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| Is it addiction if it's so delicious? |
No sane person would deny that addiction is real (sit down, Tom Cruise!)- In fact, the D.S.M. (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the resource of the medical community that standardizes diagnosis, expanded the definition of what addiction is: addiction can be physical, but it can also be behavioral.
I've covered this topic here before, but I didn't really say much other than, "this is a thing." When I blogged a whole week about sugar, I scoffed at the Sugar Industry for sweeping the sugar-is-addictive idea under the carpet. I was approaching it like sugar was another white powder, like cocaine and heroine, and I don't think I was totally wrong in that -- alcohol is just a super-simple sugar that revs up certain biological pathways that gives a sense of euphoria and intoxication. So does sugar -- just ask any sugar-mad 4 year old. However, I think I missed the elephant in the room.
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| Elie knew she was the elephant in the room, so she decided she might as well be faaaabulous about it. |
Sugar addiction is a form of food addiction. And it's easy to scoff at: how can you be addicted to something you need to simply survive? Why not be addicted to breathing? Addicted to water? To that, I simply say: What if you compulsively made yourself hyperventilate because it made you feel better? What if you felt the urge to drink 10 gallons of water a day, regardless of the 14 hours a day you spent peeing, or you won't feel right? Sure, air and water are not physically addicting, but if something causes the brain wiring to give these things the power to excite and intoxicate, or simply to relieve a perceived negative feeling or emotion, then yes, air and water can be addicting. I don't know if there are any elemental addicts out in the world (pyromaniacs and pica sauveurs aside) and I can feel certain in saying their problems are not primarily physical or common.
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| Even the elemental addict's support group thought air-heads were beyond the pale. |
The can o' worms that the D.S.M. opens is: not only can any behavior be seen as addictive, but all sorts of horrible behavior can be excused as merely an addiction. Was Mitt Romney addicted to being an elitist a-hole? Was Hitler addicted to killing Jews? I'm going to guess, "No, they were not addicts, just horrible people" but I also think the foundation of the question is misleading. The D.S.M. is not redefining addiction to be able to excuse behaviors: it is redefining addiction so as to have a framework to treat and cure it.
Which leads me and this blog to an important question: how does one define, treat and cure a food addict? I immediately think of heroine, and I think of the methadone clinics where zombified scraggly people go in and out at all times of the day near the office I once worked in in the East Village. I think of Lindsay Lohan being forced into rehab lock-up. And I think of the great cliche of addiction recovery from too many movies to count: the 12 step meeting and AA.
Upon doing a little research about Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 step "fellowships", I see they have one big problem that keeps them a bit stigmatized and under reported:
- they don't proselytize and they don't recruit,
- they're strictly non-profit, and
- their internal code is written so that any recruiting or profit making is strictly verboten.
There is a huge industry set up to sell us books, diet foods, gym memberships, pills and equipment to help us deal with the results of our behavior with food, so it certainly is in no one's financial interest other than the individual to try to think about being overweight and unhealthy as an addiction rather than a personal choice.
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| The 1st rule of 12 step is you don't talk about 12 step. Moobs. |
Alcoholics Anonymous is the original and the biggest, but for years before the D.S.M. even expanded their definition, the 12 Step method was being applied to every potentially addictive behavior under the sun: of course there is Cocaine Anonymous, Heroine Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Nicotine Anonymous, even Marijuana Anonymous, but dig a little further and there will be Sex Anonymous, Emotions Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Under Earners Anonymous, Clutterers Anonymous, and on and on. And then there is food.
I'm a fan of food, and as a graduate of culinary school and as a person who enjoys eating exciting things in NYC, its no surprise that there is not just one flavor of food addiction. I'm sure I missed a lot, but I sketched out four versions of 12 Step for food:
- Over Eaters Anonymous: The mothership, the one that covers everyone. You are on your own to make up your own food plan.
- Compulsive Eaters Anonymous: Like OA, but every day's eating is planned and measured. Hmmmm, sound familiar?
- Food Addicts Anonymous: A step further than CA: on top of the planning and measuring, physically addictive food is not permitted. This covers sugar, flour and what among other things, and the meal plan includes "metabolic adjustments", snacks to keep blood sugar regular.
- Grey Sheeters Anonymous: Makes FA look like a bunch o' poofs. You give up all control over food choices. You only eat three meals a day, weighed and measured, as indicated in a meal plan given to you by your sponsor (another member of the fellowship personally responsible for your well being.)
I wonder -- by pushing all my bad eating habits from a 7-day a week marathon down into a 1 to 2 day a week off-blog eating-fest that occasionally uncomfortably looks like binging, am I dealing with an addiction? Sure, I just lost 40 lbs, but if my 1 to 2 days of bad eating were to retake the rest of my week again, I'd go back to exactly as I was. Not only is that frightening to my very core, that's nuts!!
Next week is the monthly weigh in. Gonna do more research on OA, and get back atcha in 2 weeks about what Over Eaters Anonymous is about. If you find me on the street wearing a robe and offering you free vegan food, WATCH OUT IT'S A CULT!! Or I've become a hairy hari krishna, whatever.
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| Hari krishnas or a local OA group? Find out in 2 weeks... |
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Is Anthony Weiner an addict?
Mr. Weiner said on Thursday that he was still seeking professional help for his online behavior, and that he did not believe he had an addiction.
