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Junk food addict

179 replies

JustLifeOnEarth · 24/09/2024 13:33

Sorry if this is in the wrong category but it’s not about weight loss.
I’ve been alcohol free getting on for 10 years. All that time I’ve been trying to kick the junk food habit. One time I went 6 months free—thought “I’ve got this now,” then one mouthful and back to square one. The best I can manage at the moment is a couple of days.
I know it isn’t in the same league as alcohol, but it’s is still harming my physical and mental health. Is there anyone who knows what I’m on about? Or should I just forget about it and be grateful I am no longer drinking?(I am so grateful).

OP posts:
JustLifeOnEarth · 07/10/2024 16:39

My weekend away was pretty successful. I avoided the junk. There was a risky moment when kind friends (who don’t know about my food issues) cooked a beautiful, home made lunch. I felt my eyes glaze over at the first bite, but didn’t keep eating after I was no longer hungry(a first for me with this type of food). It was ‘help yourself’ and I did have thoughts to keep going back to the table, but these we’re overridden by a common sense voice which pointed out that my hunger was no longer there, even though the food was still very tempting.
Later on, I made sure my dinner and snacks were non trigger foods.
Some cravings today due to stress but I was able to dismiss them immediately.
I feel like I’m really getting somewhere.

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ReleaseTheGoats · 07/10/2024 21:37

Well done @JustLifeOnEarth ! Holding back at a help yourself lovely lunch is a real achievement.

mikado1 · 08/10/2024 07:18

Fantastic!

PaminaMozart · 08/10/2024 07:57

I know it’s possible because I’ve left alcohol behind and I am very happy and relieved to have done so. I wouldn’t take a drink now if you paid me. I’m not missing out—I’m free. And because this is the mindset that worked for me with alcohol I’m going to lean into it for junk food. I’m going to lump them together. Just tag junk food onto the alcohol part of my brain and dismiss it the way I dismiss alcohol

I think you discovered the key to an UPF free life, @JustLifeOnEarth !! The first 3 weeks are the most difficult but it's so worth it. I went sugar and (later) alcohol free in my 60s and it is the best thing I ever did.

Two things helped me enormously: focusing on eating a healthy diet and exercising. The first I did by eating large quantities and varieties of vegetables, a fair amount of lean protein, and small amounts of healthy fats, dairy (full-fat Greek yoghurt) and complex carbs. I add a lot of herbs and things like ginger, garlic, olives, lemon juice, fish sauce, mustard, horseradish, spices, and I experiment with foreign cuisines (Lebanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Turkish, Persian...). But even without any of that I find that I enjoy simple, plain vegetables so much more because my taste buds are no longer being assaulted by sugar, salt and all the sh1t that makes up UPF.

The second key factor for me is exercise. I work out, at home, almost every day. Started off with Lucy Wyndham Read, moved on to Heather Robertson, Rebecca Louise, Popsugar Futness etc, then discovered Growingannanas (HIIT) and Caroline Girvan (weight training with - heavy! - dumbbells) who have become my go-to online trainers. Both have made a tremendous difference to my fitness. I'm 70 and fitter than most women half my age. More than anything, exercising has switched on a switch in my brain that tells me that I am a healthy person who doesn't eat cr@p.

I hope you succeed in your journey - it's so worth it!!

ReleaseTheGoats · 08/10/2024 14:30

That's very interesting, @PaminaMozart. I got back into exercise a few months ago and it drove me to look again at eating.

JustLifeOnEarth · 08/10/2024 15:17

@PaminaMozart thank you for the encouragement. I love my veg, your food all sounds delicious and it is wonderful to hear your inspiring exercise regime! Well done 👍🏻

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fourelementary · 09/10/2024 00:41

Oh guys you all sound like you’re doing amazing and have some really good advice and tips here. It’s fab that you can share these and different things will help different people.

Sadly my life turned a bit shitty last week when my adult dd had some awful news- no death or illness thankfully, but a devastating bit of information that has thrown a grenade into her life and put us all into a limbo. I took a day of emergency carers leave from work Friday to help her with her two little ones but then was working all weekend. Stressed about her and worried about her situation and unable to process them- I ate my emotions Instead and have been on a bit of a spiral since. Nothing major, well- a few donuts here and there and secret eating… which I hate. But here I am.

what would really help is if one of you healthy types could please just give me a few days worth of meals? I can’t fathom the energy to think for myself right now… and make decisions. And I don’t want to end up falling into “diet mode” as I know that will just rebound into a binge…

Thank you and sorry for being the crappy one who is failing at this!

