For Today

for today, be pleased with ourselves.
http://www.radicalhappiness.com/all-blog-articles/414-be-pleased

Our parents taught us well.
To be self sufficient,
to figure things out on our own,
to keep the family secret.
Never admit when we are in the wrong.
Blame someone else.

To bad all these thing stopped us
from getting the proper help,
when we needed it.

Food addiction, conditioned hypereating,
has two parts, the food, and related chemistry
and the habit.
We need to correct both to over come,
and be satisfied at where we are at today, for today.

Recovery is one piece at a time,
living in the now, without fear or hope
of the future; beyond what is within our power.

Breath, smile, enjoy the wonders of life,
and  be satisfied with today. Dao ish.

Exile

A few of the old stoics were exiled. As one said, where ever I go, I find people happily and willing living. So why not I? And so he became the happy exile, living and prospering on some Mediterranean island.

So why do I not want to live on this "restricted" diet, that my people lived on for centuries? It is a mater of attitude. It is all about what I thing about the situation, not the situation. Yes, I have some form of conditioned hypereating, stress relief eating, conditioned into a general reaction, hyperinsulinemia and glucose beginning rapidly stored, or possible food addiction, or behavioural addiction, or a eating habit, emotional eating, or an eating disorder. But I can live nicely on low carb, which many people happily live on.

Essentially, this "restricted" diet does not let me eat low grade poisons, or possible addictive foods. See Grain Brain, or Wheat Belly, or The End of Overeating for more details. So why do I struggle with wanting to eat some banned foods?

Well one of the issues is they are in the cupboard, the refrigerator, and in dishes around the house. The wife does not have this problem and insists on having it around, just to temp me and torcher me. Now what is the solution to that. I have tried talking but that has made it worse. I am thinking a shot of bug spray. Any other ideas?

Breath, smile, and enjoy the wonders of life. Dao.

or just be pleased http://www.radicalhappiness.com/all-blog-articles/414-be-pleased

To OA or Not to OA

To OA or Not to OA, that is the question.

OA does provide a community
of people who struggle with there weight,
but few recover in the program.
It provides a gathering place,
spiritual interested people,
but little actual that I have found helpful.

There are few men that come in,
and the literature does is
not current with the science of recovery.
It attempts to drum into the heads
the same old god message,
without understanding why it helps.

It does provide community,
but so many rules,
and so it is becoming self strangling.
The other issue is it is predominantly
female. High emotional females.
Why do I keep coming back?    

Satiation is elusive

Satiation is a elusive thing,
a weak signal.

Desires easily overpower it,
drowning out that quiet signal.

Desire is terminal,
emotional, hedonic,
the strongest of motivations,
much louder, more signal than the quiet
signal of satiation.

So how does one,
consistently, keep listening?

God's Will

What is god's will in reality?

Suppose that we need
to follow human nature,
as Zeno said.

So god's will is to follow nature.
Now all we need to do is
to follow the bodies lead.
But what cause the body to want to overeat.
Conditioned hypereating, according to Kessler.
So what does this have to do with overeating?

And we are doing exactly
what our bodies are programed
to do when we eat highly palatable food.

So the solution,
low palatable food only
small portions, no snacks.
Satiation should increase.
Stopping automatically should happen,
put down the fork,
and through everything out,
or give it to hound.

Rewrite the steps to suit

When new people come to the program,
they frequently try to rewrite the steps
to suit them,
without understanding the effect of the steps,
as they are.
Here is one more attempt.

http://aaagnostica.org/2013/10/20/the-proactive-twelve-steps/

My response is as follows:

Your step one is, as far as I am concerned, out to lunch.

I am a non-theist, inside OA, so I know nothing.
To me step one is admitting defeat,
and accepting that I need help,
not just with food choices
but with other areas of life.
This forces a teachable attitude,
and humility and need to listen
and understand.
This is the foundation for growth,
the search for knowledge,
wisdom and serenity.

When I came in,
I was a troubled person,
deep in ignorance, distrust,
self-sufficiency, greed of modern culture
and without any peace.
I was troubled physically and mentally.
I am now at peace with the world.
My belief system does not require
that you beleive as I do.
You can believe what ever you like.
Thank you for letting me vent.
Keep up the good effort.

I did not see the purpose in
going beyond that point,
as I have no clue as to
the purpose of his steps are.

Dividing Self and Group

Tradition 1 states :
Our common welfare should come first;
personal recovery depends upon OA unity.

Placing the group welfare
above our own welfare,
I think not. That is what
can be suggested from this step.
When we are newbies in the program,
depending on the program is fine,
but at some point,
we need to be able to stand
without the group effect of the program.
But as long as you need it,
fine, live tradition one.

We need to develop a full life,
not a different dependence.
At some point many of us make a decision;
life in the fellowship vs life outside,
all the while practicing what we have learned.

At that point we are no longer dependent
on the program, we have a fully developed
belief system to depend on.

But that was the point of view
at the time of writing,
that OA was the only way,
but it is not, now.
OA is a good way to offer
to teach others, to spread our
message, even when our message
exceeds what OA has to offer.

OA may need to get current
with the research or it will die out,
or become one more alternative method
in total recovery system.

My loyalty lies with me, not the group.

What is god?

I was asked what I considered to be god
the other day and did not provide a clear answer.
The word god is a handle that is attached
to nebulous concepts of mythical objects
that have had numerous and diverse properties.
My beliefs change over time and
the study of science and philosophy.

