Can the word "Diet" be a trigger?

> I have also been made aware that the word DIET sends me
> off into a massive binge. I felt like I would never be
> able to eat again. How weird is that?

Hi _______,

"DIET" being a trigger word is not weird at all. It took me a very long time to turn the meaning of that word around in my head to simply mean "the food I eat" or "the way I eat as a lifestyle". A person's diet can be either healthy or unhealthy. I found that to get started and stay started, I had to think a lot more about the quality of my diet rather than the quantity. When I got use to eating primarily foods with a high nutritive value, the quantity almost took care of itself and the cravings ceased. I believe that when our daily diet includes all of the various vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, essential oils, soluble and insoluble fiber, carbohydrate, protein and amino acids our bodies need, our cravings will cease. Our brains no longer have to send out signals that we are starving. When our bodies are not lacking for quality fuel and we eat often enough to have a stable blood sugar level, getting healthy gets a lot easier.

Also consider that our brains need a steady supply of good quality fuel to function right. That is, our brains are the source and center of our emotional selves—our feelings and emotions. The food we eat can greatly affect our emotional well being and how we react to the world and those around us. Eating empty calories (sweets, junk food, white bread, rich desserts) may fill our stomach up, but leave our brains lacking some vital element. Our creator did a pretty good job of insuring that we have the instincts for survival. When our brain perceives a deficiency of some vital nutrient, it tells us we are starving, and it's time to go hunting. This is also one reason diets, as we usually think of them, don't work. At least not over the long haul. We simply have to eat and eat well (healthy) to shed our excess weight and keep it off or our biology works against us.

Maybe it would help if you think in terms of making a choice to change your lifestyle instead of a temporary "diet". It helped me a lot to think in terms of my eating plan being something positive I am doing for myself rather than a diet where I am being deprived of anything.

I think in terms of putting healthy wonderful nutritious food into my body—getting excellent quality fuel so my body and mind can function optimally and heal. That's what we are really doing when we are eating a balanced diet composed of nutritious foods. It becomes a choice we make before every meal to do a self loving healthy act. Think— I choose to eat this way because it is a healthy, healing, self-loving thing to do, rather than I can't eat ______ (fill in the blank with your favorite calorie laden junk food or dessert). When I make a choice between the various options, I feel much more empowered. When I choose a healthy diet and moderation, I choose healthy consequences. I need to remember that when I choose to binge, I am also choosing the negative consequences to both my physical and mental health that go along with it. I know this is a little bit circular, but when my body isn't craving nutrients, I am empowered to make healthy choices about what I eat. I find I do then, have the power of choice over food.

One last thing, when I came to this list, I was pretty certain that I knew a whole lot about nutrition. After all, I'd tried countless diets and read just about every diet book around. The truth is though, that nearly all of what I thought I knew was either based on bad science, outdated science, or no science at all. A lot of what I grew up with and took for granted, just doesn't hold water anymore. I highly recommend everyone do their own brand new research and get their info from a variety of credible sources. If I had but one book about nutrition to recommend it would be "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating" by Walter C. Willett. This guy is one of the leading researchers and authorities in the field of human nutrition. This is not a "diet" book. It's not based on anecdotal evidence, personal success stories, gimmicks, or fad diet thinking—just sound science based on multiple peer reviewed scientific studies, common sense, and good health.

You can do it my friend!

Love, Dave

Developing a "Food Plan"

> How did you come up with your food plan? I think I'm ready to
> look at what I'm eating at mealtimes more closely but don't know how
> to do it.
>
It took me a few years of failed food plans to come up with my current way of eating. Now it's more a lifestyle thing than a food plan. In the past, most of my food plans were not much different than any other diet. I'd name them a "life time eating plan" but they were essentially just diets with some OA wrapped around them. I had long lists of foods that I couldn't eat and short lists of what I could eat and a limit on the amount of calories I could have every day. There were a lot of rules to follow, and so, a lot of rules to break. Every time I broke one of my rules, I'd feel like I'd blown my abstinence. Of course, that usually triggered a binge.

Through a lot of painful trial and error, I finally ended up giving up on rigid rules and it helped my recovery immensely. I have some general guidelines but even they are not cast in concrete. At the core of my relationship to food now is a couple of main ideas. First, when I eat or shop for food I ask myself if what I'm going to buy or eat is life affirming and health promoting. Nearly all whole natural unprocessed food is and that's what I generally choose to eat. They tend to be nutrient dense. They naturally contain anti-oxidants and phytonutrients that help ward off disease. Natural whole foods are life affirming health promoting substances. They help lower my cholesterol and blood pressure. They help lower many of my risk factors for various diseases like cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

The other main concept I guess would be that to be successful with my physical recovery over the long haul, I have to enjoy what I'm eating. I love to eat. Looking at food as my health promoting friend in recovery instead of as a bad guy or demon substance, I think, is my higher power's will for me. I'm blessed with abundance and that just can't be a mistake. Instead of a food plan per se, it is an attitude shift. Rather than just filling me up, I realized that my diet needed to control my hunger, taste great and be pleasing to my other senses, provide the nutrients and energy my body and brain requires to function optimally, and help minimize my risk for disease.

So to come up with a food plan, I'd suggest learning all you can about the science of human nutrition. Then using that knowledge to come up with a food plan that is healthy and balanced. I believe that when our body regularly gets all the nutrients it needs and we give ourselves permission to truly enjoy the experience of eating, cravings soon drop by the wayside as does our extra fat tissue. Food then becomes the very substance that helps us recover.

Love, Dave

An excellent source of information about a healthy diet is: "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating" by Walter C. Willett  (Simon & Schuster, August 2001)