Addicted to food - should I give up on eating healthy ?

[Pristinemn]

I know how to eat healthy and I eat healthy half of the time. But eating healthy is such a battle, every day it's a fight, evolving around 3 things:

1. It takes loads of time to eat healthy (at least 1,5 hours preparing/cooking a day). I hate that.
2. I am too addicted to food as one of the main pleasures in live and not willing to give it up.
3. Social difficulties: Never eating grains/dairy literally means I have to break up with my girlfriend and cut off a few friends.

With my current food habits I'm on the road to serious health problems (also recently developed eczema), so I need to solve this. But I'm too addicted. Does anyone have any help ? Or should I maybe give up on eating healthy and accept my addiction ?

Edited May 3, 2019 by Pristinemn

[Lister]

20 minutes ago, Pristinemn said:

I know how to eat healthy and I eat healthy half of the time. But eating healthy is such a battle, every day it's a fight, evolving around 3 things:

1. It takes loads of time to eat healthy (at least 1,5 hours preparing/cooking a day). I hate that.
2. I am too addicted to food as one of the main pleasures in live and not willing to give it up.
3. Social difficulties: Never eating grains/dairy literally means I have to break up with my girlfriend and cut off a few friends.

With my current food habits I'm on the road to serious health problems (also recently developed eczema), so I need to solve this. But I'm too addicted. Does anyone have any help ? Or should I maybe give up on eating healthy and accept my addiction ?

I don't wish to offend you personally, that is not my intention, because I have also been here before, I also adopted this kind of thinking, but in all honesty your thinking currently sounds like the patterns of victim thinking because you blame and put all responsibility outside of yourself. 

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by Lister

[egoeimai]

@Pristinemn 1.it doesn't. Eat raw foods, fruits, salads (can prepare them in 5min), nuts, yogurt, cereal/nut bars, smoothies etc

2.find another pleasure. 

3.I don't think that's true. 

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

Look up Bitten Josson.

[Swede]

1. It doesn't need to take that long.

2. Andrew Taylor, the Australian who lived on only potato for a whole year, says: "If food is the most exciting part of your day you've got problems. Make your food boring and your life interesting."

You may want to check out Andrew Taylor on youtube. His story can be inspiring to you.

You may also want to check out Eric O'Grey.

3. Whole grains are healthy.

One way to become healthier is to hang around with healthy people and influencers, because their way of living will influence you. Maybe see it as an opportunity to gain new friends, rather than a risk of loosing old friends.

[fryingLotus]

1. It takes loads of time to eat healthy (at least 1,5 hours preparing/cooking a day). I hate that.

How long does it take you to prep your food now? I can make a meal in about 20 minutes, sometimes less. For example, I can take a tin of black beans and cook with garlic, veg, seasoning etc and cook rice at the same time. A curry will take around 45 minutes but I always make big batches. The last gave me 7 meals; I eat 1 and the other 6 go in the freezer (that's 6 minutes per meal).

2. I am too addicted to food as one of the main pleasures in live and not willing to give it up.

That can be tough, but you don't need to give up the foods you like, only moderate, although sometimes giving up is easier. Maybe ask yourself why are you not willing to give them up, what would you really be missing? Or, what would happen if you didn't use food as a pleasure/to fill a void, rather than as a necessity? (Food can still be pleasurable healthy) It can be a painful process to let go of things but it's empowering to go through. You could sit and write your feelings on the pros and cons of what life would be like if you did give up this habit. Also, as above, you can moderate. You don't have to eat healthy 100% of the time, and try to do things one bit at a time.

3. Social difficulties: Never eating grains/dairy literally means I have to break up with my girlfriend and cut off a few friends.

That's crazy haha, why would this be the case? I don't eat meat or dairy but 90% my friends do. I'll happily sit there with them while they're tucking in a steak or watch my girlfriend engorge on cheese. But yeah, like mentioned above, it's good to have positive people around you too. You don't have to drop your friends but there are meetup sites where you can meet some likeminded people. It's kind of why I come to this forum.

[Pristinemn]

Some very helpful advice here. Thanks a lot and let me get back to you guys later (busy weekend).

[Nahm]

On 5/3/2019 at 9:38 AM, Pristinemn said:

I know how to eat healthy and I eat healthy half of the time. But eating healthy is such a battle, every day it's a fight, evolving around 3 things:

If you’re aware of the body in the simple ‘there it is’ sense, then you must be the awareness. 

