“It is well known that smoking causes blocked arteries, leading to coronary heart disease and stroke,” said study author Dr. Eva Holt of Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. “Our study shows that smoking also leads to thicker, weaker hearts. It means that smokers have a smaller volume of blood in the left heart chamber and less power to pump it out to the rest of the body. The more you smoke, the worse your heart function becomes. The heart can recuperate to some degree with smoking cessation, so it is never too late to quit.”

This study explored whether smoking was related to changes in the structure and function of the heart in people without cardiovascular disease, and the effect of changing smoking habits.

More about the study

The study used data from the 5^th Copenhagen City Heart Study which investigated cardiovascular risk factors and diseases in the general population. A total of 3,874 participants aged 20 to 99 years without heart disease were enrolled. A self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on smoking history and to estimate pack-years, which is the number of cigarettes smoked through life. One pack-year is defined as 20 cigarettes smoked every day for one year.

Participants had an ultrasound of the heart, called echocardiography, which provides information about its structure and how well it is working. The researchers compared the echocardiography measures of current smokers versus never smokers after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and lung function.

The average age of participants was 56 years and 43% were women. Nearly one in five participants were current smokers (18.6%), while 40.9% were former smokers and 40.5% had never smoked.

The findings

Compared to never smokers, current smokers had thicker, weaker and heavier hearts. Increasing pack-years were associated with pumping less blood.

Dr. Holt explained: “We found that current smoking and accumulated pack-years were associated with worsening of the structure and function of the left heart chamber – the most important part of the heart. Furthermore, we found that over a 10-year period, those who continued smoking developed thicker, heavier and weaker hearts that were less able to pump blood compared to never smokers and those who quit during that time.”

She concluded: “Our study indicates that smoking not only damages the blood vessels but also directly harms the heart. The good news is that some of the damage is reversible by giving up.”

Previous studies on smoking and heart health

Previous studies on the effect of smoking on heart health have also shown that smoking is associated with a higher risk of heart failure, where the heart muscle does not pump blood around the body as well as it should, usually because it is too weak or stiff. This means that the body does not receive the oxygen and nutrients it needs to work normally.

The link between smoking and heart structure and function has not been fully examined.

Source: Eurekalert!

The post The more you smoke, the worse your heart health appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

But there was a time not so long ago when life looked very different for me. I loved playing poker and the only time that people in Mumbai like to play that game is ‘late-night-through-the-morning’. As a result, I would have dinner at midnight, go to sleep at 6am, wake up at 1pm, have breakfast at 2pm, lunch at 5pm and basically lived a life as decadent as one can imagine. Then I was diagnosed with arthritis, followed by high cholesterol. The doctor who saw my reports said that with the level of cholesterol that I had, I should have been dead. That was my wake up call. I decided to make some changes in my life.

I had to start by giving up smoking. Even if you eat healthy, sleep on time, exercise and do all the other good things for your health, as soon as you light a cigarette, you deflate your motivation to do all those things and soon you go back to the debauchery. There is an inherent mismatch in detoxifying your body and smoking. It did not make any sense to me. So I decided to kick the butt. It was precisely then that the phrase “Easier said than done” took on a whole new meaning for me.

‘Valid’ reasons to smoke

I realised soon enough that quitting smoking was one of the most difficult things to do. I also read somewhere that it is easier to give up cocaine than to give up smoking. It is just so hard to not ‘light up’. When you’re trying to give up, the kind of excuses your mind makes up for smoking that cigarette are sometimes hilarious and at other times downright pathetic. I’ve listed a few that my fellow smokers will identify with. [I smoked so much and for so long that I still consider myself a member of the smokers club!]

Stressful situations

Any kind of stress is a reason to light up immediately. Stress at home [especially if you’re married], stress at work, stress at the poker table, not to forget the massive stress while you’re on the pot early in the morning and can’t do the job. Happy situations: Exhilaration, great news, reasons to celebrate, winning the lottery… Must smoke, and NOW!

