Lyndzie wrote:Nice to meet you, Dan! It’s amazing how life circumstances can change and we have to learn some new tricks to navigate our surroundings. The pleasure trap is definitely the biggest challenge, in my opinion, of our “toxic food environment.” Living with other people who eat differently and have hyperpalatable foods around can wear down will power and resistance. Do you have a plan for getting back to a place you are happy with?
At this point, I'm not really sure. It's not just the home environment - part of it is that I am at a weird place in life right now. I just left a corporate job that I was very unsatisfied with and moved home with my parents. I am working part time, only 20 hours a week, have way too much free time and no real direction in my life right now. When you combine all those factors with my current environment, eating well becomes a real challenge.
Take last week as the most recent example. I work Mon-Thu, and kept myself really busy throughout the week. As a result, I didn't have time to think about food so much, and ate exceptionally well for 4 days, and didn't think about cramming or junk food at all. Then Friday came along, and come mid-afternoon I had a good 6 hours of free time with nothing else planned for the day. It honestly felt inevitable that I was going to start eating out of boredom, and I just decided to give in pretty quickly instead of fighting it.
So, I think part of it is under my control in some sense. I need to figure out what I am doing with my life and develop some sense of direction/purpose. Eventually, of course, I would like to move out, but that would be later on down the line at this point. However, I think if I was just a little more busy and didn't have so much free time and didn't feel so lost day-to-day, it would be easier to resist temptation.
I guess I am doing something about that - after talking with my parents and brother, I've decided to meet with a therapist to help me figure some of this stuff out.
Anyhow, in regards to my current day-to-day, I will continue trying. Today was actually a very successful day - I had some very strong to cram/binge a few hours ago and I managed to resist. There's a part of me that really wants to make it out 2 or 3 weeks without eating junk or cramming - Dr. Lisle always says those are the hardest! I haven't made it more than 6 or 7 days over the past 3 months or so. I am wondering if I get past a certain period of time if it'll be much easier to stay on track, even when surrounded by junk. There's also a part of me that thinks that as long as I'm in my current situation, the temptation will always be too great, but I would at least like to try making it past a month or so and find out!