Just few months ago, I was 70 lbs overweight. My eating behaviour had become an major issue. Although there were many foods I binged on, my great mistake was chocolate abuse. Yes sir, I was addicted to chocolate. Daily I had to leave the house with the purpose of buying a bag of chocolate sweets. So if you find yourself screaming “How do I stop eating”, then believe me, you are not alone.
Today I am 70 lbs lighter, because I managed to crack my binging habit, and in this article I will give you a good idea of how I did it.
When I binged, I didn’t enjoy it. I knew exactly what I was doing to my body, and I hated myself for it. But I felt a pressing need every day to binge on certain foods. Each morning I would wake up with a huge desire for chocolate and, feeling unable to resist it, would try to figure out which shop to go to get my supplies.
But one day I sat down and really examined why I did what I did. I started writing down how I felt about my binging, what I felt it gave me, and why I felt I had to get supplies every day. The only conclusion I could come to was that I used food to make me happy. It was a vicious cycle — I was fat, and had low self-esteem, and was therefore unhappy. Yet perversely, food made me happy (though only temporarily). All I was doing was consolidating my condition.
So I just said to myself “Hang on. What if I just let junk food go? What if I just stopped eating chocolate?”. I knew it would be a rough few days to start with, but what if I could suck it up and accept the feelings of initial unhappiness? Eventually the weight would start to drop off. And guess what? That is exactly what I did. I stopped resisting. I let go of the dependence on junk food, got through the tough first week — like a Withdrawal period — but then found it plain sailing. After a few weeks, I found myself with no desire for junk food whatsoever.
If you’re screaming “How do I stop eating”, you have to realise that in 99% of cases, your over-indulgence is an emotional dependency. I’m willing to bet that deep down, you’re feeling unhappy. Now will you please realise that by eating junk food, you are simply satiating the unhappiness for a limited period of time.
It is like a smoker. Nicotine isn’t actually a particularly strong physical addiction. Smoking is primarily a psychological addiction. If a smoker has a cigarette, then they put nicotine in their body which gradually subsides. As the nicotine disappears, so does the “hit”. As a result, the smoker lights up another cigarette in order to feel good. All the smoker would have to do to stop smoking is simply…stop smoking! Let go. Stop instilling the nicotine which just starts a vicious cycle.
It is the same thing with junk food. You feel unhappy — you eat junk food — you get a sugar “hit” — the hit starts to subside — you feel unhappy again — you eat more junk food. Do you see what a devastating cycle this is? If you want to beat the food addiction and actually live in a permanent state of happiness, then simply stop eating junk food. It is literally that easy. That doesn’t mean the first two or three weeks will be plain sailing — you will have to live with the sorrow without the hit. But once you’re go through counseling or therapy, the addiction could be easily kicked and the over weight could fly off.