I’ve been thinking this morning about how changing your diet to eliminate certain foods (like we do) is of course similar to a person trying to eliminate alcohol or unhealthy drugs that impair their health. While all of us are aiming for healthier outcomes, a person getting off alcohol, tobacco, opioids, or any other chemical, is guided to think of their success in terms of whether or not they stuck to their plan of abstaining from whatever they are trying to eliminate. Many of us who are eliminating foods tend to think of our success as measurable by the scale. But maybe if we reframed our success to be “am I still eating well?” it would be less of a blow when the scale doesn’t move? I don’t know, I’ve never struggled with other kinds of addiction but I feel like I have a glimpse of it, fighting an urge to buy unhealthy food at every store I’m in, having that urge get stronger when I’m stressed, seeing my “drug” being promoted everywhere and consumed by everyone around me, on TV, online, etc. So I think about addiction a lot, and I wonder if thinking about success more in terms of what I can control (what I consume) and less in terms of what I might have influence over but can’t truly control (scale) might help on days when the scale hasn’t moved in a long time despite my best efforts. Anyone else ponder stuff like this? 😉

Posted by Kim at 2022-06-11 13:16:21 UTC