Beautiful locations

How can you be in the countryside, admiring a gorgeous sunset and not have a smoke in your hand? How can you even think of walking along Darling Harbour, breathing in the fresh, clean air of Sydney without a cigarette to relish the moment?

After sex

To prolong the pleasure.

With friends

That’s how you celebrate with your friends, by being one of them. When they all light up, you light up.

Without friends

When you’re lonely, who do you have with you, except your loneliness and your Marlboro Man?

When you’re drinking

How do you enjoy a nice chai or a cappuccino without lighting up? And when you’re having alcohol you need an ashtray, right? Anyone who smokes creates these mountains of blockages. These are like chains that tie us to the habit. Am I about to give you a formula that will break these shackles away and make you give up smoking?

You bet I am.

Don’t be fooled, go for the real thing

With all of the different methods that I have tried in my life I finally found a foolproof one that works like magic. Before I tell you the magic formula, I have to first tell you the other so called magic formulas that did not work.

• Nicotine patches
• Electronic cigarettes
• Hypnosis
• Self-help books
• Psychological consultations
• Punching myself in the stomach and making myself believe that the cigarette that I was about to have was worse than 30 of those punches. [Some clown suggested this and like a desperate monkey I followed even this idea!]

As you’ve probably guessed by now, none of them worked. So this here is the foolproof guide to giving up smoking, coming from someone who used to smoke up to three packs a day.

Rule #1

Bring yourself mentally up to the point where you really want to quit smoking

If you try to give up smoking at a time when you relish each drag you take and every circle you blow out resembles a beautiful painting by Rothko to you, it ain’t gonna happen. I would try to give up smoking, fail and then try again and fail again. What worked for me finally is when I brought myself to a state of mind when I knew that I simply had to quit. I began to hate cigarettes and what they were doing to my body. You need to psyche yourself into hating smoking more than you really do; when you are disgusted by it, that’s when you can undertake the exercise to give it up.

Rule #2

Cold turkey is the only way

There’s so much out there on how to give up smoking. There are programmes that suggest you to reduce your intake, write down your progress and reward yourself for your achievement one day at a time. I tried it and it didn’t work. Not the first time. Not the tenth.

The only style of quitting that works effectively is ‘cold turkey’. Just throw away the pack and the lighter and say “I QUIT”. You may need to buy a fresh pack and a new lighter after an hour, but that’s okay. Out of the 15 times that you say, “I Quit”, only one needs to work out for you. That’s it.

Rule #3

Train your mind to love yourself and accept your body as a temple

This fundamental truth not only forms the backbone of your attempt to give up smoking but is also the basic tenet of all spiritual teachings: ‘Love thyself’. This is the root or the Mool Mantra of the theory of happiness itself. How can you do anything nice for your body if you don’t love yourself? Why would you sacrifice junk food or drinking yourself to liver failure unless you first see God living in your own soul?

This is not only the first step towards giving up smoking but also the first step towards living a life of bliss and joy.

Rule #4

Rectify your lifestyle

Don’t even bother to read ahead if you think that you cannot adhere to this one. You’d be wasting your time.

To start with, you must follow a disciplined lifestyle and timetable. This one is absolutely non-negotiable. You must wake up early and by early I mean latest is 6.30am. Maintain a fixed time for your breakfast and lunch as per your convenience but follow the timing for your dinner and sleep time as per my suggestion. Your dinner must be before 7pm and you must go to bed before 10.30pm. The domino effect of bad habits and bad health emanates from not following this rule completely.

When you sleep late, you wake up late. Your body automatically craves junk food. When you eat junk food, you poison yourself with bad food and drink, and you begin to love the additional toxicity that the nicotine in a cigarette provides.

But the opposite is also true. Good habits and a detox regimen also has a domino effect on you. When you are on a detox, you automatically start to develop a natural dislike for junk food. There came a time in my life that from being a hard core non-vegetarian [wherein I could and did eat anything that once ‘lived’], I went on to becoming a pure vegetarian. My body and soul both rejected any form of meat. By rectifying your lifestyle, you pave the way for a positive mindset that is weary of toxins and craves for a positive outlook towards life.

