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Why do you eat?

Aside from the obvious...eating to survive.....let's talk about why we eat when we are not hungry!

I realized last night as I reading some pages from Allen's book and thinking of how happy I was to have walked....I realize I have always had a food addiction.....the nicotene just gave me something else to do so my food addiction didn't always win. I eat to feel better, ironically I never do, but at the moment - I think I do....hmmmmeating addiction is not much different than our smoking addiction eh??

Now, Iam getting rid of one addiction, I really need to make sure my second addiction DOES NOT GROW!!

Any one else have thoughts on this topic? Why we eat? Have you had other addictions that were dormant while you smoked?
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12 Replies
ctm
Member

I don't know if it was dormant, but I developed a sweet tooth after I quit. I was eating hard candy like it was popcorn. I gave it up then took it up again and am now working on getting rid of it. Hopefully, this will be the last time 🙂

Also, smoking released fats and sugars into our bloodstream and so that might have something to do with it as well. We need to relearn how to eat as EX-smokers (in my opinion).
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cindywilson
Member

I think that if Americans were honest and they took a poll, 99% of us are addicted to something, gambling, drinking, food, drugs, pills, cigarettes, something. I think about why that is a lot. I think it has to do with our always as a country and people needing more, we never have enough. If a little is good, a lot is better, is the American motto. Unfortunately, that has happened with food, mostly because portion sizes are larger and has made us believe we need to eat more. I also think we mindless eat. We watch TV and eat, we are on the computer, we eat, we are driving, we eat, sometimes we eat out of boredom, or stress, or happiness, or sadness, BTW all addiction comes from that same place as you can see by why we eat too much, sound familiar?
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stacey6
Member

I also get cravings for sweets or any simple carbs. I've been quit for 53 days, but there is still that hunger I think is associated with smoking. I believe it's way easier to exercise as an Ex smoker, but easier to diet as a smoker. I just never want to go back to that trap ever again.
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Hey CHUCK.....I just read something last night that solves this mystery a bit on why we might be eating more during our quit.....
"The withdrawl pangs of nicotene are very similar to hunger pangs, and the two are easily confused. However the pangs of hunger can be satisfied by food and the withdrawl pangs of nicotine are never completely satisfied."

So if i read the above correctly.....I may try to feed my withdrawl with food....but can't truly satisfy it....so I just continue to eat and eat and eat.....and then quite possibly never really get out of withdrawl???!! hence the hard candy issue....I have done that too to help with the quit....but it just feeds something that stays hungry....

I really feel like walking helped a lot last night. It caused a chain of events....I walked...killed time, didn't eat of course while I was walking, was huffing and puffing so I didn't want a smoke, came home and was sweating so I drank a LOT of water and then I got FULL from water and then I was tired........I don't see any down fall in my chain of events from walking tonight!!!!! Ah I might copy and paste this into our main group page.....cuz really it makes sense!!

Another light bulb moment in week 4!! YAY us!!! gotta get off computer and go walk now!!
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ctm
Member

That's good stuff. I think that's probably true in the early part of a quit. For me (after 8 months) I think there were other things going on. Some companies have vending machines. Mine has a room full of candy, chips, etc. All-you-can-eat for free. Trust me when I say that is NOT a good thing 🙂 I'm back to packing my own bags of fresh fruit and vegetables to munch on. Much healthier and much better for the waist line as well 🙂

BTW, I think that sugar addiction is an entity unto itself.
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Leenie
Member

I like your theory of the chain of events there, Gina. I probably need to copy that and put it on the freezer so that I hang a u-ie and go out the door for a walk instead of into the ice cream for a fix.

Leenie
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Leenie
Member

Oh, my gosh! How diabolical! It's bad enough where I work that we have a little cafe/coffee bar where all kinds of donuts, cookies and cheese cake, for gosh sakes!, can be had. I'm glad we have to pay for it. I take the snacks too most days. It's always dangerous if I run out of snacks or am in a hurry and forget.

Leenie
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patty23
Member

I am a food addict ...
When I quit smoking...it was hard.
But...I did turn to food and gained a lot of weight.
Cigarettes compared to food?
Food is the tough one.
Cigarettes...you don't have to have or be around...you can live without them.
Food on the other hand is a necessity. We can't quit food.
so instead of quitting we must learn ...behavior modification.
Learning to eat a serving of something instead of the whole thing.
And learning to make healthier choices when we do eat.
Only after 8 years am I starting to get that to sink in.
Your taste buds do come alive and everything smell and taste so good.
I think I was a chain smoker ...now I have to be careful and not be a chain eater.
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katheen
Member

Boy Patty, you sound like me with the eating part at least. All I want to do is eat and then in a couple of hours eat again and I need to learn not to do that. Now that I'm learning a new life style I have to learn what is a portion of food instead of eating more than what I should be eating. I know that before a serving was a serving spoon or two of that before I'd say that was enough. I still eat to much and I'm going to start weighing my food so then I can cut down on portion that way it'll help me out allot.

Love You Kathleen
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