Managing mild food addiction.
This article is a light-hearted personal story of my experiences with mild addiction and my how-to detangler road map!
Generally speaking, my strong values and sensitivity create a fortress-like barrier between me an any potential addictions. As a nutritionist I deeply value health and as a highly sensitive woman I am… well a little bit like an avocado… not ripe, not ripe, not ripe… too ripe. My overall balance state exists within quite a narrow range.
Coffee is out, refined sugar is out, staying up past 10pm is out, dairy and bread are out, too much sensory stimulation is out and Netflix bingeing is out. Unless I do it anyway and feel the consequences!
When I read a good novel, I get hooked. I mean I literally can’t put it down and all else is neglected. Then I have a novel-crash, which is where I have become so involved in the story that the after effect is something like a hang-over.
I literally have a neurotransmitter bio-crash!
Chai tea is my vice and is practically like coffee is to everyone else. Every Sunday my family has freshly baked French croissants AND a perfectly brewed pot of chai.The problem is not the croissants or chai but the lack of humilty I have around accepting my physical limitations and the Monday “surely one more won’t hurt”. Then the Tuesday and the Wednesday!
It will.
The croissant will hurt my belly and the chai will give me a headache. Lesson learnt with the belly ache, I won’t go there again any time soon, but the caffeine in the chai excites my brain and makes me want MORE.
The shocking thing is that I don’t just want more chai. I want more of ALL THE THINGS. My dopamine pathway has been activated and I want more sweet, more chocolate, loads of butter, I want to scroll social media and to binge a romance period drama series.
The impact; apathy and feeling a bit numb in general.
I feel disconnected from my family and totally ungrounded, which actually makes a lot of sense considering that everyday life does not always seem as sparkly in contrast to a week of reward. Hello dopamine!
So having plenty of personal experience with indulgence induced discombobulation, I will spend this week rebalancing my brain and body. If this ever applies to you, my top tips are;
Blood-sugar levels are everything.
Dysregulated blood-glucose levels are a recipe for a disaster! Having BIG protein filled (25-30g) breakfasts, with vegetables to slow the absorbption of glucose into my bloodstream and plenty of good fats like olive oil or avocado is a great hack. 3 solid meals a day instead 5 small ones stabilises sugar levels, yes that means snacking is out! If I am really wanting something sweet at 3pm (because it does take the body time to adjust to 3 big meals if you are used to grazing), then I’ll have protein with it to curb the glucose spike. A glucose spike will be followed by a glucose crash, where all good intentions are out the door and sugar-loaded cravings are around the corner!
Crash-state is stress-state and adrenaline will be followed by cortisol to call on glucose reserves to keep the brain and body alive. If we get to this point, and many, many do every day, we can feel moody, irritable, fatigued and just pretty wonky in general. So, regular meals, enough protein, whole carbs, good fats, plenty of veg and balanced snacks if you need them.
Cravings are communications from my body.
When I am desperately wanting something, I consider; what is my body trying to tell me? If I am craving carbs particularly, perhaps I’m seeking to increase my serotonin levels in the second half of my cycle, when it’s dropping, as oestrogen levels decrease. Chocolate? Maybe my body is asking for magnesium or maybe oxytocin and I don’t actually want chocolate at all, I just need a big cuddle! If I am starving hungry and want all the high-calorie foods I can find, it’s likely I’ve literally not eaten enough and am in a deprivation stress state of hypoglycaemia.
My body is wise and wonderful and always wants what is best for me, I just need to listen. I don’t always understand and neither will you, but cultivating the practice of being present with your body builds a relationship of trust and is the base for many beautiful things.
I totally acknowledge that the body doesn’t always feel safe for many, many reasons; systemic oppression, chronic pain, gut-related or autoimmune conditions, eating disorders, trauma, medical gaslighting, symptom confusion, sexual objectivity and widespread societal disconnect from being more than a thinking, actually no, reproductive machine. If this is you please seek help when you need it, I’m sending love and honouring your journey.
Structure is my friend.
At times, we all want to float downriver on a giant, untethered lily pad, to wherever the magical waters of the Divine feminine take us. This doesn’t work for me when I’m in recovery from over-indulgence. I require the predictable, masculine surety of routine.
Planning really works for me. Writing a day list the night before, means that I have already made crucial decisions before mental fatigue hits and I am drowning in possibilities and imbalance potentiality. I write out the things that I need to get done, when and how I am going to exercise and all the meals that I am going to eat. In addition to reducing decision fatigue, when I tick a task of my list, I get a ‘healthy’ boost of dopamine. Structure is an underrated act of self-love and seriously supports the detox process.
Tenacity is like a muscle that needs to be worked.
When we exert ourselves by moving past mental blockades of difficulty and do the thing that is ‘good’ for us, or omit from a something we desire that is ‘bad’ for us, a certain part of the brain called the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), is activated. The aMCC is highly plastic and every time it’s used it literally grows bigger and stronger.
Marshalling aMCC resource by standing up against resistance, builds resilience and our capacity to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. Or in the words of stoic philosopher Epictetus “persist and resist” and lead a “mainly blameless and untroubled life”. Maybe life is a bit more complex than it was in ancient Greece but it’s certain that regularly working our willpower muscle will lead to a happier, healthier existence. Remember though, blood-sugar regulation and planning are critical first steps.
If the aMCC interests you and you want to delve deeper, check out Dr Andrew Huberman’s podcast “How to increase your tenacity and willpower” and the article “The Tenacious Brain: How the Anterior Mid-Cingulate Contributes to Achieving Goals” on PubMed.
In my experience these things are important for many kinds of addictions and cravings, not just food related. Yes, that’s right Netflix bingeing included!
So with my weekly plan at the ready, shopping list done and tenacious brain activated, I hope you are ready to face a week of anti-indulgence!
Keisha xx