5 Strategies for Food Addiction When You’re Losing Control

Are you on the edge of losing control in your battle over food addiction? Food addiction is one of the hardest things to overcome . . .  I mean, we must eat. So how can you defeat food addiction when you’re losing control? Take a deep breath. Pull up a chair. Grab a cup of coffee or tea, and let’s chat about 5 strategies for food addiction. 

I’m a recovering food addict. Note I said, recovering and not recovered. This battle is for life. I get it; I get you. During my year-long journey to shed 100 pounds, and while maintaining my weight loss for four years, I learned some vital lessons. I hope these tips will help you and give you hope for a permanent healthy lifestyle.

The valuable lessons I learned were recently reinforced. I share from experience and spending time in the trenches more than once during my joy-filled journey of defeating decades of obesity, binge eating, and food addiction. 

Here’s the short story of how I implemented the strategies that aided me in this battle. One recent day was the absolute pits. Ever had days like that?

You know those days. I came home from a very stressful meeting, and the urge to relapse into a binge eating pattern overwhelmed me in a way I hadn’t experienced in quite a long time. Like dropping to my knees, weeping, and praying because of overwhelming circumstances. Have you been there? It’s painful, frustrating, and exhausting. And most of the time, we succumb to this overwhelm and end up binge eating and feeding our food addiction.

But we don’t have to succumb. I escaped this battle strong enough to share these strategies with you to help you win this battle day by day. Let’s prepare with these strategies for our best chance to stand! So, let’s face this battle head-on with five strategies you can begin using today.

Food Addiction is Mostly About Feelings

Let’s just cut straight to the heart of it all. Or the mindset of it all. Weight loss, food addiction, and binge eating are seated in our minds. We experience emotional triggers and must decide how to comfort our feelings.

Reflecting on thirty years of living unwell, I realize that I used food for a wide variety of feelings. Not just negative emotions, but also positive feelings . . . hey, let’s celebrate every positive thing with food, too. I was trapped in a harsh ride of the emotional rollercoaster and my excuses.

One of the best tools to process these feelings is a Feelings Wheel my therapist shared. We can use my very bad day as a perfect example of using the Feelings Wheel.

The meeting I endured left me feeling bad (the inner core feeling on my wheel). Heading out to the next layer of feelings on the wheel, I identify with the feeling of being wholly stressed after that meeting. The wheel’s outer ring moves from stressed to overwhelmed and out of control for deeper insight into my feelings. Check and check. Those feelings caused me to experience a strong urge to binge eat.

The sooner we accept that the battle for our health plays out in the mind, the better day-by-day progress we can make. Grab the Feelings Wheel for your use or find a great therapist to help you in this battle.

Ever felt bad, stressed, overwhelmed, out-of-control? How do we respond? We need some steadfast fundamentals in our journey.

Food Addiction Recovery Requires Healthy Lifestyle Fundamentals

In my health coaching, I begin with each client’s importance in making that very first choice. It’s foundational and fundamental to finding victory in this battle. Fundamental means something is a central or primary rule or principle on which something is based.

Do you want to live healthily? You’ve got the resolve to make these changes––it’s time to define your fundamental reasons for this journey you are on.

Spend some time examining your motivation and reasons for pursuing a healthy lifestyle. Consider your why? Journal about it. Get creative. And use this time of reflection to be fundamental to your goal setting. Goals keep you accountable. Always have your goals established for future evaluation. 

Fundamentally, we can’t arrive where we don’t know where we are going. Knowing where we are going and making progress day-by-day creates momentum, and momentum is fundamental to your goal of a lasting lifestyle transformation.

If you would like to read more about food addiction see, 5 Reasons Binge Eat and Are We Addicted to Sugar and Carbs?

Food Addiction Involves Food Choices 

After thirty years of following the standard American dietary advice and living in morbid obesity, I finally discovered the truth that I had severely damaged my metabolic health. I did not know I was carbohydrate intolerant. Now, not everyone is as carb sensitive as I am, but it was mind-blowing to discover a new concept and a new way of eating to fix my chronic health issues.

What I learned through adopting a low-carb diet changed my life forever. As I continue this path of healthy eating for my metabolism, I will never risk damaging my health again by returning to a high-carb diet.