Rule #5

Flush, flush, flush

The nicotine that is currently in your body must go. It needs to be flushed out. If not, it will keep giving you withdrawal systems.

Drink plain warm water, ginger water, juices, green teas, lemonades with a pinch of organic turmeric added to it. Consume anything else that is organic and healthy and does not come out of a box or a packaged bottle. The other way of flushing toxins is eating loads of fresh organic fruits and steamed vegetables. The more you eat these, the more nicotine you will be able to flush out. The last—my favourite one—is pure ghee, preferably homemade; include it in your diet. What I advise is to have two teaspoons on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. To all those who led you to believe that ghee is fattening and adds to your cholesterol, please tell them [nicely] to shut up.

Rule #6

Mentally prepare yourself to put on some weight

When you give up smoking, you start to actually taste food. You start relishing it. Nicotine can cut down your hunger, so giving it up can increase your appetite. You will start eating more than you used to. Just let it happen. Remember that it is more important to give up smoking at this stage than to look sexy and slim [if you are that].

Rule #7

When you go off it, STAY off it

This is where most smokers goof up. After successfully pushing through the initial 25 days or so, we actually believe we are in total control and allow ourselves a drag or two thinking that we have given up and it cannot lure us back. I once gave up smoking for an entire year before I stumbled upon a night of raucous frenzy. In a state of mindlessness, I ‘allowed’ myself a puff [or maybe it was two]. The next morning I was smoking a pack a day and graduated to my two packs a few days after.

After all the effort that you make to giving up this habit, it is absolutely imperative that you do not give in to a weak moment and fight it like you have fought for nothing else in you entire life.

And now for the good news

When you succeed in giving up smoking, the first thing that you gain is your confidence and your self-respect. You know that you have conquered one of the most ruthless chemicals known to man. You know that you’ve quit an addiction that would have killed you like it has killed millions before. There’s more:

• You will be able to taste those sumptuous meals you eat—priceless!
• Your sex-life improves dramatically. I’d imagine this to be one of the most compelling reasons for a lot of men to give up.
• You glow. The detoxification process clears your skin of toxins and infuses fresh oxygen into your cells, healing them, rejuvenating them and making your skin radiate and shine.
• You get your life back.

Give it up and experience how it feels to live a complete, healthy and a joyous life full of love, positivity and fulfillment.

The post 7 rules that helped me successfully quit smoking appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Do you get a feeling of manic glee, happiness and joy during the spending process? Is it followed by depression, remorse, guilt and shame in the face of the results of your spending? Do you know the courier delivery guy by his first name? Have you ever taken Cyber Monday off from work so you can shop all day online? Is your credit card simply a legal device you use to charge you 20 per cent interest on money you won’t earn until next month, so you can buy things you don’t need today? Here are signs you may be addicted to on-line shopping:

• you have a secret postal box so you can hide purchases from your loved ones
• you have more than one blue recycling bin overflowing with cardboard boxes
• you are preoccupied with buying because it makes you feel special
• you have received packages that you totally forgot you ordered
• your credit cards are maxed out from online shopping
• you’ve accidentally bought the same item twice or more
• you secretly online shop at work, at home and anytime you have a minute free
• you have 20 different mobile apps that help you spend more money
• you hyperventilate when you read  65% off, 75% off, up to 85% off
• your shopping has caused a problem with a relationship at home or at work
• your shopping has caused you to worry about debt
• you have canceled meetings and family events so that you can shop online
• you lie about it to friends and family

It’s an addiction, no less

My parents took me shopping twice a year. At Easter we got a brand new outfit head to toe and in September we went to the nearest Sears store and got three outfits for school. Being addicted to online shopping or having a Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD) was something we would never have understood was even possible. CBD or Oniomania comes from the Greek words; for sale and mania or insanity. It is described as having an obsession with shopping that causes negative consequences. Interesting, because the way to decide if you’re addicted to alcohol is to ask yourself if drinking causes negative consequences in your life.

