Activities that fueled my food addiction and over consumption of unhealthy foods

[Ray92 91]

I have been thinking a lot lately about all the habits in my life that in a way aided my food addiction and really bad eating habits. Now obviously the ultimate activity was eating for the joy of eating but now that I think about it, there are a lot of activities that I participate in that were in a way always affecting my eating habits.

So I decided to make this post in order to list those activities and remember. In a way this is just a personal way to gauge what activities are bad for my new lifestyle as well as to keep in mind that I did pair these activities with food so that in the future when I do participate in them, I have that mental note.

Can anyone else think of any activities that were partnered with excessive eating and in general a sedentary lifestyle?

For me the primary ones were:

1. Video games. There were days were I would sit for HOURS and play online video games on my computer chair. In the mean time I would order large amounts of take out twice. Once for lunch, once for dinner. Sometimes I would also snack in between. Pair this with sitting in a chair all day, I started packing on pounds.

2. Same routine as video games but with TV and movies. I cannot watch TV or a movie without eating something. popcorn, dinner, Snacks, beer, large coke. All kinds of unhealthy stuff. Now I am trying to re-train myself to not watch TV while I eat.

3. Pub crawling, going out excessively in the evenings with friends. Now this is an activity that almost everyone partakes in to some extent. Going out is just a natural social process but it was what I associated going out with which was damaging. VERY heavy drinking, decadent dinners, midnight mcdonald and snack runs. Typical college lifestyle only supercharged and would happen at least 3 times a week and included LOTS of eating.

4. I know I kind of mentioned this in my other post but drinking beer/alcohol EXTREMELY often. I lived in Montreal for a while, big drinking city, big college city. People in Montreal LOVE to drink. 2 beers with lunch, 5-7 happy hours, long nights of binge drinking. Buying packs upon packs of beer any and every time you went to a friend's house. It was very rare that there would be an occasion without drinks. As of now, after my weight loss surgery, this is something that I will hugely reform. I will not partake in 95 percent of the drinking that I used to anymore.

Anyone have any they would like to share?

Edited November 9, 2015 by Ray92

[Ashlegal 525]

I had issues with when and how much I consumed.

I'd wake up at 4:45 every morning and from there I'd go, go, go. School, work, sometimes back to school, sometimes back to work, errands, favors and all through my day only consume large amounts of caffeine. I'd come home and splurge on whatever food I wanted. It was never "junk" or "unhealthy" but eating 2-3 servings of anything is over consumption. I'd snack until bed and do it all over again.

I never exercised. Sure I was constantly moving but never engaging in physical activity.

I am still learning how to break the "don't eat all day" habit. It is hard because I am still as busy if not busier than I was prior to surgery. I have 12-14 hour days that keep me away from some "alone time" and even sitting at my desk to eat can be a chore I ignore.

[Babbs 14,680]

VACATIONS.

I used to see vacations as a virtual free for all as far as eating goes. I would be more excited about what kinds of wonderful food I was going to eat on vacation instead of being excited about the actual vacation itself. Heck, I gained 8 pounds on a 5 day cruise one time!

Since my surgery, I've either lost weight or maintained on vacations. I'm focusing more on the actual experience and the people I'm with. The food part is still fun, but now it's only secondary to the vacation itself. And i'm also able to experience so much more of it being thinner, too

[The Candidate 3,215]

Breathing was enough of an activity to stir the beast for me. My biggest issue was I was always hungry. Even if I got full to the gills, I'd be hungry again an hour later. And pretty much nothing I ate was good for me.

The only thing I wasn't was a late night snacker. I never got out of the bed to get something to eat. So yeah, I was lazy to boot.

[dlappjr 467]

Mine was staying up too late. Pre-Op, I made time for myself by staying up until 1am on weeknights. I would get off work at 6 and then spend time with my wife (before we had a daughter) then when she went to bed at 10:30, I would stay up and have "me" time. Video games, TV, mindlessly surfing the internet. Around 11:30 or so, I would get the urge. A bag of chips or a half carton of ice-cream or 2 bags of popcorn or half a bag of sour patch kids (the big bag) later, I would be happy and fat. Never exercised, actively tried to avoid anything that had to do with physical activity. Hell it took me 2 years to remodel a small bathroom in our master bedroom. I did start going to bed earlier once my daughter was born, but still had the night time snack before bed. Now, I don't eat after 8pm, unless its a sugar free popsicle.