PaminaMozart · 09/10/2024 04:33

I'm very sorry to hear of the sad turn your life and that of your daughter has taken and hope things resolve themselves quickly. In the meantime, here are some easy meal suggestions:

Panfry chicken breast pieces, salmon or tuna - enough for several meals. Add things like herbs or garlic or hoisin sauce or an Asian style dressing if you like, or serve the chicken with some curry flavoured Greek yoghurt.

Oven-roast a large batch of bell peppers, courgettes, aubergine, onions, garlic. Coat them lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper, and add a splash of balsamic vinegar about 5-10 minutes before they are done (they need c. 30-40 minutes at 190C). Add some herbs like parsley or basil and/or chilli flakes after they are done if you want to. Serve as a side to the meat/fish or mix with quinoa, wild rice or wholewheat pasta. Also nice as an addition to salad.

Broccoli soup. Boil then add a chicken stock cube, salt, pepper, a little chili if you like it, blend and add a little cream or crumbled cheese (Stilton is especially nice).

Lemony lentil soup. Use green lentils if possible. Towards the end, in a separate pan, gentle fry several cloves of garlic with a couple of teaspoons of cumin for a couple of minutes and add to the lentils, along with lots of lemon juice.

Salad as a meal: add lentils, chickpeas and/or black beans to shredded red cabbage, carrots, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, etc. Spice up dressings with mustard or horseradish or balsamic vinegar. Add herbs, e.g. dill or parsley. Top with cooked chicken, salmon or, or boiked eggs.(tinned) tuna.

Tabbouleh made with quinoa instead of burghul. Lots of parsley plus finely cut onion and tomatoes in a lemon and EVOO dressing.

Omelettes! Add (smoked) salmon or finely cut leftover vegetables to make them a meal.

These are my easy go-to dishes that I love.

JustLifeOnEarth · 09/10/2024 06:50

fourelementary · 09/10/2024 00:41

Oh guys you all sound like you’re doing amazing and have some really good advice and tips here. It’s fab that you can share these and different things will help different people.

Sadly my life turned a bit shitty last week when my adult dd had some awful news- no death or illness thankfully, but a devastating bit of information that has thrown a grenade into her life and put us all into a limbo. I took a day of emergency carers leave from work Friday to help her with her two little ones but then was working all weekend. Stressed about her and worried about her situation and unable to process them- I ate my emotions Instead and have been on a bit of a spiral since. Nothing major, well- a few donuts here and there and secret eating… which I hate. But here I am.

what would really help is if one of you healthy types could please just give me a few days worth of meals? I can’t fathom the energy to think for myself right now… and make decisions. And I don’t want to end up falling into “diet mode” as I know that will just rebound into a binge…

Thank you and sorry for being the crappy one who is failing at this!

So sorry to hear your daughter is going through a tough time.
You are not failing. You are here and doing the best you can.

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JustLifeOnEarth · 09/10/2024 06:56

Amazing meal suggestions @PaminaMozart . All I can add to that is my go to(nowhere near as exciting but pretty easy)—Tomato and Lentil pasta—onions, red peppers, mushrooms cook up in passata(you can fry them off first if you prefer) add dried oregano and basil. Add a drained can of green lentils and bubble away. I have it with whole grain pasta as I find this doesn’t trigger me, but you could serve the sauce with a big salad if you don’t do pasta.

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ReleaseTheGoats · 09/10/2024 07:37

Morning all. Still no Diet Coke for me, and the volume on the cravings has definitely been turned down. I think I probably should turn my eye onto what I’m eating as opposed to what I’m managing NOT to eat, but for now I’m feeling so good about having broken the habit of eating at least a packet of biscuits a day.

JustLifeOnEarth · 09/10/2024 07:41

@ReleaseTheGoats fantastic! It’s amazing how the cravings are more manageable as time goes on isn’t it? I’m finding the same. My brain still asks the question, but it’s easier to say no.
Let’s keep this going…👍🏻☺️

OP posts:
fourelementary · 09/10/2024 08:13

@JustLifeOnEarth And @PaminaMozart thank You… omelettes for breakfast would be a great start and the roast veg with chicken sounds yummy too. It is also soup season isn’t it, so I can get a start on some meals which helps as otherwise toast and butter seems to be the option I take which leads to more toast and butter…
I wish I was one of those “I can’t eat when stressed” types- but as I eat my emotions that doesn’t sadly work for me.

