disease and obesity is such a pandemic in the USA (and several other countries).
Could you imagine if when watching kid's TV, cartoon characters prompted you to bug your parents into buying you cigarettes and alcohol with brightly colored packaging targeted towards children? I honestly wonder if we would be better off if that were the case rather than large food corporations trying to get children addicted to sugar. My reasoning is that lung cancer, liver disease, and other diseases related to drinking/smoking are causing death MUCH less frequently than diseases related to obesity.
I am not the first person to notice the barrage of junk food advertisements we suffer daily:
PS: I am not judging any individual on this forum or in this world for that matter. I am merely sharing my own experiences with this type of addiction and opinion on this matter. My motivations are to raise awareness to the point to reach some of the people in denial about food addiction. Any person who wants to recover from food or any addiction has to be self-motivated, so telling someone what to do does no good. I am also not saying 100% of overweight people are that way because of overeating... However, I'm sure its well over 50% of overweight people are that way due to overeating; hence this post.
I am a little under 5' 11" and just under 30 years old. By the time I was in high school, I was at my full height and weighed around 235 lbs. At one point after high school, I weighed around 300 lbs. I was extremely unhealthy, unhappy, and self conscious. I knew the primary contributing factor of my obesity was overeating, but I was so impoverished and depressed at the time, eating fast food / junk food was one of my few comforts.
Later, my wife moved out and separated from me due to my destructive and addictive behavior (marijuana, depression, arrested development). When I was alone, I was able to lose almost 100 lbs partially because of fasting one day every few days. I also stopped buying an kind of junk food / sweets. Eventually, because the junk food / sweets were not easily accessible, I stopped craving them. I also started eating much smaller portions of food and my stomach shrank. I felt so much healthier and happier at that weight (200-215 lbs).
After about a year and a half later, my wife and I got back together. I was able to keep the weight off for a few months, but then my wife started making huge platters of brownies and other baked confections. The smell and taste of them were too much for me to resist. I would eat my evening meal when I got home from work, then partake of one or two brownies. Once the brownies ran out, I would start raiding her stashes of chocolate and other sweets that were not hidden in any way. Once I got in the habit of having a sweet treat, I would want one every night because I am a creature of habit. Every time I opened the freezer / fridge, I would be greeted by ice cream, chocolate candy, and pie. Eventually, the supply of junk would run out after a week or two (sometimes longer). But then one day I would open the fridge and she would go bananas with sweets / carbs. Recently, she bought two half gallons of ice cream, a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin flavored cake, and several different varieties of candy bars. She then baked 'blondies' (similar to brownies). A few days later, she ordered pizza and ordered a giant cookie the size of a small pizza. Every time she went bonkers with buying carbs, I would gain 5 pounds and would keep it on. Consequently, I went from a stable 200-210 lbs back up to 245-255 lbs today.
My wife's intentions are/were are loving, but the end result is very unhealthy:
Quote:At the present space/time the condition of well-meant and unintentional slavery are so numerous that it beggars our ability to enumerate them.
It was my time alone that brought me clarity on the situation: I was addicted to overeating / refined carbohydrates. I had all the hallmarks of addiction. Before this realization, I was in denial that what I was doing was addictive behavior. I had/still have no impulse control when sweets are easily accessible, especially when nobody is watching me. I intellectually know and also feel how bad these sweets / refined carbs are for me, yet I still consume them on a daily basis. I have had serious consequences to my addiction, yet I continue with it. Because of my motorcycle accident back in 2009, I have two very bad knees. The more overweight I am, the more painful walking or even simply laying in bed gets. Worse still, my disability makes it much more difficult/painful/dangerous to do any exercise involving my legs. I also suffer from sleep apnea, which worsens as I gain weight. Furthermore, I routinely get acid reflux from eating too many refined carbs which sometimes set off my panic attacks.
Before my accident, I had a job that was very physically demanding (loading heavy equipment into a van). Despite all the exercise I was getting, I gained a lot of weight because I was eating a ton of junk food at the time. The more weight I gained, the more it negatively impacted my job. One of my co-workers even commented on this, saying that I was slowing down at my job and would eventually be unable to do my job due to my obesity. He was right, of course. What I am getting at is I was no longer a high functioning addict because my addiction was effecting my job and personal relationships.
I have explained all these personal consequences to my wife several times and begged her not to buy all these sweets or at least hide her sweets, but she is a food addict herself that is deeply in denial. I even offered to purchase her own mini fridge/freezer that I could just train myself to never open so I would at least have some ability to control my impulses, but she refuses. Since we are addicts living together, we enable each other.
Growing up watching children's TV, I was constantly bombarded by advertisements for sugary cereal. I would then go to the supermarket with my mother and beg her to buy it for me. Every morning, I would start the day off with cereal that basically was just candy with milk poured on top of it. My mother would buy several 24 pack pallets of canned soda and I would consume several of those a day. The vending machines at school were full of junk food and soda.
Today, I have stopped consuming soda and cereal all together. However, I will occasionally walk down the cereal aisle at the supermarket when I go shopping with my wife and I just want to vomit. Nearly every box of sugary cereal has some cartoon character on it with brightly colored packaging with cereal drenched in food coloring shaped into stars or other attractive shapes. Its blatantly obvious the target audience is children. Its no wonder that heart disease and obesity is such a pandemic in the USA (and several other countries).
Could you imagine if when watching kid's TV, cartoon characters prompted you to bug your parents into buying you cigarettes and alcohol with brightly colored packaging targeted towards children? I honestly wonder if we would be better off if that were the case rather than large food corporations trying to get children addicted to sugar. My reasoning is that lung cancer, liver disease, and other diseases related to drinking/smoking are causing death MUCH less frequently than diseases related to obesity.
I am not the first person to notice the barrage of junk food advertisements we suffer daily:
PS: I am not judging any individual on this forum or in this world for that matter. I am merely sharing my own experiences with this type of addiction and opinion on this matter. My motivations are to raise awareness to the point to reach some of the people in denial about food addiction. Any person who wants to recover from food or any addiction has to be self-motivated, so telling someone what to do does no good. I am also not saying 100% of overweight people are that way because of overeating... However, I'm sure its well over 50% of overweight people are that way due to overeating; hence this post.
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