The Power of a Bagel

This morning in the weight loss support group I run, we were discussing the power of a bagel. It didn't start out as a bagel discussion, but ended up there. We were talking about handling stress and how using food to calm, to sooth, and to distract, are powerful motivators for eating "comfort" foods. When we eat carbohydrates the serotonin and dopamine levels in our brains are affected and it makes us feel good. Many antidepressants work on this level in the brain and certain foods, especially in large quantities, do as well.

The woman discussing how she needed to eat this bagel has more motivation to lose weight than most people ever will. She needs to be thinner in order to be a candidate for a lung transplant. She currently has only 22% lung capacity and although her condition is stable at the moment, that could change. She is young, has teenage children, is married, works and has everything to live for. She doesn't have enough air to make the bed but now, she has lost about forty pounds, and she is doing better. She has more weight to lose before she can have the transplant and even with all that for motivation, she needed to go off her planned diet and eat a bagel because she was so stressed out.

Some of us may be genetically predisposed to use food. There have been studies where they have looked at the brain's response to food. Apparently, some of us get more of a charge out of food than others. For some our brains really light up when exposed to a chocolate soufflé or French fries, while for others, not so much. We get that drug-like high from thinking about, scoring, preparing and ingesting our substance. All that before we even feel the high of overeating. It's really no different than the cocaine addict, or the alcoholic. When you have trained yourself to use food to deal with stress, unpleasant feelings, or anything else that you deem uncomfortable, you give the bagel the power of a drug. The side effect of bagel overdose is obesity and its related complications.

One of the clearest of examples of using food that I've seen lately is the woman whose mother passed away and she couldn't deal with the feelings, so she started eating ice cream. She gained 80 lbs. eating ice cream and put off feeling the feelings of grief. When she decided to stop the ice cream and deal with her weight, the feelings came up and she felt them for the first time.

Increasing your tolerance for feelings is important if you want to stop using food. Finding some self love and acceptance is a good start. Then being slowly willing to delay gratification, long enough to find out what is driving your eating, will be key. I tell my clients to wait 5 minutes before eating if they are not really hungry. In those five minutes it's amazing what you can learn about yourself.

So part of weight work for you might involve paying attention to when/if you use food to deal with your emotions. Before you eat ask yourself, "Am I hungry?" If you are not and just feel like eating something ask yourself why. Wait five minutes and then if you still want to eat, go ahead. Once you are aware of what you are doing, it loses some power. Counting calories and staying focused will ruin a good binge.

That's it for now. Good luck and let me know how you're doing.