What are YOU hungering for?

I'm in Day 24 back OP (on program) and still rolling along, feeling good.  I had a minor slip-up over the weekend but I was able to crawl and claw my way out of that particular hole, and got right back 100% on Monday, but it got me to thinking.

This morning I grabbed - pretty much at random - one of my binge-eating self-help books, one of many I've read and some are better than others but I usually can find a little nugget of truth inside me after reading them so they DO help - "The Food is a Lie: The Truth Lies Within" by Bronwyn Marmo....and reading from it I came across a chapter about making peace with your hungry side. 

Here's a quote:
"Healing from binge eating began with the awareness and understanding that the coping strategy I had once used was no longer working.  Food had previously served an important role and purpose in my life, as it was my best friend and lover.  As I matured and my needs grew, my expectations of what the food should give me, increased.  However, the food couldn't keep up with my demands.  No matter how many times I gave it a try, my needs were not being met.  Sadly, I realized they were never met by the food.  The food was a substitute and failing me miserably now."

THIS is what it's all about, when you come down to it.

We "feed" our problems when we're food addicts.  We feed them because it's what we learned to do, from an early age when Mom or Grandma gave us a cookie to "feel better", and so we associate food with solving our emotional problems, whatever they are. Normal eaters grow OUT of this....either they stop using food to solve their problems, or they are the type that can be happy with ONE square of chocolate. 

But somehow WE don't. 

It ALL Counts!

Starting over?

Well, the first thing I want to tell you is to STOP beating yourself up for whatever mistakes you made to get you here.

Because each and every bit of experience you have had, COUNTS.
It all adds up.

I know it feels like it was a waste.  Like you're going 'round and 'round in circles, getting nowhere.

I know you feel like you're beating your head against a wall sometimes, like you'll NEVER 'get it'. 

After all, how many times can you repeat the same dumb mistakes, right?

How many times have you overeaten?  Or binged?  And hated yourself afterwards?

We can't understand it.  We aren't stupid, most of us....so WHY? 

Why is it that we can do so many other things 'right'....we can have successful careers, run our households, be the organizer or central hub that our families and/or friends depend upon, do SO many things well.....yet we can't do a simple thing like control our eating? 

What the heck is WRONG with us?

Listen to me.  There is NOTHING wrong with you. 

NOTHING.  Absolutely NOTHING.

Because this isn't like long division.  You don't learn it and then that's 'it', you're done.

This is a CONTINUAL learning process.  A LIFELONG journey. 

I know you don't want to hear that.  You want to have it 'once and done'.  We're all so busy in our lives, we don't have patience for a slow learning process based on experience.

But it's necessary.