Hmmm. There is a compulsive behavior that is performed regardless of cost to family, wife, children or career. When he is caught and suffers fast and large consequences (resignation from Congress, public shaming, a humiliated wife whose just about to give birth), he continues his compulsive behavior, regardless of consequence or personal convictions. Riiight, no addiction there.
I guess as a politician, to identify oneself as an addict would be a guarantee of never holding elected off again, especially one of these new-fangled 'behaviorial' addictions rather than the physical (coke-head President Bush, anyone?) WA, Weiners Anonymous. I'm Carlos Danger, and I approve this message.
To be clear, I'm not excusing Wiener's behavior. In fact, if it were not for his behavior, he would have had my vote. But on a human level, perhaps treating his behavior as something other than a failure of character might be more useful than throwing him in the garbage.
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| No "pants on the ground!" f'me. |
I was consistently on the last loop of my "new belt". It was still holding my pants up well-enough, but the leather wang that I had to tuck in every damn time was becoming annoying. The new one is snug, but I bought it small, as the last one stretched by a couple of loops anyway. I'm amazed that when I look in the mirror, I don't see anything different, though the lengths of these three belts tell an undeniable truth -- I weigh less than I did a year ago.
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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2311
The previous week was overspilling with work, but as the event my team was working up to involved everyone but me goin' to Texas, the following week was off. So I filled this week with productive things, and tried not to eat too wildly. I actually ate wildly twice (Wednesday & Thursday), but both with good reasons.
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MONDAY COUNT: 2205
One of the best eating days up to this point. Due to correctly eating during and after my 150 mile ride yesterday, I felt pretty good today -- too sore to lift weights, but energized enough to feel normal and not desire food more than usual. Also, I'm thinking of moving my juicing from late afternoon/early evening to another part of early breakfast, pairing it with iced green tea, a few hours before a solid food breakfast.
AM SNACK: 4:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 150 cal
BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fage whole yogurt with almonds, vanilla and agave, 310 cal
LUNCH: 1:15pm, sardine and avocado on whole wheat toast, roasted brussel sprouts, kimchi, 725 cal
PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, seaweed sheets, 200 cal
PM SNACK: 8:15pm, poppa salad with miso tahini, 100 cal
DINNER: 9pm, stir fry with shrinp, broc, snow peas, shitakes, shirataki noodles and black bean sauce, 420 cal
EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, fritos, 300 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2255
Good eating day, despite the fact having to eat fast food when I realized I was out, getting too hungry, and would not be home for another few hours.
AM SNACK: 5am, iced green tea, 0 cal
BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet//carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 135 cal
BREAKFAST 2: 9am, steel cut oatmeal, 250 cal
LUNCH: 2pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat momma salad, 590 cal
PM SNACK: 4:30pm, beef jerky, 120 cal
PM SNACK: 5:45pm, poppa salad with miso tahini, 100 cal
DINNER: 7:15pm, 6" veggie burger sub, potato chips, 16 oz diet coke, 760 cal
EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, fritos, 300 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: --------
I'm gonna play the "c-card" here. I loaded up on healthy food in the morning, because all afternoon I spent with a dear old friend who is dealing with cancer. Over 20 years, our thing is to really enjoy the hell out of food, and this afternoon she had appetite, I had time away from work and family, and we went to town old-school style. Suffice to say, we each inhaled 1000s of calories, but I purposefully allowed myself permission to fully enjoy my time with her and our shared affection for food. In the evening I surprisingly found myself hungry and ate a few more things, because what-the-hey, this day is toast, but I had confidence that the next day I would return to sanity.
AM SNACK: 5:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal
BREAKFAST 2: 8am, fruit smoothie, 410 cal
AM SNACK: 10:30am, momma salad, 100 cal
AM SNACK: 11:15am, apple/beet//carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 130 cal
REST OF DAY: day long gorging with a good friend
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BIKE CREDIT: 2385
THURSDAY COUNT: 2250
Road 85 miles up into Putnam County, kept it pretty strict. New granola bars I cooked earlier this week are dosed with caffeine -- holy crap, two of them made me jittery and speed-strong, I gotta make another batch with out caffeine so I don't eat two of these in a row again.
AM SNACK: 5:30am, iced green tea, 0 cal
BIKE SNACK: 9:15am, granola bar, 315 cal
BIKE SNACK: 11am, granola bar, 390 cal
BIKE SNACK: 1pm, granola bar, 390 cal
BIKE SNACK: 3pm, digestive cookies, 520 cal
BIKE SNACK: 5pm, peanut M&Ms, 660 cal
DINNER: 7:45pm, shio ramen, ebi shumai, water, +/- 900 cal
DINNER 2: 11pm, Stouffer's French bread pizza, 860 cal
EVENING SNACK: 11:15pm, Fritos, 300 cal
EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, Cheetos, 300 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2535
Damn, I woke up a whole new kind of bike-sore. Not too hungry, but my legs were rubberized and my back and sides felt punchy. This is good, this is how the biking improves.
AM SNACK: 5:30am, iced green tea, 0 cal
AM SNACK: 6:30am, apple/beet//carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 145 cal
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, fage whole yogurt with almonds, vanilla and agave, 310 cal
LUNCH: 12:15pm, sauteed chicken breast, roasted broccoli, freshly made babaganoush on whole wheat bread, pickles, poppa salad with homemade Italian dressing, 870 cal
PM SNACK: 4pm, hot dog, 310 cal
DINNER: 7:30pm, tofu sushi plate, shrimp spring roll, dumplings, +/- 900 cal
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