Oh, and eating in my car. On the way to work I would stop and get a starbucks and mcdonalds Breakfast. Then on the way home from work, stop for a candy bar or candy and a pop or iced tea. add in the red bulls at work and I was an unhealthy pile of a$$.

Edited November 9, 2015 by dlappjr

[TealSister 296]

Mine were

* Reading - I'm an avid reader and always munched while reading. Reading on the iPad "helped" because my hands were more free to feed my face

* Eating lunch at work - I'd leave work earlier than most for lunch break, then come back to my desk and graze/stuff my face for the next 1-2 hours while the rest of my co-workers were at lunch.

[BarrySue 602]

There are people who become addicted to alcohol after the first sip. I think that was me with food. I just loved it. I have eight brothers and sisters, and even though we all played sports and were extremely active, I was the only fat one because I could never, ever get enough. It was all I wanted, and I spent all my money on it from babysitting cash at 13 to a good portion of my salary in my thirties. I can't believe how much extra money I have now simply because I'm not heading to a local restaurant, buying 3-4 meals and eating it in the car.

Now, when I go to the grocery store, I walk up and down to the aisles and still look longingly over all the delicious things I can't eat. I flip them over, look at the nutritional info, and sometimes I put them in my cart and then dump them right before the checkout line. I really miss food. Most of it makes me ill so I couldn't eat it if I wanted to, but that doesn't change how badly I still want it. I still throw away most of what I buy because I can't eat it, but it makes me feel secure to have it around for awhile.

My vice was binging though. I usually only ate once or twice a day, but I could eat enough for 3-4 people in that time. And soda? Oh boy, I lived on mountain dew for 20 years.

[Dub 9,922]

I think I share pitfalls posted by everyone so far.

Junk food, volume of junk food, timing of junk food and then float it all on gallons of beer and you pretty much have the recipe for disaster that I was following. Crazy lifestyle.

I work long rotating shifts in a fast paced and stressful job.

I let this single aspect of my life just about wreck my health.

I didn't prepare meals like I should have. I almost never carried meals & Snacks in to work with me. Fast food on the way to & from work.......junk food from vending machines and the crapateria while there. Lots of diet sodas during the shift.

Now.....I don't even take in cash with me. I bring in 100% of what I'll eat and it's much healthier and much more economical. I am blessed in that my job will allow me to walk for hours on end if I choose to. I'll be able to burn a ton of calories on the job.

I also drank a lot of calories in beer. I'd work like crazy and then get a day off. That day would find me firing up the grill around mid day and popping a top. If one beer is good.....then an endless supply until bedtime is even better. Great music, relaxing and conjuring up a great meal. Son would get home from school and chow down and my wife would eat with him. I'd usually skip it and keep enjoying my brews.

Late evenings......just before bedtime.....I'd want to eat leftovers and crash. So much bad with all this.

Now...I'll be able to enjoy my days off so much different. Get up....have some coffee and then go hit the gym. Enjoy my tunes then while getting my elliptical and treadmill sessions in.

I can still fire up the grill and cook up some tasty Protein......and break out the foodsaver on the leftovers for work lunches.

I don't have and answer for the beer. I've avoided alcohol since last April while losing weight. I'll see what the future holds. I've seen some skinny margaritas that were low calorie.....basically a zero calorie mix + tequila or vodka. I'm not in any hurry to toss this back into the mix just yet, though.

[Daisee68 2,493]

Ditto to all above I think. I ate McDonalds or Chick-fil-a every single morning (even weekends usually) for Breakfast on the way to work. I still crave that. I thought it was getting easier but not so much this last week. I have found myself with such an intense craving for these things but honestly I think I am craving the convenience and habit more than anything (at least that's what I keep telling myself). I still drive past these 2 restaurants every morning and just try not to look.

Then Friday nights in front of the TV with pizza.

Whole bag of potato chips or cheez-its with it more than half gone between the grocery store and home.

