Breaking Food Addiction
Introduction
Our bodies are forcing us to eat to survive. In this modern world of plenty it is no wonder that more and
more people are struggling with their weight. When we eat, our brains release feel-good chemicals like
dopamine. For some people food becomes a like a drug that controls their behaviour. For me it was a
urge to constantly look for food and snack on anything I could find. After gaining weight I became really
unhappy about the situation and tried many diets over the years. It was to no avail as I would time and
time again slip into the bad habit of snacking and gain the weight back on that I lost.
Fortunately I can report that those days are over now. I no longer snack constantly, but may still eat a
healthy snack once in a while. The big difference is that I do have control over it, and can choose when
to snack and when not to. In this guide I aim to show you how I did it and I hope that it will inspire you
to make healthier lifestyle choices in the future.
How to break a food addiction
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. Any changes to your diet should be done in consultation with a
medical professional.
The good news is that I can assure you that you can overcome your food addiction. There could be many
ways to achieve this, but I can only share the way that worked for me.
What I did to break my food addiction was to fast for two meals during workdays for about six months.
If I had the knowledge at the time that I obtained while doing research for my ebook 'Keep calm and
lose weight', I am positive that it could have happened much sooner. What I found was that it is
knowledge about nutrition that will empower you to manage your weight.
How to fast (excerpt from ebook: Keep calm and lose weight)
Fasting is another way that you can use to turbocharge your weight loss. It is optional and only
recommended for healthy adults and only for the weight reduction phase. Teenagers need more
nutrients for their developing bodies and should not fast. Losing weight too quickly is unhealthy and
there is a bigger chance for it to be gained again.
There is a very specific way to approach fasting to ensure that it is done in a sustainable manner that will
minimize harm to your body.
Setting a fixed nutritional schedule is a very powerful way to manage your diet. You can teach your body
to expect certain types of food at certain times of the day and also certain days of the week. If you stick
to the schedule you will not get hungry.
When we talk about fasting we talk about skipping a meal or two during the day, and not skipping days
altogether. Skipping days without eating is not a good idea in my opinion and could cause your body to
panic and force you to overeat afterwards to compensate.
The golden rule for fasting is to remember that if you eat breakfast, you will want to eat lunch. Not
consuming food at all is needed to sustain fasting until dinner time. Once you’ve eaten something you
wake up your body's metabolic processes and you have all but lost the battle for the day. The best thing
to do in that case is to resume eating normally.
If you had an unbalanced meal the night before, you will really struggle to fast because your body still
needs a certain amount of energy input per day to be satisfied. If all the planets do not align, skip fasting
for the day.
It is also important to stabilize your blood sugar by drinking slow release multivitamins and something
like a skim milk coffee to start the day. The secret is to make your body used to only consuming
coffee/tea and water until dinner time.
To sustain fasting during the working week is quite achievable as the routine will help you to train your
body to function without food. Just keep up with scheduled consumption of coffee, tea and water.
On weekends it is much harder to sustain fasting and you should rather take a break from it. It will stress
you out and confuse your body if you break your fast at different times. Rather only fast during the
workweek when you are following a fixed schedule.
During the fast you also will eat a bit more at dinner time as your body needs a certain amount of
nutrients per day to be satisfied. You will find that if you overeat or snack at night you will still gain
weight while you are fasting.
It is very important to consume all the major food groups needed for a healthy balanced meal at dinner
time. Having a bit extra protein will help you start again the next morning. Never fast when you are
feeling unwell or stressed.
Getting through the first week is hard. Do not do any exercise during the first week as your body needs
to adapt to having no food and it will take some time to do so. Chewing sugar-free gum when you are
hungry may help you get through the initial stage. After about two weeks it will be easier to fast if you
followed the guidelines discussed previously. After a month of fasting you will experience no hunger at
all on most days as your body will be used to only expect food at dinner time.
Fasting is not for everyone and only works in a ‘calm seas’ situation when your schedule is predictable
and your body is healthy. Stop fasting temporarily when you feel light headed or unwell, or if there is a
change in your work schedule.
Conclusion
After fasting two meals per day during the workweek for about six months, my food addiction was
broken and I could move on to a healthy diet and continue to lose weight without the burden of being
constantly reminded to snack. It was the best feeling in the world to free of my food addiction.
For more information about how to get the right mindset to continue to lose weight and much more,
you can refer to my ebook 'Keep calm and lose weight' available here:
www.keepcalmandloseweight.net
Thank you for reading and all the best with your weight-loss journey.
Bernard Friis
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