Nowhere do the Four Stages of Addiction come into play more strongly than when you resist changing a habit related to the foods you self-medicate on. For most of us, those foods are instant and readily available: bread, drink, dessert, or alcohol. For others it is fatty foods, and in abundance. You can choose large portions of steak, burger and fries, huge bowls of salad with drops of dressing. Maybe cheese chunks show up as part of your daily food intake.

Whether it’s a basket of bread, a huge salad, or a box of cookies, your body takes a lot longer to process the extra food (more food than you can burn) that it can’t easily process. The body wears itself out. you get tired

Calories are units of energy. After you eat your meal you want to feel energized, not tired.

Eating more than you need makes you feel like you’re high. This altered state zones the brain and helps you escape feelings.

Stage one – Resistance to change

The Program comes along and says, “Let’s not have a drink for every breakfast. Sometimes choose to have a drink every two or even three days. Soup is a meal. Put down your fork between bites. Weigh yourself twice a day.”

This is a scary thing. You may be thinking that you are comfortable in this ancient way. Therefore, a new form may not be as comfortable. He wrongly concludes that he will be uncomfortable. You do not know that this will be the result; you have never tried the new way before; but you resist change even though you know the old way isn’t working. One component of addiction is that you keep doing what you’re doing even though there are negative consequences.

It is your old addict brain resisting change by projecting a negative outcome, even though you have no knowledge or experience that your projection is valid. Addiction twists your thinking to justify your behavior.

Stage Two: Reluctant Attempts

You join a weight loss group or buy a book and decide, however reluctantly, that you’re going to give it a try. “I don’t want to do this, but I’ll pick a day without coffee. I don’t want to weigh myself twice a day. I don’t want to write down everything I eat. I don’t want to eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I don’t want to eat breakfast, but I will because I want to weigh ________ pounds.

Third Stage – Surprise, I enjoyed it

“I had hot cereal for breakfast and enjoyed it. One day I had the most wonderful soup for lunch. I didn’t think I’d like it, but I did. I had a cup of hot water instead of tea one night and it was actually very nice.” “I left food this week and no one died. I said no thanks to alcohol at dinner one night and no one seemed to care.”

Stage four: the new shape becomes the comfortable and preferred shape

However, it’s important to know that the attachment you seem to feel for certain foods isn’t based on how much you love that particular food. Rather, it indicates how addicted you are to falling asleep on that food. Thinking about food, getting food, eating food in a certain way, has become an integral part of your self-medication ritual. The idea of ​​not acting (not getting his drug) causes him great anxiety. You eat the item (bread, drink, candy, popcorn, etc.) to alleviate the discomfort caused by not eating the item. Consider not drinking coffee and having a headache and then having a cup of coffee to ease the discomfort caused by not drinking coffee. It’s like a puppy chasing its tail.

Knowing that there are four stages to breaking an addiction will help you be proactive in traveling through stages two and three and moving from resistance to change to knowing that the new way is the comfortable and preferred way. This information will free you from the eating rituals you use to calm your anger, anxiety, or other uncomfortable thoughts or feelings. Then you can deal with the feelings more directly, more appropriately.