The Color of Success

From Wikimedia

So the first task has been accomplished--to establish the edge pieces (boundaries) of my jigsaw puzzle (eating addiction): foods and situations that give me trouble when I try to control them. The foods are the colors that I will try to separate out and group together. Once that's accomplished, I will further categorize the pieces by pattern, or eating situations that give me trouble.

Here is the preliminary list of the foods (colors) and situations (patterns) I find to be troublesome:

Foods that give me trouble: (Colors)

Fatty and sweet-fatty foods, special occasion foods, "bargain" foods, foods obtained at coffee houses and other nostalgic eateries, foods made to please others, foods bought to please others, family dinner foods (especially excess portions)

Situations that give me trouble: (Patterns)

Holidays, coffee houses, diners, pancake houses, between meals, dinner with family, special occasions, eating out, fast food restaurants, ice cream stands and parlors, bakery thrift shops, grocery shopping when hungry, watching a movie (esp. at a theater), bake sales, traveling, stopping at gas stations on the road, when hungry, baking, cooking for family or friends, treating myself for comfort or celebration.

Using the method I use for jigsaw puzzles where I start with a bright color such as red, I’m going to start with the easiest food to recognize and segregate: ice cream. Since it’s winter, this will be one of the easiest foods to eliminate from my diet, although it will still be a challenge as I truly love ice cream (the ultimate sweet and fatty treat). So, I (mentally) gather up all the ice cream from all the situations where it seems to fit nicely, and put them aside. 

What’s more important, perhaps, than setting this food aside, however, is to pay close attention to how I am affected by removing it from my diet. What is my brain telling me about missing ice cream? While I’m doing that, too, I need to be trying to find a substitute for the neurochemicals that food stimulates.

If this kind of analysis seems familiar, it is: Shirley Simon devotes Chapter 2 in her book to helping us figure out what are our particular "subterfuges of fat"--excuses we give ourselves (that the addicted brain induces) that ultimately make it okay to eat to excess. Simon's behavioral modification approach is a scientific approach, after all, and doing the research is very important.

But there's more to it than that. The genius of the exploratory or scientific approach is that the research and study of the phenomenon of eating addiction is helping to substitute for the food's addictive effects by giving me a scanning activity to carry out in its wake.

So, I'll keep working at this and keep you updated. Stay tuned.