The high of the buying process is typically followed by disappointment and guilt which creates a need for more shopping so that you can feel that high again. Debt grows and shopping becomes a well kept secret because you’re ashamed of what you’re doing. This affects marriages, relationships, careers and life spirals out of control. The stress and depression it brings can lead to poor health and even suicide. The problem is that as with any addiction, you think you can ‘use’ it successfully this time. You are in complete denial that you even have a problem and that, in itself, is the first sign that you need help. If you say, “Don’t worry, I won’t get addicted”, you already are addicted. You’re like a dog chasing a ball into oncoming traffic, you just can’t help yourself.

If you or someone you know is a compulsive shopper, the struggle is real. It is a severe and growing problem. Psychiatrist Michel Lejoyeux suggests that the best possible treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy. People with online shopping addiction should be “evaluated for psychiatric co-morbidities, especially with depression, so that appropriate pharmacological treatment can be instituted.” I have read about people who have taken anti-depressant drugs to help the situation as well.

The way out

With any addiction the first step to wellness is acknowledging that you have a problem.  Here are the five steps suggested to overcome addiction to online shopping:

1. Recognise that you are powerless over this addiction and need help. This is not a habit you can change with self-control.
2. Find a therapist or a support group where you can discuss your issues without judgement. The emphasis is on fellowship.
3. Be honest with yourself.
4. Be honest with your family and your bosses at work.
5. Forgive yourself for any problems you have caused due to your shopping addiction and concentrate on getting better

“I hate online shopping!”, says comedian Nick Marra, “Sometimes my wife makes me sit in the hall holding her purse when she shops online. I used to give my wife $100 to go shopping so I could have peace at home and watch football. I still do but now she spends the $100 bucks, she just doesn’t leave the house.”

If you have a compulsive, destructive and chronic nature of online shopping, please ask for help. www.shopaholicsanonymous.org or https://shopping-addiction.supportgroups.com

The post Simple retail therapy or serious mental health issue? appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Can’t live without my smartphone

During the time my smartphone was off, I would feel what is sometimes referred to as the ‘phantom vibrate’, a false sensation that my cell phone had vibrated when it had obviously not. I longed desperately to communicate with the outside world, and after receiving the ‘go-ahead’ from the pilot, I would desperately power up my smartphone. It felt like ages, as I would anxiously wait to receive all impending text messages, emails and notifications. My pupils would dilate from excitement as the device came to life. I would immediately FaceTime with friends and family, informing them of my safe arrival in Los Angeles, update my Facebook status with a check-in at LAX and answer any work emails with supreme urgency.

During the time my smartphone was off, I would feel what is sometimes referred to as the ‘phantom vibrate’

It’s a hopeful scenario I often imagine, especially now, when I am looking to break free from our technology-driven society. Walking down a crowded city street, my eardrums are filled with the incessant sound of cell phones ringing, buzzing, chiming, whistling and whatever else we programme them to do.

As mobile devices continue to evolve, so does the need to elicit constant communication. But is the ability to effortlessly and instantly communicate with others causing more harm than good?

Communication without expression

Scientists argue that excessive use of communications technology among the teens is leading to a lack of personal expression, which in turn will lead these ‘digital natives’—a generation raised around computers—to struggle with reading body language and facial expressions as adults.

Is the ability to effortlessly and instantly communicate with others causing more harm than good?

Who’s to say the grown-ups aren’t as much the culprit as the youngsters in this case? Most adults not only rely on tablets and mobile devices to occupy their children, they also set negative examples when it comes to inappropriate cell phone usage.

Texting while driving and while crossing the street is a growing trend that is quickly becoming one of the leading causes of death. And the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has reported that texting can increase the likelihood of a crash by up to 23 times.

I’ve had my fair share of scares, and though I know the danger it presents, I still feel the urge to text my friends and even surf the Web while in motion. Over time, I’ve learned to keep my cell phone in the back seat and out of reach while in the car, as a means of stopping all impulses to check a text message, make a phone call or take a picture of something worth sharing. The truth is, cell phone use is a bad habit that is not only taking lives. It’s taking away from our lives.

