Food Addict

So I told a friend about my previous post down below and he was quite concerned about me. He thinks that at the point I am willing to put down $1,000 to try to keep my goals, something is wrong. We sat and talked for more than an hour about his Food Addicts program. Apparently, until he was 18 he was overweight. He then lost 80 pounds through exercise but afterwards his weight still yoyo-ed around by 20 lbs depending on his mood, depression, life, etc. Since he has started his program he has stayed within 4 lbs of his target weight for 3 years. It was a very interesting talk that reaffirmed a few things.

From what I gather, the key to 12-step programs like Food Addicts is believing in a Higher Power, serving fellow group members with contact and support, and giving up your will over your food. For the first 90-days your sponsor dictates what you eat--no eating out, no sugar, no flour, and you have to weigh and measure all of your food. After 90 days you can eat out, but you can never eat sugar or flour for the rest of your life.

Intense.

I told him that although I have plenty of bad habits and addictive behaviors, I don't think I am at the level of a 12-step program for food. I am convinced they work though and are life-savers for certain people.

Just to be sure, I am going to live-blog me taking their evaluation quiz. (Against the future objections of my campaign manager Ben). Seriously, I am not being flippant. I know a number of people who struggle with this.

A few highlights from the quiz:

4 Do you binge and then "get rid of the binge" through vomiting, exercise, laxatives, or other forms of purging?
- Exercise as a form of purging? I think yes on this one. Sometimes I will eat a donut and try to run it off.

8 Is your weight problem due to your "nibbling" all day long?
- Who said I had a "problem"? I do nibble. For dinner tonight I had two pop-tarts.

9 Do you eat to escape from your feelings?
- Tricky one. I do tend to order pizza on those nights I have to work late. Part of the reason is they deliver, but so do all the Japanese places near work. I think I really just feel stressed out and want to eat something comforting.

11 Have you ever discarded food, only to retrieve and eat it later?
- Yikes. Once at work, I "threw away" the pizza in the box in the can with other papers. A few hours later I pulled it out and ate it. Not a regular habit though and my work trash can is a respectable place.

14 Have you ever stolen other people's food?
- Yeah, put mostly because I am passive aggressive.

16 Do you feel driven to exercise excessively to control your weight?
- I mean I exercise with the goal of losing weight and sometimes I find myself exercising more than once a day at odd hours--going to the gym from 10-11PM and then riding my bike on the beach boardwalk with hobos from 11PM to midnight.

19 Are you waiting for your life to begin "when you lose the weight?"
- No, everyone knows that happens when you get married.

20 Do you feel hopeless about your relationship with food?
- Again, mostly hopeless about relationship with opposite sex. And my relationship with business schools. Both entail a strange mix of apathy and rejection.

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you may be a food addict. You are not alone. FA offers hope through a real solution to food addiction.
- Yikes, that is a pretty strict test. I think I squeezed through, but will definitely try to be better about my indulging sweets and eating smaller portions.