BIG FAT PEOPLE!

[No game 14,436]

Well' date=' it's not just the exercise. It's the whole new way of life. I don't know if I'm addicted or just passionate about living an active lifestyle that I was always so envious of before but never able to do. Now I can exercise but I can also go places and do things that are thrilling and I feel like I'm living life for a change. Just came back from a week in the mountains in New Mexico where I climbed up a different mountain 3 out of 4 days. I ate what food I was able to pack and carry on my back. I filtered stream Water for drinking and pooped while squatting against a tree. Twice I climbed up past the tree line and yes it was freezing cold but I hauled my butt up there and down again each time.

I'm intoxicated by the ability to live life in such a way. Is that an addiction? I don't stress if I take a day off. I eat way more than most folks here eat (2000 calories minimum) which fuels such activities. Perhaps I'm trying to make up for what I feel like was years wasted while I was letting my obesity hold me back. So in a way, I'm still not normal. I've just swung from one end of the pendulum to another. I'm not gonna say it's an addiction but perhaps an obsession is more accurate, in my case.

[/quote']

I do get what you and fiddle are saying about it being an healthy addiction. And if we are not able to change our addictive personalities, exercise and fitness seems to be the best alternative..

I feel I am not yet in control of my food addiction, So it's hard to say where I will end up.

But it would be nice not have those thoughts of running into the convenience store for candy bars..

It's always going to be walking a fine line I guess.

But on that note I'm still curious about the

People that say they don't have addictions to food,

And are fat (and not because of medical problems) and are getting this surgery.

[johnlatte 1,232]

Hehe, I thought you might figure that out. I did 2 years as a contractor on Windows 98 and Millenium back before the Blue Wave, then another 7+ plus years as an FTE with a couple other groups on campus. But I was commuting from Bremerton for the first year I was a contractor. Oy!

Spent 16 years at MSFT as a blue badge. Had more jobs than I could count. Burned out, went to culinary school, opened my own cafe.

[Fiddleman 4,376]

Spent 16 years at MSFT as a blue badge. Had more jobs than I could count. Burned out' date=' went to culinary school, opened my own cafe.[/quote']

I am comforted by the softies on this forum you are right that the software industry is easy to burn out from with the insane hours. That is really something that you opened a cafe you ought to tell us that story sometime on a different thread. Not fair for Laura to hijack her thread.

[johnlatte 1,232]

I've been thinking about how to respond to Laura's thread. I have a long history related to addiction (not necessary the food type). When I can pull my thoughts together, I'll post something.

MSFT was great in a lot of ways, but the grind was something fierce. I missed a ton of my kids growing up, cost me my first marriage and so on.

[No game 14,436]

Wow this went to an even weirder off topic place than I expected... This forum is like the telephone game I used to play as a kid but worse!

[Fiddleman 4,376]

Sorry, my fault, (again ). Must stay on topic, damn, where are my focus drugs...

[fyre_storm 1,412]

Uh are you quoting silence of the lambs?! When buffalo bill says "Was she a great big fat person?" Cause Laura your scary....ing me

[No game 14,436]

Naw fiddle don't sweat it.... I mean how many threads have I fucked up?

It was just my crazy mind thinking out loud again.

[No game 14,436]

Oops I swore again!!!

[Fiddleman 4,376]

Oops I swore again!!!

Heh, you beat the censor system. Again. Way to go! You need a prize for breaking the software. how about a free IPad? Wait a few days and I bet you will not be able to do it again.

Hope Alex is reading this. Seriously I think it is because the AI behind the censoring does not know how to conjugate or analyze per slang and urban lexicons. Something like that.

by the way, did you get the answer(s) you were looking for / hoping for as the OP? I think there is a lot of good information In this thread. We should all get honorary psych degrees from a university for our in depth psychoanalysis and introspection. Who needs to pay for therapy when you can get it for free on VST!

[Susmcmur 124]

Oh Laura, I am such a food addict! So, I can't help with the extenuating/underlying medical reasons question. Little kid who was the fat one in the family, middle child, peacemaker, only girl, regularly rewarded with food, comforted with food...hit adolescence and realized I was fat and getting fatter, dieted, cried, ate...tried most every diet under the sun, lots lots of weight with WW three different times, with Optifast, three babies, three C-sections, plantar fasciitis, exercising, dieting, eating...food has been my friend, my foe, my lover, my abuser, my life. I do feel hope, because at 11+ months out I don't feel the drive to eat. I feel comfortable with my food choices and less controlled by food. The times that have been the hardest post-op are the holidays where everyone is overeating. I'm learning that its the all-day grazing thing that sets me up for the big fall on those days. On Easter I knew that going in and was able to hold it together this week, even in the face of Reese's and Jelly Bellies. Hey, food is here to stay, and I just need to continue working on interacting with it in a healthy way. Good luck with your quest; unfortunately, I think the food addiction is something I'll always struggle with.

[mvickyway 256]

It is hard NOT to be a food addict whether you are fat or thin. Food is life. Very few people are indifferent to food and eat solely for life sustenance and not flavor, social, and deliciousness in your mouth reasons. It reminds me of how babies become attached to their bottles and most go through a giving it up stage which can include lots of tears but yet they move on and have lives beyond their bottle

[MrsGina 101]

Well I'm gonna jump in. I'm sure I have big food issues but I started putting on big amount of weight when my diabetes got so bad, I was put on a 5 times concentrated insulin. Gained 80 lbs right off the bat. I had the surgery to go down on insulin, when I eat carbs, I want more carbs. Food addiction! Not sure but I'm Italian so I do love food. I was a chubby child, thinned out during high school, chubbed a little during child birthing years. Thinned out then the diabetes took over, still not sure I'm an addict.

[mvickyway 256]

This is the way I eat. If I want something I have a few bites of it and then I don't feel deprived. I decided to do this from the beginning so that I learn to eat like a regular this person' date=' I didn't want this to be a diet where I couldn't have this or that. That never worked for me in the past.

I have had to work on my food addiction and emotionally it was so difficult at the beginning when I couldn't eat and had head hunger. I had to learn how to deal with my emotions without food. Now that I am almost 2 years out and my addiction is much better. I still have times where I eat when I am emotional but those times are few and far between and I can now stop myself.[/quote']

This is exactly where I want to be

[Threetimesacharm 1,400]

ad·dic·tion /əˈdɪkʃən/ Show Spelled [uh-dik-shuhn] Show IPA

noun

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics(or food), to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

By definition I believe that everyone who consumes more food than their body requires is an addict. So by definition I was an addict......................WORD here is WAS.