Texting while driving and while crossing the street is a growing trend that is quickly becoming one of the leading causes of death

No more Candy Crush Saga

One of the greatest New Year’s resolutions I ever made was in 2014. It involved deleting the Candy Crush Saga app from my phone. Addicted to playing the game, I would separate myself from social situations by refusing to participate in the conversations going on around me. I was unaware of how socially awkward I had become until one afternoon while visiting family. After being asked several times to put my cell phone down and mingle, I knew I had a problem. That evening, I uninstalled the app and have yet to reactivate it.

By the end of the following week, I began to see just how much better life without Candy Crush could be, and before long, I didn’t even miss it. With this in mind, I refrain from downloading similar applications to my device today and follow several easy steps to overcoming addiction; the obvious being: leaving the phone at home.

I know you’re probably thinking, “What happens if there’s an emergency?” A great question and a problem I actually encountered once when I was at dinner on vacation in Washington, D.C. Not knowing that I had purposely left my smartphone charging in the hotel, my mother tried calling several times to tell me that my grandfather had passed. Though unfortunate to hear such news, I was lucky enough to be out with someone who had his phone on him. From then on out, I vowed to always make sure that at least one member of my party would have a phone on him or her at all times in case of an emergency.

One of the greatest New Year’s resolutions I ever made involved deleting the Candy Crush Saga app from my phone

Break off the habit

If alone and still trying to ditch the distractions, I suggest putting your phone on silent, turning off your data, or keeping it out of sight and away from your side such as in a desk drawer while at work or on the charger once home. All of these alternatives get the job done just fine when I’m looking to rid myself of senseless technology for a few minutes, a few hours or even for the entire day.

An avid concert-goer in my youth, I would spend the majority of each performance capturing footage on my cell phone. Later on, I’d waste hours adding the blurry photos and incoherent videos to my Facebook timeline. As if anyone really cared. Now that I am older, I leave the phone at home, live for the moment and enjoy the show. Whatever it takes to become less socially awkward. I consider myself lucky because most people deny or fail to realise they’ve fallen victim to this addiction.

Although work can sometimes make it impossible not to answer text messages or emails while dining out, I’ve witnessed entire tables of friends and families playing quietly on their phones instead of engaging in real-life conversations. We don’t even think how this anti-social behaviour affects the lives of people around us.

Smartphone addiction and the destruction it can cause plague many lives today. It is our duty, both as friends and as citizens, to put a stop to it. If asked to abandon your smartphone entirely, even for a day, could you? If the answer is still a “no,” hopefully you’ll one day come to your senses and reconsider. Perhaps, like me, you’ll find it to be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made.

A version of this article was first published in the April 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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The first thing I did this morning was check Facebook. Why? Because, as embarrassed as I am to admit, for better or worse, it’s become a part of my life. That’s sort of like admitting you enjoy watching the parliamentary proceedings for fun, or that you really like sticking your tongue into spinning fans. How did this happen? I’m not really sure. I think some of it is addiction, like a rat getting a food pellet every time he presses a button. So each ‘like’ is a little imaginary food pellet that feeds my sense of… something. Self-worth? I don’t think that’s it. Peer approval? Maybe.

Also, I get to peep into the lives of, and interact with, a lot of different people from my past and future with the click of a mouse. I think the bigger reason I check Facebook multiple times a day is because it’s become a source of entertainment for me—it has replaced the newspaper, reading fiction [except for the obvious fiction of people’s Facebook lives and most political posts] and watching too much TV.

Is it better than all or any of these things? I doubt it. It’s mostly time-wasting trash. Having said that, I’ll admit that I read it before work, during my lunch break, after work, and at night before I go to sleep. I even read it when I’m sitting on the toilet, [don’t judge me, I know you all do it too, and that’s why I will never ask to borrow your cell phone] and whenever else the mood strikes me. In short, I am on Facebook way too much, and it needs to stop. Starting tomorrow. Or the next day. Next week at the latest.

