All kinds of foodie thoughts

So today I went to my second OA meeting and I am very happy there. OA is different then CR because is specifically focused on food. It feels freeing to be in a place where everyone is dealing with what you are dealing with. I will never give up CR but I am loving the accountability I get here. Not to mention all the tips and tricks to change my bad eating habits. I was concerned that God wouldn't be a main focus in OA but he is! This is good! You cannot grow as a person until you accept God into your life. I believe that you will always feel that void in your life that only he can fill. I have been learning about my food addiction in the last few weeks. For example:

My Trigger Foods
Carbs. Rice is a good for you carb, in moderation. But something in my body triggers a reaction when I eat rice that tells my body not to stop. I am finding that this is normal in food addiction. The body will react differently to certain foods and cause a chain reaction from an instant crave for more to a feeling of euphoria or a fogginess in the brain. Sounds like a drug doesn't it? Certain foods for us are like a drug. I have talked with people who think clearer and feel like a completely different person when they abstain from their trigger foods. This may be one food, or many or it might be an ingredient like sugar. Some people react strangely to fake sugars or processed sugars. What does this mean for me? Well I can't abstain from all carbs. But I bet that if I go to lower carb foods and abstain from pasta and rice, which are definite trigger foods I will feel less lethargic and foggy.

My hubby and I were talking about food stereotypes today and I wanted to share a couple of them with you. These are things that we hear people say or say ourselves that have a whole new meaning from a food addicts point of view. For example: the type of food you eat depends on what money class you are in. If you are upper class you usually are expected to eat fancier foods like caviar and fresh seafood. lower class people tend to eat the cheaper foods that will feed many people. Hot-dogs and mac-n-cheese. These are the foods I grew up on. They were cost effective for the 4 people in my family. They kept us full longer. You should eat everything on your plate. As Americans a lot of us feel that we work hard and deserve a full plate of food. Sometimes we feel deprived if we look at an empty plate. Sometimes we feel like we are splurging on certain foods and don't get to eat it often, so we should over indulge. This is what places like buffets count on. For a food addict, eating with our eyes is how we get into trouble. We see small portions or foods that we know we shouldn't have or can't afford and we think that we can indulge just this once and not get into trouble. That is completely not true. A little bit of sugar can't hurt anyone. That is a lie. I have heard that it was normal for our parents generation to have kyro syrup in there bottles of milk, to make it more appealing. When we add sugar to a babies system that young we are almost certainly giving them an addiction to sugar. I believe that this is a huge cause of diabeties in this country, because we are depriving our kiddos if we don't give them juice, or let them have that cookie. All of the processed foods that we buy or that come from fast food restaurants are counting on us not caring to look at the sugar or sodium content. This is just some of the things I have been realizing this week. Food for thought if you will.

My goals for this week
So this next week starting tomorrow, I am going to try and go one week without Rice or pasta. I will talk with you next week and see if I feel a difference. I will be eating potatoes as my main carbs and small amounts of bread. Oh and did I tell you that today makes one whole week without soda? I am so proud of myself. I am not even craving a soda very often anymore. We drink tea and some juice. But we really are trying to increase  our water.

Celebrate
I have 2 reasons to celebrate this week. One I can not tell you about until I get permission too, so sorry for the tease. And 2 I realized that I never celebrated the fact that I have been blogging over a year now. This is a huge accomplishment for me. Although I am not completely consistent yet, I am getting better. I started the blog with one friend and have seen my followers grow a little along the way. My blog had no direction and slowly God changed my thought to align with His purpose in my life. I also have seen friends start blogs and become successful with them. And we get to grow together in this journey. I am going to work on a little blog surprise to come and I have a challenge for you. If you read my blog or other peoples blogs and don't follow them, would you consider following. I can't tell you how overjoyed it makes me feel to see my friend list  grow even by that one person. Also if you have a blog that I don't follow, will you let me know about it. Leave the URL on my comment screen and I will add you. Lets support each other in the things we go through. Don't forget I promised my sister that I would get a tattoo if I got 100 followers. So I will get working on that surprise and leav you now. Have a great day and God Bless!