And yes most definitely lunch at work. I enjoy(ed) the break and the friendships. I am saving a lot of money now but I am a bit bored. I tried the whole "run errands" thing and I just run out of those. I ate out too much last week though and could feel it was making my desire for food as entertainment stronger. So back to taking lunch this week and trying to find other things to do at lunch after eating. Today I ate at my desk. Made my day SO long. I have been eating out lunch everyday for 20 years. I have to keep reminding myself that habits don't change overnight but I sure did hope that 5 months later, food would have less of a pull for me. ONE. DAY. AT. A. TIME.....

[FocusOnMeNow 599]

I can relate to all of the above. Drinking a bit too often, occasionally drinking too much and eating way to much and too often. The more I would eat, the hungrier I would get. Obviously and especially carbs which I was totally addicted to. Am and always will be a carb addict, but luckily at this point I cannot consume them in an adequate quantity to fuel that addiction. I also recently saw "End of the Tour", a movie about the great author David Foster Wallace. It was fabulous. It briefly touched on his alcoholism and potential drug addiction (tho in the movie his character claims that he was not on drugs). It also very briefly touched on what he called a tv addiction. He did not have a tv in his house, he said that he had to give that up. Then when they were on a road trip for a book signing, he overslept one morning because he had stayed up late watching tv the night before. When they went over to a friend's house, all the friends were falling asleep on the sofa but he was wide awake and his eyes glued to or fixated on the tv. I find myself also procrastinating on things I need to be doing so that I can watch tv or just finish this one episode that turns into another and another. Then its like 4 or 5pm on a Sunday afternoon and I still have to do my grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry etc which I should have been working on all weekend. This bad habit got really bad when I was broke and unemployed on and off during 2008-2009. I could stay up till 2am (or 3, 4 or 5) watching endless movies, and since I didn't have to go to work the next day. But now I do. But I still like to lose myself and veg out in front of the tube. Don't know if I'd ever have the balls to give it up like David Foster Wallace. But sometimes I wonder if I did, how many other books I would read or walks would I take?

As far as socializing, eating out, vacations etc...I can now enjoy all these things and the company without being a member of the clean plate club. And after eating less than half my meal everywhere now what do I notice? That the thin people I'm eating with don't even notice because they only ate about half of their food too. And they did not plow through a whole basket of bread like I used to. No wonder they are skinny. I used to eat like it was a contest that I had to win. But now, for the time being, and hopefully forever, I have broken free from the grip my addiction once held. While I know that I am still an addict, I'm not in an "active" addiction right now. And I am so grateful to my sleeve for giving me that freedom and giving me my life back:-)

[glitter eyes 1,398]

Like @@TealSister mine was reading. I love love love to eat and read. It is a very relaxing peaceful way to spend time. I would eat and snack almost the entire time I would read and I was an avid reader. I would read for hours a day- so I would snack a lot!!

I have cut my reading way back since surgery as that can still be a trigger sometimes. Besides life is too fun to sit inside and read!!

[Ray92 91]

Wow guys these responses have been pretty great! I can relate to many of them including the ones I already mentioned. The vacation one was big for me. Whenever I went to visit mum or grandma during the holidays (away from college) I would ask for all my favourite meals. Now the home cooked meals weren't unhealthy per se but I used to eat LARGE quantities of whatever was being served.

I had the ability to keep drinking beer without really taking a break. Being overweight helped in that I had a higher tolerance than the average female my age but of course beer has a lot of calories.

It's good to let all these things out in order to realize what we were doing that had set us up to get that unhealthy.

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

Going to the movies. Eating in the dark. Sums it all up.

[mrs kaje 347]

I would stay up and have "me" time. Video games, TV, mindlessly surfing the internet.

It's my favourite time of day! I can watch movies or browse the internet in peace.

I would hide food and get it out when everyone had gone to bed. I would be annoyed if my husband decided to stay up (rarely) - I couldn't wait for him to go to bed so I could just get to the eating part!

[dlappjr 467]

I would stay up and have "me" time. Video games, TV, mindlessly surfing the internet.

It's my favourite time of day! I can watch movies or browse the internet in peace.

I would hide food and get it out when everyone had gone to bed. I would be annoyed if my husband decided to stay up (rarely) - I couldn't wait for him to go to bed so I could just get to the eating part!

I can relate to feeling annoyed if my Wife decided to stay up a little later. Looking back it was so unhealthy, but during that time, I found my happy place. Glad I am finally over that.