Keep on keeping on guys!

oh and @PaminaMozart i would love to have your motivation to exercise- any tips for that? Right now it feels all I can do to work, manage basic household tasks and hold life together for my daughter. Even going for a walk seems insurmountable…

ReleaseTheGoats · 09/10/2024 08:34

I eat when I'm stressed and bored, and sometimes because I feel I 'deserve' it. At the moment I'm probably getting through far more cashews and fruit than is ideal, but at least it's not Chocolate Hobnobs.

mikado1 · 09/10/2024 09:17

It'd all so familiar!! And yes, yes to think about what you can have! Overnight oats for me here followed by litres of hot water and lemon! Omelette with veg, feta, salad and avocado for lunch. I'll get a brisk walk in now. Agree exercise great. Well done you have made a massive change in a short space of time.

PaminaMozart · 09/10/2024 09:42

I probably should turn my eye onto what I’m eating as opposed to what I’m managing NOT to eat

Absolutely! My diet is so much richer since I ditched sugar and switched to mostly savoury foods. Two suggestions:
(1) Consciously savour the taste of simple vegetables: carrots, fennel, broccoli, avocado, radishes, herbs.....
(2) Add lots of natural flavours to your food: lemon juice, garlic, ginger, herbs, etc

As for motivation to exercise - I find that once I change into my exercise gear and start my warm-up (very important!), the motivation naturally follows. I started out with Lucy Wyndham Read who is perfect for beginners and the less fit. I then road- tested a number of online trainers: Heather Robertson, Sydney Cummings, Joe Wicks, Rebecca Louise, Popsugar Fitness... So many to choose from.

And then I found Caroline Girvan and my life changed forever. Working out with weights is soooo important, especially as we age. These days, aged 70, I work out with 8 and 10 kg dumbbells most days. I also do a fair bit of cardio/HIIT courtesy of Growingannanas. I genuinely love it!

BluebellWoodbine · 09/10/2024 09:54

OP have you read https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B09XFB9QZX/? I found some really useful ideas in it for understanding how urges to binge are driven by the more primitive part of our brain (not actually a higher part that is influenced by the sorts of thoughts therapy might help with). She gives lots of ideas for how to ride out the cravings based on this understanding, and influenced by the ideas of Rational Recovery, which is an alcohol addiction recovery technique. I think you'd find it very interesting especially given the way you're already thinking (thinking of your brain as having a toddler tantrum for instance).

I have the same issue with everyone else in the house having crisps and biscuits in. I will say over many years I've seen the amount of junk my dp eats creep up steadily, so I'd say while absolutely he and teens have their own freedom of choice, I wish I'd pushed back a bit more on that. It's definitely worth making the healthier alternatives widely available and normalising there being times when there's no junk in the house. Mine always expect there to be something.

Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good (Second Edition) eBook : Hansen, Kathryn: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good (Second Edition) eBook : Hansen, Kathryn: Amazon.co.uk: Books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B09XFB9QZX/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-substance-addiction--5172687-junk-food-addict

ReleaseTheGoats · 09/10/2024 10:00

@PaminaMozart I need my palate to adjust, I'm not a fan of veg really at all. I do eat veg, and I quite like mushrooms and raw carrot, but I only really eat veg because I know it's good for me. I'd happy never eat veg again. People who get excited about trays of roasted root veg, or people who are actually vegetarian bewilder me. Grin
My favourite dish is a delicious lamb shish with flat breads, rice and salad. Yum.

PaminaMozart · 09/10/2024 10:10

Do you eat a lot of UPF and sugar, salt, @ReleaseTheGoats? Because they literally assault your taste buds, to the extent that the more subtle flavours of vegetables get lost.

Have tried to consciously savour their taste, with or without natural flavourings s uch as lemon juice, garlic, ginger, herbs, caramelized onions, as well as things like chilli sauce, hoisin sauce, balsamic vinegar, tahini...

What about stirfries of meat/fish plus vegetables with Chinese or Thai spices and herbs?

ReleaseTheGoats · 09/10/2024 10:12

I was eating a lot of UPF, yes, that's why I'm on this thread! I do eat a lot of healthy food (DP is a good cook) but don't always love it.

mikado1 · 09/10/2024 10:13

It is true, no sugar awakens the taste buds. I've been eating things this last year or so that I never would have and oohing and aahing while doing it 😆

ReleaseTheGoats · 09/10/2024 10:46

Seriously? I can't imagine ever enjoying a parsnip. Or tofu.

mikado1 · 09/10/2024 13:22

Roast parsnips?? They're so sweet, honestly!! Tofu, I don't eat

JustLifeOnEarth · 09/10/2024 16:16

ReleaseTheGoats · 09/10/2024 10:46

Seriously? I can't imagine ever enjoying a parsnip. Or tofu.

I can take or leave tofu but I love a parsnip 😂😂😂

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ReleaseTheGoats · 09/10/2024 20:02

You’re a pair of weirdos.