Hey guys! Even if no one sees this, I had to tell someone of this small victory! I'm F24, 5'6 and 215 lbs. I have problems with my back that make it really difficult for me to exercise, so I'm sedentary in my lifestyle. I work from home, so I don't even walk to and from a bus stop.
I recently started mental health treatments to treat my binge eating and uncontrollable cravings. In the process, without realizing it, my portion sizes got smaller. I kept ordering the same amount of food as before thinking that I would need it, and would end up having to throw out more than half of it. I know, I know, a huge, giant, privileged waste of food. I don't keep leftovers from my binges because I always try not to expect myself to binge again (even though I always do.) But without realizing it, my binges were becoming just normal meals with normal amounts of food! Only today did I realize that in reality, I haven't binged in quite some time!
Thanks to my treatments, I've been feeling like I don't need food so much to rely on emotionally anymore, so I've been planning on starting a serious weight loss journey today. I weighed myself to see the damage, thinking that I've gained even more since last time (since, after all, I was still ordering takeout.) To my surprise, I've lost 20lbs! In my mind, I was eating the same as before, but I'm realizing now that simply being able to eat normal amounts as opposed to straight up bingeing has changed everything.
That being said, I want to encourage anyone who struggles with self control around food, and wanted to share what my psychiatrist told me:
She said that sometimes, people lack dopamine and serotonin. Similarly to how pregnant women get cravings for things like dirt and egg shells because of deficiencies they develop during pregnancy, our brain latches on to whatever source of missing chemicals it can get. For a lot of people, that ends up being food.
If it feels like you find it impossible to gain control over your own cravings, or that you seem to get more depressed the more you diet, chances are that you're deficient in a happiness chemical. People who get treated for depression are often treated through serotonin, and aren't given any external source of dopamine to replace the food/drugs/smoking that we rely on. That's why food becomes drug-like.
She explained to me that motivation is nothing more than a combination of chemicals triggered in our brain. If you lack one or more of these chemicals, motivation becomes impossible.
This was a very, very simplified version of things to help me understand it. She recommended that I read about the biology of ADHD, not because everyone that's overweight has ADHD, but because studying ADHD is the best way to learn about the reward system in our brain and how it works to help us in absolutely everything that we do.
We started treatments with medications for dopamine and serotonin, and two months later, I'm 20 lbs lighter! I plan to use this newfound freedom from cravings to start a proper CICO routine, and when my weight allows me, daily walks.
I hope even one person out there reading this can find comfort in this post that the ability to get motivated sustainably is a privilege, and the ability to control yourself from cravings is too. You're not weak for relying on food and not being able to let go. If you're like me and you can't imagine a reality where you can be happy without food, consider talking to your doctor about psychiatric treatments to aid with your weight loss. I wish you all the best and good luck!
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3aqXw86
No comments:
Post a Comment