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Food Addiction

Food Addiction Blog

This blog is about food addiction and overcoming this debilitating disease. As one who fought with food addiction for many years, I understand how overwhelming this addiction can be. Having won my own battle, I wish to help others do the same. Feel free to register and begin posting your own entries. Together, we find strength in numbers!

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Holding on but still struggling

by Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione is the co-author of the book, Who Is This Guy? The story of a 500
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 04 February 2012
Excercise 0 Comments

I am now five weeks into this struggle of staying focused.  I haven't lost it, but I am certainly out of the groove I had been in since early July of 2011.  I have given in to temptation and eaten some things that I consider "trigger foods" which I had been staying away from completely for the last six months. The struggle goes on, with a couple of good days followed by a bad one. A good day is a day of strict eating, taking in around 1800 to 2000 calories of clean foods.  On a bad day I may hit 2700 to 2800 calories by eating stuff like a cookie or toast with butter and peanut butter or pizza in addition to lunch rather than for lunch.

I have kept my weight at 192 to 193 pounds, but it is not easy anymore.  When I was focused last year, it was effortless to maintain. The non-trigger foods that I ate exclusively did not make me crave the wrong foods.  I was never hungry, and, in fact, I had to eat at scheduled times to make sure that I ate enough each day to reach my proper caloric intake.  Now, I have this energy drain.  A person only has so much energy to expend each day. I probably have more energy than most people my age, but I am more at ease when that energy is directed at improving relationships with loved ones, improving my business or focusing on recreational activities. When I am struggling, that energy is used to fight off urges and I become consumed with fear and concern over loosing control.

It's a lot of work to stay focused, but it can be much more work to get your focus back if you loose it. I will keep you posted on how I am doing and I welcome any input, ideas or methods you or someone you know may have that has helped.

0 votes

Holiday Struggles

by Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione is the co-author of the book, Who Is This Guy? The story of a 500
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 17 January 2012
General Food Discussions 0 Comments

Typically, I would stray from my strict eating plan between Thanksgiving and New Years. I would convince myself by rationalizing that it was all about moderation and not deprivation.  Each year I would struggle to get back on track after the holidays ended. Some years I would accomplish this during January and other years I would battle to get back into my eating plan for four to six months, having experienced weight gain and frustration in the process.

This year I stayed focused until the last two weeks of the year when I got weak and had small helpings of deserts on three occasions. That was all that it took. I am now struggling to stop the cravings and variations in my eating habits that leave me feeling uncomfortable. The "hungry horrors" have driven my usual 1900 to 2100 daily calorie consumption to 2300 to 2800 per day. That means I've put on a few pounds and I look and feel softer.

As usual it was the sugar that got me started. On one occasion I had some chocolate covered pretzels, on another it was a very small piece of apple pie and one other time it was three bites of cake with frosting.  I was also having more bread than usual and adding snacks more often because the cravings were calling for more junk food. The impact of these trigger foods is immediate. They sabotage my efforts to eat clean and stay on track. First of all these trigger foods do not satisfy my appetite and, more importantly, they interfere with the signals that indicate that I am full.

I am not capable of putting the brakes on without difficulty. I am struggling right now to regain the strict clean eating program that I was on before the holidays. I was completely focused for six months before this hiccup. I will get back on track.  I am just concerned about the damage I may do before I am back in control. Do you have the same problem? If so, please share with us how you deal with it.

 

 

 

0 votes

Eating After Surgery

by Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione is the co-author of the book, Who Is This Guy? The story of a 500
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 01 October 2011
General Food Discussions 0 Comments

I am ten and a half years post surgery and I  still stay completely away from any and all fried foods. I also do not eat donuts or other bakery products unless they are homemade (low fat) and I know exactly what is in them ( no trans fats ) and what the calories are. I try to avoid processed sugars (candy and cakes) and I never drink my calories ( juices or soda). However I will drink juice if I juice it myself in my Juiceman.I will juice the fruits and vegetables that I don't like to eat but I know are good for me such as beets, blueberries, strawberries, parsley, broccoli stems and melons. I stay away from cream sauce of any kind. I limit my intake of pasta because for some reason it sits real heavy in my stomach and bothers me. I avoid white bread in any form (sliced,English muffin, bagel) and white pasta and sugar free beverages because they all trigger cravings for more of the same.  So I choose to stay away from them whenever possible. I eat red meat on a very limited basis and I almost never eat deli meats.

