We Are Not The Same.

When I heard my friends say "I'm craving chocolate!" and then proceed to not eat chocolate AND forget about it two minutes later - I knew we weren't the same.

Overwhelming urges that come from the disease of addiction are not the same as the cravings that our non-addicted friends experience.

Before I understood this, I was hell-bent on “crushing cravings”, trying everything that even hinted at alleviating those intense urges. I quit sugar, cut carbs, drank tons of water, prepared all meals from scratch, ate only healthy snacks, became a triathlete, went to bootcamp, etc, etc, etc.

When it came to food, I was engaging with addiction as if it was something I could outwit or overpower - and I knew better.

Addiction isn't a cute way to say we really like something or we're having a momentary fancy. It's a chronic condition that cases the mind to scream for something - anything - that feels good, consequences be damned. This combination of mental and physical compulsion isn't really even about food. It's about our disease which happens to be using food as its host. It used to be drugs and alcohol (thank God it's not anymore!) It could be spending money. It could be love or attention. But for us, right now, it’s directed at food, sugar, overeating. And when an overeating urge hits, it's is a moment where we get to decide how to live – or to keep our compulsion alive and well, letting it decide for us.

This is the truth we can tell ourselves when the overeating urge hits:

"This is not hunger, it’s a physical feeling. And it does not have to determine what or how I eat." 

Then, get out. Get out of the pantry, of your head, of the house if you need to. Focus on something else intensively for a little while. The feeling will pass.

That is true food freedom for us. We are not the same.