You’re experiencing the back & forth battle because you need to change how you think of yourself as awareness, and of your body, as the temple. You need to make this distinction. If you keep looking at your body, and identifying imperfections, but believe you are the body and it’s imperfections - because that is not true, your emotional response will always ‘not feel good’. This is literally Truth, telling you, “That’s not true! You are perfect just as you are!!”. Listen to the emotions. Stop identifying as the body, and changing it becomes incredibly easy. How..again....if you are aware of the body, then you are awareness. Don’t over think that. Let it be obvious. If you are aware of a refrigerator, then you are not the refrigerator, because clearly you are the awareness of a refrigerator. 

You, awareness, are perfect, exactly as you are right now. Not a single flaw. You, perfect awareness, are aware of, a body. 

1. It takes loads of time to eat healthy (at least 1,5 hours preparing/cooking a day). I hate that.

Make this waaaay easier... and make the Loophole Shake. It’s delicious, perfectly healthy, and takes less than 5 minutes to prepare. 

1 - 2 scoops of Chocolate Raw Meal with greens. (Amazon, Target, etc)

1 cup of ice.

1 cup or so of chocolate almond milk. (Not Silk)

1 banana

1 table spoon of cocoa powder 

Mix in blender, or nutribullet, etc.

2. I am too addicted to food as one of the main pleasures in live and not willing to give it up.

The “not willing to give it up” is really not realizing your “addiction”, is overthinking / not meditating daily. Be willing to meditate every morning. It will change your life. 
3. Social difficulties: Never eating grains/dairy literally means I have to break up with my girlfriend and cut off a few friends.

The meditation will help you gain some clarity & self control. You’ve been eating high calorie - low nutrient food. The shake reverses this. Will power will be less and less of an issue. This doesn’t have anything to do with anyone but you. Your girlfriend and friends have nothing to do with it. Take ownership of meditating every morning, and trying the shake, or any other nutrient rich foods. You’ll see. 

With my current food habits I'm on the road to serious health problems (also recently developed eczema), so I need to solve this. But I'm too addicted. Does anyone have any help ? Or should I maybe give up on eating healthy and accept my addiction ?

It’s the overthinking, that’s all. “Addiction to eating unhealthy” is just a thought. The fear you feel is from identifying as the body, and as an addict. Your emotions are saying “That Is Not True!!!!”   Just start listening. 

 

[tenta]

On 5/3/2019 at 4:58 PM, Lister said:

I don't wish to offend you personally, that is not my intention, because I have also been here before, I also adopted this kind of thinking, but in all honesty your thinking currently sounds like the patterns of victim thinking because you blame and put all responsibility outside of yourself. 

 

 

Nowhere in his post did he say it's someone else's fault.

[Lister]

Just now, tenta said:

 

Nowhere in his post did he say it's someone else's fault.

I never suggested that the op was blaming another person for their problems.

I feel you're projecting your assumptions rather than owning them and reading what is actually said.

[Lister]

18 minutes ago, tenta said:

 

Nowhere in his post did he say it's someone else's fault.

Addiction is created by a hidden subject (shadow) that is appearing as a symptom..

I didn't eat the cake, my "addiction" made me do it.

The cure for this is taking responsibility and locating what the subjects grievance is so that it then becomes an object and no longer controls the person.

I hope this clarification clears my position up sufficiently. 

Btw. If you want to be taken seriously and your text not look like picking an argument, please put your comment into context next time.

Communication skills are key on a forum like this. 

Edited May 4, 2019 by Lister

[Pristinemn]

I'm simply too busy (have other priorities) to respond extensively. Responding more extensively would be justified given all the useful advice. Let me just say that since starting this topic I made a soup for the whole week (to make eating healthier easier), tried to not fall in the bingetrap during weekends, and dig deeper why I crave unhealthy food sometimes (hint: stopping boredom and getting a feeling of love + plain pleasure of course).

I don't know how this will develop in the future. It's still frustrating that going 100% clean (at least with the big offenders like grains, dairy and processed food) is something I'm apparently not willing to do. Going 70-80% clean in that area is still a huge risk to end up with serious health issues down the road.

Btw, I'm around 10% bodyfat and in general in good health. But I do have some auto-immune issues that will worsen with half-assed clean eating.

[Swede]

Doctors and psychologists who coach people into eating 100% healthy says working on the environment is more important than working on your self. Thus, empty you home on everything that's unhealthy, because if it's in your house it's in your mouth.

So, make your environment free from junk food. Expose yourself only to healthy foods.

[Swede]

Dr. Brooke Goldner's advice:

• Get happiness from elsewhere than food.
• Motivate yourself.
• Plan.