Food Addiction

It seems ridiculous that a person can be addicted to food.  After all, we need food to survive.

But that's just it.  I don't eat food just to survive.  I eat food because I love it.  It makes me happy.  It elicits all kinds of warm feelings.

Well, not ALL food.  The stuff that's good for me doesn't make me feel that way.  I don't get all contented when I eat an apple.  I just don't.  No, for me it's the roast with the rich gravy, and the mashed potatoes with lots of butter and cream.  The decadent chocolate cookies.

So, how do I stop eating all the things my brain finds so yummy and eat the things that are just functional for survival?

It's why I'm fat.  I can't stop eating the good stuff.

Who wants to give up the wonderful, contended feelings that the "good stuff" when they make you feel so good after a long, horrible day?  Who doesn't need a little comfort in their lives?

So, after brainstorming, I have decided that the trick is to find healthy foods that can elicit the same kind of contentedness.  I already know that black bean soup and bean and ham soup do.  And those can be healthy.

So next year is going to be a time of experimentation to find foods that make me feel wickedly happy, but can make my body wickedly happy, too!  I'm kind of excited about it.  And there are lots of places to start - all the Hungry Girl cookbooks are a great place to start.  She's done a lot of the work already and has found some things that are really good.

I can say it's not going to be easy.  I already tried making my "football food" healthier, and it just wasn't good.  It's not the same to make a jalapeno popper with low fat cream cheese and turkey bacon.  So some things probably can't be made to give that same level of comfort and joy that we get from the non-healthy stuff.  But I'm going to give it my best shot!

I'll share my successes here in my recipe section.