I do eat a lot of egg whites, canned tuna,fat free dairy ( cottage cheese, sliced cheese, milk ).  I eat baked chicken, baked or broiled white fish, turkey burgers and meatloaf, broiled scallops. I choose Beefstake lite Rye bread when I have bread and I eat a fair amount of bran and wheat based cereal. I eat baked sweet potato or baked sweet potato fries, and I eat yukon gold potato, mashed , with skim milk and fat free butter as well as fat free cheddar cheese for flavor. And lots of fruits and vegetables.

At some point in the near future I will post under a section called Eating Plan, what my 13 week eating plan is for the 13 weeks that began two days ago. Not that I expect anyone to follow my plan, but to hopefully subscribe to the concept that a plan is a very important element to success and you will design your own plan for eating within a time frame that works for you.

0 votes

Overwhelming Task

by Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione is the co-author of the book, Who Is This Guy? The story of a 500
User is currently offline
on Wednesday, 21 September 2011
General Food Discussions 0 Comments

When I weighed 456 pounds, getting to a normal weight seemed like a an impossible task. I figured that if i wanted to lose 260 pounds and i did it at a safe, healthy pace of two pounds a week it would take me 130 weeks or two and a half years. Did I have what it would take to stay focused that long? It didn't really take that long, because I was able to stay 100% focused. I did it in 17 and 1/2 months, 76 weeks, for an average loss of 3.42 pounds per week. I started out, of course, with some big weeks of 5 to 6 pounds and eventually settled into a groove of a steady loss of about 2 to 2 and 1/2 pounds per week. The primary problem with previous attempts was that, for one reason or another , I could never sustain the program I was on for more than a few weeks or even months at a time. I was always looking at the long term goal (that's the way I am wired) and it was so overwhelming and difficult and I lacked the mental toughness to bring it to the finish line.My solution to that problem was to shorten up the goals. I break my goals into 13 week periods. The 13 weeks works for me but you may find that that is still too long for you,but the point is that you need to find a plan that works and the components of the plan should include a specific written set of goals, a time frame with a start date and an end date, an eating plan and an exercise plan. We will talk more about these different components in future posts and of course I invite comments, questions and feedback that could help me, you and other readers.

0 votes

Managing Your Life So That You Can live Your Life

by Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione is the co-author of the book, Who Is This Guy? The story of a 500
User is currently offline
on Wednesday, 21 September 2011
General Food Discussions 0 Comments

I never really feel like I am in control of my life or out of danger of falling off the wagon and returning to my old bad habits. The key for me is to stay totally focused on whatever compulsive behavior will consume my efforts and prevent me from overeating. I've also learned to recognize the patterns that lead to loss of control and I have so much respect for their power and strength that I no longer take them lightly but instead react right away. It's a full time job. I am a lot of work and I drive myself crazy because as I was out of control with my eating I am now out of control with my management of my intake, my exercise and my chronicling of everything related thereto. I divide my life into 13 week segments. So four times a year I write a new exercise program and a new eating plan. These go together with a set of goals for that segment which may include loosing a few pounds or gaining a few pounds by adding muscle or maintaining weight while loosing an inch on my waist. Whatever it is i feel it is easier to accomplish a goal if you have one. One of my problems is my inability or should I say extreme difficulty in making adjustments to my plans. I will normally build in as many as six cheat days into my 13 week eating plan, so that if an event comes up and my eating plan will be altered, then I have provided for that. If however my exercise routine is upset I can have great difficulty making the adjustment. I don't handle disruption to my routines very well, although I am better now than I used to be. For those of you who can relate to this unusual behavior, please share. For those who are not in this place yet, stay tuned and feel free  to jump in with questions.

3 votes

Stopping The Lifestyle Train Wreck Before It's Too Late

by Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione
Nick Mirrione is the co-author of the book, Who Is This Guy? The story of a 500
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 20 September 2011
General Food Discussions 2 Comments

Hello, my name is Nick Mirrione and I am a foodaholic with compulsive self destructive behavior which to some looks like obsessive compulsive disorder.

1 vote