“I always have a weight issue in my life. It is also an issue of self-confidence level. Food like chocolates, sweet, cakes etc., was often a reward or “to keep me happy” kind of thing. Even as a child I am sure that I was given more food when I wasn’t given personal attention.
Diet’s are a form of restrictions.
When a person is on a “diet” it is like a statement to everyone around them that they are trying to lose weight. They are telling the people around them they can only eat a certain foods… That food is the food that is on the diet. It is a form of restriction on a loved one. They now have to show their love by helping me stay on a diet. With a “diet” it seems easier for a person to watch me sweat and work out harder to obtain that new weight that I have set for myself.
I seem to think that being one of the reasons for me being fat. As a baby, a child is given a bottle to drink to make them happy and stop crying. Even I give myself pleasure with food. I have learned to have pleasure from food.
Now diet, is a plan of food a person eats for life to keep a certain weight. OK.. the rules change, and now my self esteem is up and I am worth surviving. Yes, it is a survival issue. Eating too much can kill me.
Of course the story of being fat isn’t that easily answered or talked about. There are many other factors on the way I think about this issue. There is much more to it. Much, much more.
And this wonderful web site and you wonderful gals are helping me. Women need more self esteem on many issues. Women can and deserve to be happy”- Peggy (WSE member)
Thank You Peggy for allowing me to share your post in my blog. For people with an emotional addiction for food, losing their extra weight is a lot harder than eating less food and getting on the treadmill. Many people are over weight because they are suffering with an inner issue. They will use food as an emotional void filler. The only reason they are hungry is because they are sad. They have confused hunger with sadness. They use food as their drug to feel calmness. They will eat and space out as an addict does after a fix.
They will also fall into the roller coaster of self-loathing. Loathing the fact that they once again fell into the unnecessary need for food. People that are obese and actually have lost weight, are of two minds. They feel like they are someone else when they are thinner and live a life where they fear that they could fall into that food addiction at any second. The other mind is the one that is consumed with self-disgust and a weakness for the addiction of food. People with eating addictions love and hate food. Again being of two minds.
They try to justify themselves, by criticizing people without food addictions. They will drive by fast food restaurants and debate within themselves, only to increase the need for food, which only causes them to devour even more than usual. They are in a constant battle with, should I or shouldn’t I. I know I shouldn’t but I so want to. It’s a viscous circle for them.
One of the hardest things for obese people to deal with is the whispers and snickers from other people as they pass by them. They know well enough that they disgust people just by watching their reactions, yet is is not enough to make them stop eating. Obese people are ridiculed in public all the time and they loose out on many relationships because the other person cannot understand their addiction for food. Food addicts will even ignore that they are literally killing themselves with every bite that they do not need.
They choose to not think about it, as any addict does. Some will say that solving food addiction is as easy as just telling people to stop being lazy, to exercise and to stop over eating. For them, food means so many things besides fueling their bodies with nutrients. Their addiction will totally over rule their nature to protect themselves, health wise or society`s concerns about appearance.
Depression, low self-esteem, history of abuse, poverty, family obesity and emotionally troubled childhood upbringings are a few of the greatest causes that trigger off food addiction. As I said earlier in this article, people are desperate to fill an emptiness. Food is the easiest route to reaching that full feeling they desire. Emotional emptiness is the monster that creates the addiction in obese people.
You would think that with all the methods that have proven to help people with their weight issues, there would not be a single overweight person, but the numbers are growing faster every day. Obesity is one of the only health issues the we know how to battle and prevent, yet we fail to do so.
Why is that? Is it because FAT is one of those HUSH words? Do we ignore the overweight issues of others, so not to hurt their feelings? Are we doing them any favours by pretending it is OK to be dangerously overweight? Do we feel that if they like themselves like that, who are we to judge them? Do we think to ourselves, better them than me?
People that are addicted to the food drug are just as mprisoned as any other addict. There is only one way to get off the drug, and that is to seek help. Also they must want to get off this drug, for themselves. They must want to feel good about themselves. To be able to get to that point, they must build their self-esteem and address the skeletons in their closets. This is why I created womensselfesteem.com. This is one road to an addiction-free place in your mind.
As you read in Peggy`s post, she has finally begun her climb up the mountain to a better feeling person. She wanted to share her moments and effects of food addiction with the other women. You just have to want to start the struggle against food addiction,