What would happen if you woke up tomorrow morning, and Facebook was down?

So is Facebook your friend or your enemy?

I’m pretty sure Facebook has become that friend you run into in the market and at first you’re glad to see them—then they start following you around the store, incessantly talking about themselves until you’re contemplating faking an epileptic seizure just to get them to stop showing you pictures of every meal they ate on their trip to Italy.

How Facebook helps me… I’m still wondering

All that got me thinking—what would happen if I woke up tomorrow morning, and Facebook was down? I don’t mean down for an hour, or down for a day—I mean down for good. What would I do? For that matter, what would the one billion-plus other users do? Well, for starters, we’d have a lot more free time to work on things like world hunger and global warming. Too grandiose? Fine! We’d have more time to do laundry so we didn’t have to sniff socks in the hamper and pick the freshest pair for work on Monday. And who knows? Maybe with all that extra time, an ordinary person would do something extraordinary. Here’s an example: Yesterday, I spent three minutes of my life watching a video of a pug walking around on his front legs and peeing in the air for a solid minute and a half. Number one, that was a lot of pee, and number two, yes, you’re correct. I watched it twice. Again, don’t judge me.

What would I have done with that extra time? Honestly, probably not much, but when you really think about it, it adds up. If I could have back every minute of my life I’ve wasted on Facebook, I probably would have already written another book. Probably two, if I’m honest with myself. Would I have solved world hunger or brokered peace in the Middle East? No, but on the other hand I would have wasted a few less brain cells.

The top excuse to be on Facebook—finding lost friends

I have friends who aren’t on Facebook, and older relatives who don’t even know what Facebook is. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that they’re better off for it. Yes, I’ve gotten back in touch with some old classmates, but generally, those conversations go like this:

Old classmate you forgot about sends you a friend request. You accept and then…

You:  “Hi, how are you? Wow, hard to believe it’s been 20 years already!  What have you been up to?”

Them: {Insert highly-embellished life story here}

You: “That’s so great! Congratulations! It was really good to touch base after all these years. Keep in touch. We must get together!”

Them: “You too! Talk to you soon!”

Then you never hear from them again.

That’s the best-case scenario. The worst case scenario is one in which they invade your Facebook timeline and do one or more of the following:

1. Post non-stop pictures of their children, beginning at age two and continuing chronologically until they’ve graduated from college, moved out, gotten married, gotten divorced and then moved back home.
2. Invite you to play 1,243 different games that involve things like words, candy, jewels or various farm animals. Or sometimes even all of them together. [What? You’ve never played Words with Jewelled Candy Cows Saga before? You have no idea what you’re missing.]
3. Send you links to conspiracy theory articles or articles containing questionable political content that a first grader could refute without putting down his or her Xbox controller.

It’s generally a waste of time for both of you and it makes you realise why you never kept in touch with that person to begin with.

I have friends who aren’t on Facebook, and older relatives who don’t even know what Facebook is

If Facebook didn’t exist, you’d just have to get used to thinking things like:

“I wonder how that one guy from high school is doing these days? Hmm, I guess I’ll never know.” Or, “I haven’t seen a funny cat video in a long time. I might have to go to YouTube and watch a few.”

Then later in the day you could think, “Guess it’s time to go stalk that girl who broke up with me six years ago. No wait, I don’t have time for that right now. Maybe on the weekend, when I have a couple of extra hours to drive around her building over and over until I see her leave for her hair appointment.” OK, I took it to a dark place there for a minute, but you get what I mean.

My advice to you is this: Take a break from Facebook. Read a newspaper, or a magazine or even a novel. Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while and ask them to lunch. Granted, when you call them they’ll probably be busy watering their imaginary crops, crushing candy or watching a video of a pug peeing while walking on his front paws, but try yelling “OMG! LOL!” That usually gets their attention. Ironically, social media is anything but social. Only you and 1.4 billion other users can change that. The next time you find yourself floating aimlessly on Facebook, ask yourself “If Facebook didn’t exist what would I be doing now?” And then go do that.

