manage my food addiction

On May 2nd, 2008 I attended my first OA (Overeaters Anonymous) meeting. I have been attending meetings and “in recovery” since that day. It has been such a rewarding journey. I haven’t even logged into 43Things in ages… so logging in today and seeing that “manage my food addiction” was one of my goals but I hadn’t yet mentioned OA, I thought it best I did. In case anyone’s interested, take a look at the OA website

I think I’m not only managing my food addiction well, I’m just now starting to realize that I need to truly stop thinking of food as anything more than fuel. This way I can weigh and compare what’s best for me, eat it and be done with it. And try not to center ANYTHING around a meal. In fact, no more dates which are “dinners out”. No more inviting people for meals. Instead, center entertainment and joy around events, with food as a total afterthought. Yeah, gotta do that.

it’s been harder to manage my food addiction since I went vegetarian. sometimes I get really frustrated because it’s hard to maintain a nutritional balance where I feel like I’m getting an adequate supply of everything I need. And sometimes it is really boring.

But, I’ve learned to cook some new things. I’ve learned a LOT about what is actually IN fast food. Did you know there is beef fat in all McDonald’s fried products? So french fries aren’t vegetarian. HA!

Most fast food restaurants are a write-off for the vegetarian.

Swiss Chalet, which isn’t really fast food, but is faster than most restaurants, gets a big STAR for having 2 great vegetarian dishes:

1. Vegetable stir fry on noodles or rice. This is awesome. It has every colour of vegetable available (which is important, nutritionally), and they are in a special sauce (a little sweet, but good as long as it isn’t drowned). The noodles are great. I haven’t had the rice. The rice would probably be a more accurate portion size (my friend had it with the rice). There were a LOT of noodles.

2. Veggie burger. Just remember if you get the fries not to get any sauce, because it’s pure fat (and, of course, not vegetarian for those of you who are).

Food is just too damn good. But that doesn’t mean we have to stuff ourselves full of it either, I suppose.

haven’t written about this in ages, but I’m doing very well. my portion sizes are well under control and I’m not binging. I don’t think I’ve binged in months, actually.

I try not to think about food until it’s time to eat a meal, then I actually spend some time on making something that tastes really good (instead of rushing and making something that’s fast but doesnt’ taste as good). And I take a lot more time eating instead of shovelling it down my throat.

Kudos to me.

food food food. it’s everywhere I go and it’s I think about it far too much.

I write a blog about this one at livejournal: addicted2food