I discovered a few essential concepts: sugar is highly addictive, and factory processed foods are loaded with sugar to keep you addicted and come back for more! Physiologically, we are trapped in this vicious cycle as our brains scream at us––feed me more sugar!

When I landed on the number one website in the low-carb community, Diet Doctor, I learned we could fix our health with a healthy diet. I need a low-carb and low-sugar diet; you might need a gluten-free diet––but it’s essential to understand that our food choices have the most significant impact on our physical health. 

As I felt better physically, my emotional and spiritual health improved significantly. The right food choice for you will help heal you in body, mind, and spirit. Being healthy and whole in your entire being is the best weapon for overcoming your food addiction.

Food Addiction–Through Fasting Comes Victory

If you ask me what the most crucial strategy or tool in my victory over food addiction is . . . hands down, my answer is fasting. Hear me out.

Fasting is the best gift in a healthy lifestyle. I discovered the hard truth that we are not designed to eat around the clock. Eating around the clock left my metabolism, experiencing blood sugar highs and lows all day, every day. The result was the intense desire to eat around the clock. Fasting helped me break this vicious cycle both physically and mentally.

Fasting can be a key component in breaking your food addiction as we teach our body (physiologically) that we do not need to be fed sugar all day long. Fasting helps move our metabolism from chronic sugar burner to fat burner. You can learn more about getting started with fasting on this blog: A Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting.

Even more than the physical and emotional benefits of fasting, the spiritual aspect is Biblical and will increase your faith––which is the final strategy I use.

Food Addiction is Winnable with Faith

Most importantly, your faith must be the most critical weapon in your arsenal. Back to my story of that bad, stressed, overwhelmed, and out of control day.

Paul writes about my losing strategy in Ephesians 2:3, All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

I acknowledge this history––I craved all the wrong things to satisfy my soul! I never read my Bible daily or with passion. Incredibly, God flipped the cravings of my life, and my entire being craved nourishment from Him as my primary source of fuel.

So, on this recent day, how did I respond? 

First, I took a deep breath. I mentally went to my new strategies fast. I grabbed my Feelings Wheel. I identified those feelings of bad, stressed, overwhelmed, and out of control. I knew I was on the brink of losing control. 

On this brink, I run to one of my favorite Scriptures found in Psalm 63:1. David knows this deep longing in his soul: You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water

Friend, run! Run to your faith. Run to Scriptures that speak of self-control and making wise choices in your journey. 

Sometimes we need a melt-down moment. That day I wept bitterly. I journaled. I pleaded with God to take away this urge to drown my sorrow in a binge. I took time to work this out with Him.

Then I got up, distracted myself with some household chores, and a phone call to an encouraging friend. A few hours later, I finally sat down with a cup of herbal tea and breathed a huge sigh of relief. A little weary from the battle, but satisfied by the outcome. All glory to God!

For many years I succumbed to these scenarios. I know you can relate. Thirty years I craved all the wrong and fleshly things, leading to my food addiction and episodes of binge eating. Friend, we don’t have to live like this.

You, too, can be fully satisfied by trusting God to care for every need and longing in your heart and soul. God is Jehovah Rapha (healer) and Jehovah Jireh (provider). He cares about your healthy lifestyle in body, mind, and spirit.

These strategies will help you claim victory over your food addiction and beat back an upcoming binge eating episode. From feelings to fundamentals, use food choices and fasting while relying on your faith. Repeat when and how often and necessary!

About the Author

Christine Trimpe is a former casual Christian, now passionate about Christ, coffee, and connecting with you. Christine’s transformation story and victory over obesity and chronic illness of her body, mind, and spirit will inspire you to strengthen your own joy-fueled adventure with Jesus. She’s been where you’ve been, where you are, or where you want to be through seasons of trials and triumphs. Whether you need physical, emotional, or spiritual healing, she encourages you to delight in God’s Word daily for lasting life transformation to step up and into God’s calling in your life. Her latest release is Seeking Joy through the Gospel of Luke. Learn more about Christine’s writing, speaking, and coaching at ChristineTrimpe.com.

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