Figuring out the Mind of a Food Addict

Recently I underwent gallbladder surgery. When I woke up in the recovery room, my first thought was "I lived." My second thought was "I need some chocolate."

Figuring that everything was back to normal, I drifted back to sleep, only to awaken craving chocolate again. This went on for three days, until I confessed to my daughter that something had gone terribly wrong in the surgery.

She looked at me anticipating bad news. I said, "I think they put something in the anesthesia; I keep craving chocolate." My daughter just stared at me, as she believes I am a rational person, and she was having a tough time with that statement. Welcome to the mind of a food addict.

There was an obvious solution to the post-surgery, chocolate-craving dilemma I was experiencing. Nausea was preventing me from eating all of the foods that I was used to eating, and I truly did need sugar, but not in the form of cake or candy. I started eating fruit again, and the chocolate cravings went away.

Dealing with food cravings is a typical way to spend the day when you are a food addict, and they are not always as easy to solve as my post-surgery one.

Food cravings where you see it and want it are not the cravings that I am talking about.

I am talking about the sinister ones, the ones that sneak into my mind when I am nowhere near food, and the ones that plague my thoughts when I am hours away from my next meal. Those are the cravings with which I wrestle.

On a carefree walk in the park, I will suddenly start thinking about meatballs. There is not a feathered friend around me, or a blade of grass that even smells like oregano, garlic or tomatoes, and yet there I am, walking on a tarred path, side-by-side with Mother Nature, thinking of a pot of sauce and meatballs.

On some days I am convinced I am not wired correctly. It is as if food cravings were out there floating around, and they knew which head to jump into, and they picked mine.

I never gave food cravings much thought, because I used to just respond to them. If it was 10 p.m. and I wanted spaghetti, I cooked it and ate it.

If I was craving a certain cake or pie, I baked it.

But just like everything else that has been rearranged, adjusted to, or abandoned altogether in my life during the past two years, food cravings had to be dealt with.

Not offering any excuses for my food-craving thinking, I have come up with the following solutions, which help me adjust:

I don't take anything serious until the third time I crave it.

Most cravings that are far-fetched, (such as french fries, hot fudge sundaes, chocolate chip cookies, etc.) I refuse to let myself think about. As fast as the thought enters my head, that is the same speed with which I get rid of it.

The third time a craving jumps into my head, I analyze why I am craving it. All food comes from certain food groups, and there is the possibility I am lacking something. Sometimes I need more dairy, sometimes I need more carbohydrates, vitamins or iron, and sometimes I even need more fat in my diet.

The third time I crave the same food, I heed the call and respond with a healthy choice to satisfy the craving, just like the chocolate and the fruit.

When I first started losing weight, the food cravings were as out of control as I was. How can you swim in a pool reeking of chlorine and be craving macaroni and cheese? I was always so relieved that people couldn't see what I was thinking about while swimming.

As I continue on my journey, the food cravings become more manageable - just like the weight.