I Have to Pee!

Sorry if this title offends anyone but I am a nurse and a mom so discussing body functions has never been a problem with me. I digress a bit here so stay with me. I’ve been wondering for a long time if food can really be an addiction. I know I crave certain foods. Mine are sugar based. My BFF craves salty foods. Put a bag of chips in front of her and they are gone in a minute. I’ve had a bag of chips in the cupboard for over a month and just noticed my son finished them last night. My food of choice has always been chocolate. Doesn’t really matter the type but I can always find comfort in a big bag of M & M Peanuts or multiple Peanut Butter Cups.

A friend who deals a lot with addicts gave me a laypersons example of what an addiction (drugs, alcohol, cigarettes) feels like. Lets say you have to pee. Usually you can put it out of your mind for awhile but as minutes and hours pass, the urge to pee gets stronger and stronger til it reaches a point where all you can think about is “I have to pee!”. When you finally get to pee, the relief can be overwhelming, you feel better and you can go on with what you were doing until the next urge hits.

So I wondered if maybe that was how I was with certain foods, like chocolate. Sometimes it is all I can think about. I can’t do anything until I have driven to the store, bought the biggest bag or bar of chocolate and stuffed it in my mouth usually in the car going home. The sense of relief is overwhelming. I have my fix and I can get on with what I was doing. But this doesn’t happen with all foods, just some. I know I can easily ignore the urge to binge on liver!

Whether food is addictive has never really been proven. I studied Biochemistry in university and can picture all those little receptors we have in our brain, be it for caffeine, drugs, alcohol, whatever. I like to imagine little M&M receptors just waiting patiently for chocolate to arrive. I do know that if I go cold turkey I don’t seem to miss chocolate so maybe it is just a learned activity. Is it just feeding my insecurities, loneliness, boredom? Like many of you, I have a lot of other issues to deal with besides just losing weight but this blogging helps bring them out in the open. Soon I will be able to imagine little lettuce and celery receptors “craving” to be fed.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend and that you get a really good laugh in at least once. Tonight I’m off to see Jeff Dunham, a ventriloquist and comic. I just love his puppets. For those who want a good laugh, you have to watch some Jeff Dunham Videos (not for kids!). Tomorrow I leave for the wilds of Québec to visit friends and take in some snowshoeing. At least I will be getting some exercise.

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