The post Why you should take a break from Facebook appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Food was my friend, my saviour, my confidante. I ate when I was happy, sad, lonely, angry or bored. My eating had no connection whatsoever to being hungry or full. I don’t think that I have ever really experienced what being ‘full’ was. I was so disconnected from physical sensations that I no longer noticed them. My constant craving for food and overindulgence in it were also a way to ignore my emotions, ‘stuff the food, stuff the feelings’ was all too true in my case.

Did Genetics Cause My Addiction?

I was born at a time when parents wanted to prove that they could afford to feed their family, and feed them well—so I was a chubby baby. But as a child I was surprisingly skinny. I see photographs of myself back then and I’m shocked because I thought I have always been obese! My body dysmorphia [the belief that one’s body must be changed or hidden] began early and persists to this day. In a self-fulfilling prophecy the skinny child became the fat adult.

Was it because my mother’s mother lived through the Great Depression and World War II that food hoarding became routine? Was the desperation for food genetically passed from grandmother to mother to daughter? Or did I get it from my dad, because my father was raised in a residential boys’ home where meals were so meagre and brief that he learned to gulp food without pausing to chew?

Does it matter?

Past events might have formed me but as an adult, I realised that I am now responsible for whatever I put into my mouth.

My Life As An Addict

I treasure my intellect and usually approach life rationally. But no matter how many times I tried to deconstruct my food addiction and think my way out of it, I failed. I truly believe sugar and white flour are addicting, and when I ingest them I am in a crazed state of manic highs and crashing lows. In the midst of my addiction I am no longer a rational person, let alone a decent friend, a hard-working employee, a loving family member. I care more about my next mouthful than I ever cared about you.

Have you heard of someone break a tooth eating frozen food straight from the freezer, because you can’t wait to thaw it? Or do you know someone who has stolen a child’s holiday candy, then lied and told him he must have eaten it already? Is it rational to expect to find the answers to life problems in a refrigerator? No. It is not.

Changing My Relationship With Food

Therefore, to address my food addiction, I had to get clean first. Working with a therapist, or making list after list of food-related resolutions, proved worthless. Until I cut sugar and white flour from my life and flushed them from my system, I couldn’t begin to establish a new relationship with food.

I won’t lie—my first month was difficult. I ate so many vegetables that I thought I would turn green. I drank herbal tea non-stop and tripled the number of times I ran to the bathroom. I was sure I’d drop dead from malnutrition—but I didn’t.

I joined a support group of other like-minded food junkies. Doing this alone is a recipe for disaster. And, knowing that sugar is an additive in many pre-packaged foods, I started reading nutrition labels. Unless sugar [and her cousins sucrose, glucose, honey, etc.] were listed fifth or lower in the ingredients, I didn’t buy or eat it.

Feelings, which were previously stuffed down with the excess food, became overwhelming. I had to learn to feel my feelings, to truly experience sadness, loneliness, anger. Activities other than eating had to be mastered. Compulsive eating was no longer my go-to coping mechanism; so I had to find other coping skills.

The Big Changes Happen

Over time, amazing things have happened.  With sugar and white flour out of my system, the cravings have lessened. Like the volume of music on radio, I can dial down the cravings, so that food calls to me in a much quieter voice, making it far easier to resist. I no longer have afternoon energy crashes; because I eat complex carbohydrates instead of refined white flour, my blood sugar stays level without the spikes and slumps.

I am down 75 pounds and have remained that way for a dozen years. When winter comes, I am astonished that last year’s outfits still fit. Clothes wear out or become dated; I no longer own separate fat clothes and thin clothes.

My physician was stunned by the drop in my blood sugar and cholesterol levels. I was stunned at how much easier it became to exercise, take the stairs or even remain awake after a meal.

In Conclusion

I am a food addict, and I always will be. I can manage my addiction, but never cure it. The chubby baby still lives inside me, and always will. But I can learn to love her, rather than be embarrassed by her and to soothe her without using food. Though still glorious, food is now only food, and I can get out of the food and back into life.

This was first published in the March 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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