It’s not how tragically we suffer but how miraculously we live.
~Inspirational Saying
Can we really be food addicts? This sounds absurd, we have to eat. So if we’re addicted to food, what do we do? Stop eating, like the alcoholic stops drinking, or the drug addict abstains from the drug.
No, we must eat. And food is a good thing, but for some it’s addictive, particularly if there is a food sensitivity. In Food Addiction, The body Knows by Kay Sheppard, she asks the reader to, “Consider this question, humorous though it may seem: Can gummy bears and marshmallow chicks really be vicious killers?” And states, “As silly as that sounds, for certain individuals who are sensitive, refined carbohydrates can trigger the addictive process.”
I read this book over thirty years ago and at first thought she was making a silly comment until I realized she was describing me. And today, I live free from addictive foods. Thank you, Kay Sheppard, for saving my life.
And Kay was kind to endorse my second book: Release Your Obsession with Diet Chatter: Heal from the Inside Out, a book on quieting the monkey chatter common to the addictive mind. 
Kay’s endorsement was simple but powerful and quite meaningful to me. She writes, “How do we override established diet-brain chatter? Since it is a psychological truth that we move toward our dominant thought, embracing the ideas in this book will serve the reader to develop a powerful recovery mind.” ~Kay Sheppard, LMHC.
Okay, that was a high that the very person I held so dearly in my heart for helping me with my recovery believed in me to help others as well. It was (and is) a full circle moment for me. I practiced what she taught along with working a Twelve Step program for food addiction, hence pulled myself out of a terrible hole I’d been in from my teen years to early forties.
That’s a long time to be unwell, and I hoped (and hope) to light the recovery torch for those suffering sooner rather than later, avoiding years of wasted time with pain and suffering.
As I gaze at the picture, I took a few years ago I remember thinking how the sun rising looks similar to the sun setting. Questioning is it a beginning or an ending… only to be a beginning once again?
Somehow, my mind related this thought to successfully giving up addictive foods only to fall back to bingeing on sugary and flour foods and then to give them up again. A continuous cycle like sunrise and sunset.
A dear friend and sponsor who I admired and respected fell off her program eating free of sugar, flour and wheat after years of leading the way for many food addicts, including me. At first, I felt a heaviness in my heart: an ending.
But then I thought about myself and the times I fell off my path and succumbed to binge eating. Although they were dreadful times, I learned and grew from each experience beyond my wildest imagination.
When you’re eating non-processed actual foods and your weight is “normalized” there is this sense of glorious mastering (beating) a chronic, progressive, and fatal disease. You forget where you were, only focused on where you are: your success.
Today, I might embrace this almighty knowing because I am 100 pounds lighter and thousands of people come to me for advice, and then the unthinkable happened: my sponsor falls.
It’s like an ice cold splash of water smack in the face. It is a reminder that this disease does not go away. We only masked it with clean eating, while lurking in the background is the disease wanting to resurface.
But is this the end? No! It is only the beginning. Just as the sun rises and sets and then rises once again. Every fall brings an incredible surge of erecting. I would not be where I am today if I did not crash many times.
Father Rookey (a wonderful priest I knew, now passed away) told me once, “Out of bad comes good, always.” He spoke these words with such conviction as his golden brown eyes locked straight into my eyes.
Out of bad comes good always! Hey, look at Oprah, another mentor of mine (and probably yours) from years back. She, too, struggled with this insidious disease. She inevitably turned bad into good. But like many, struggled with on and off, up and down weight loss and addiction to food.
Food addiction knows no bias. It does not matter how rich or poor you are, educated or uneducated, if your skin is black, white, or brown. Food addiction is a chemical imbalance that often comes with weight gain and even obesity.
Statistics show over seven million Americans suffer from Binge Eating Disorder (BED), which often is perpetuated by food addiction (chemical imbalance)
I read in Oprah Magazine (March, 2009), What I Know for Sure section, “66% of American adults are overweight or obese.” In my research, I learned that if Americans don’t change their eating and exercise, 75% of the population will be overweight or obese by the year 2015! And here we are, 2022, and it’s looking quite accurate.
This is not astounding to me as my phone rings and emails stack several times a day with someone reaching out for help with their eating disorder.
Yes, my dear friend and mentor was in a dark place and then sadly passed away on New Year’s Eve during the pandemic in 2020. You could say she was the sun going down. But tomorrow is the birth of a new day, a new beginning, and with her wisdom, she lit the torch for so many. I know she found her way out of her darkness and blinded many with her light. Out of bad comes good always!
Are you food addicted? Do certain foods cause you to binge eat? If so, you are not alone. Food addiction and Binge Eating Disorder are challenges for many. What’s your experience been like? Do you have a recovery to share. Your thoughts are important to me and to readers alike. Please share by scrolling all the way down to the comments section.
Thank you for spending time with me and my thoughts throughout these pages. I hope my words lit your excitement to become your best self for you. I look forward to sharing my next book with you on how to release your obsession with money. God bless you… and your journey through this life and all that awaits beyond…
Thank you for being a part of the reading blog forum of this blog. If you have something you’d like to say, I’d love to hear it. YOU are important and your words need to be heard. I’m here for you.
To learn more on recovery from food addiction, eating disorders, weight issues, dieting, and aging, please check out my Release Your Obsession Series.
Stay tuned…you never know where my mind will wander…
Hugs to you, I care!And now my newest release:
Release Your Obsession with MONEY: Heal from the Inside Out
