Food Addiction: You Can Do This

How often do you pay attention to the foods you're drawn to? What you’re eating may be preventing you from sustainable change.

Refined or processed carbohydrates, fats, sugars and salts are hyper-palatable and can cause addictions.

Addicts can’t handle moderation, and attempting to can actually exacerbate the addiction. There are certain products that just won’t work for you to try to eat in moderation.

When people give up addictive substances, their lives are much better. However, it may be difficult to picture a life without those substances.

Before consuming something, ask yourself these two questions:
  1. If I consume this will I experience loss of control?
  2. If I consume this will I experience shame, blame and guilt?

If you’re stuck on not giving something up, that may be a reason to give it up. Maybe it’s time to pass on that chocolate you "can’t live without." Letting go may solve a long-term problem.

To be successful, it's important to find some delicious and healthy replacements for the foods that plague you.

Emotional and environmental issues can contribute to your addiction. Feeling stressed and depressed, coming from an abusive environment, or living with people who maintain terrible eating habits all increase your chances of food addiction. If food is your only comfort, you WILL go back to food.

What can be done when you don’t want to do what you know you should do? Do you find yourself reaching for a cupcake when it’s too hard to measure out a few ounces of turkey? Refocus and understand you can’t be perfect. Get yourself back on track if you make mistakes, and make healthier mistakes. You don’t have to binge on ice cream and potato chips if you slipped and had a piece of cake. Learn from the experience and do better in the future.

It’s important to wake up in the morning and go for the gold. It may not be a perfect day, but you can strive for your best. Chronic diet failure has demoralized people, so they just expect to fail. Focus on milestones. You have to keep showing up and working on it.

In the end, know that you CAN do it.

Listen in as Molly Carmel shares how you can gain power over your food addiction.

Sponsor:

Smarty Pants Vitamins
Food Addiction: You Can Do This
Featuring:
Molly Carmel, LCSW
Molly CarmelMolly Carmel, LCSW, is among the leading behaviorists in the field of obesity. She specializes in the treatment of weight management, eating disorders and addictions. 


Molly has made it her life’s mission to help people find a sustainable solution to the battle of obesity and related eating disorders. After battling an eating disorder for over 20 years and finding no solution in available treatment, she began her professional path towards creating The Beacon.

Molly has a personal dedication to helping you create change and find solutions that work for you. She molds your treatment at The Beacon to fit your specific needs and lifestyle. 

Molly’s work has been featured on The Today Show, The Dr. Oz Show, Dateline NBC, Anderson Cooper 360, and Extreme Makeover as well as in People Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.