The old Roman had a concept of logos,
a list of rules to live by, and that became
a belief system, and a value system,
which is a large part of any religion.

The issue with codifying is it becomes rigid,
and word a such dull pointers to a concept.
It is easy to go from
the concept to words,
but less easy to word to the concept.
Many groups of words
can describe one concept,
and remind us of other concepts.
And yet to a different person or time or situation
remind us of something different.

Consider step three,-- Made a decision
to turn our will and our lives,
over to the care of god, as we understood him.

This may imply there is only one gods,
and we each have a different understandings,
or there are many gods,
but then we have missed
what may be the important part
or not.

Turning out lives over to something
outside of ourselves
relieves us of all responsibility
for the past and the future.
It separates what we have control over
from that we do not have control over;
the future.
This relieves of anxiety and responsibility,
something that much of society
tries to place on us, which we cannot control
and therefore cannot have responsibility for.

There is much crap which
society suggest is up to us,
and yet on examination,
is beyond our control.

Science and Philosophy has become my god.
Science clarifies this much,
and admits we do not know everything,
and some of what we know is wrong.

Science tells us that when we consume food
we may like it, dislike it, or be neutral.
If we like it, our bodies may scream for more.
If we allow a positive response,
which we may have control over,
the screaming gets louder,
and we may lose the power of easy choice.

That is the issue of conditioned hypereating,
aka food addiction, behavioral addiction,
hyperinsulinemia, and perhaps
eating disorders.

Conditioned Hypereating

Conditioned Hypereating

This is a wonderful term to
describe all forms of overeating.

The implication that it is all
learned behavior give both a
non-blaming approach and offers
method of solution of
unlearning / overlearning.

Food addictions, Stress/Anxiety Eating,
aka Emotional eating,
behavioral addictions,
carbohydrate/insulin craving eating,
wheat / opioid overeating,
are all learned behaviors.

We learned these, without
intending to learn them.
Now we just need to unlearn them,
or learn to eat reasonably.

Moderation is a myth,
when it comes to sugar,
fructose, wheat, omega 6 oils,
all manner of processed foods.
Processed foods are manufactured
with "bliss point" chemical methods.
We do not stand a chance of
avoiding becoming addicted
if we consume any of these products.
These are products, not foods.

Now we need to recognise
we need help to learn, and the
problem goes beyond just food.
We need to realize that much of
what we know is wrong.(1)
We need faith that a solution is available. (2)
We need to choose
to obtain that solution,
and then to use it. (3)
We need to understand ourselves,
and the world around us,
sort out real from fiction.(4)
This can be learned from others as well.(5)
But it remains up to us to choose (6)
and to implement. (7)
We need to clean up
our past errors in knowledge.(8)
and fix those things,
as best we can.(9)
We need to continue to
examine each food and
make appropriate choices,
always recognising we have
some wrong information(10).
We need to keep on learning,
both about food and ourselves.(11)
We need to pass this information
on to the next generation
and our community
for this information is important
to the survival of we humans.(12)

Problems with learned behaviors
may go far beyond food behaviors.
http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2013/10/14/curious-2/

If you have any questions,
Please advise, and I will
give you my answer, not the answer.

six more characteristics to stop practicing

Conditioned Hypereating has pointed
out six more characteristics for me
to stop practicing.

1 Lack of resistance to food cues
2 Extreme susceptibility to food cues
3 Lack of satiation from normal meals
4 Ease of appetition, appetite comes readly
5 Pre-occupation with food, eating, next meal
6 Lack of engrossing hobbies.

Each conditioned characteristic can be
unconditioned. I can avoid situations
that allow practicing these, and
can practice the opposite.

Or BB 449
and acceptance is the answer to
all my problems today.
(And the paragraph on both sides)

Loss of conscious control while eating

Lack of conscious control for eaters
could describe a number of issues.

Lack of resistance to foods and food cues.
Lack of satiation after meals.
Pre-occupation with food.

If you suffer from all three,
You may be a "conditioned hypereater",
in the words of David Kessler.

Conditioned, aka we learned it,
from home, parents, school, others,
culture, TV, and food commercials,
from our body liking food,
and wanting more. Where ever.
We learned it, so now unlearn it.
But the food pressure is always
in front of  me. In my face.
Cues everywhere.
How do I get away from the cues?

Go back to work?
Hid in OA meetings? or other
food free environments?
Perhaps find a real food free place,
like McDonalds or Tim Hortons to hang out.

Conditioned Hypereating

David Kessler came up with a term,
conditioned hypereating.
It implies hypereating is
a learned behavior,
learned in youth, and
continued at an unconscious level.

In my case, I became obese in grade 1.
I have much anxiety traveling,
catching planes, fear of being late,
and the like.
I expect that hypereating resulted from
stress refeed cycle after school,
And that resulted in the
glucose-insulin resistance,
fructose suppressed satiation,
food addiction to wheat based
opioid peptides.

The conditioned hypereating
lead to the other 3 issues.
If it can be trained in,
it can be trained out.
Now how is that done?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0rFEbGYnEE

Attitude

Attitude is the outward expression
of personal philosophy.

So our attitude toward things,
beyond our control or influence
must be one of acceptance
and gratitude that it is not worse
if we are to remain serene.

... and the wisdom to know the difference.
Epictetus tells us what we have control over,
our judgements, our opinions,
and some violations.

If we are applying emotional regulation,
we have more control over our desires
and aversions.

We have influence only
 over our bodies
and many of its wants or desires.

We can influence it by what we put into it.
If we do not consider something food,
after a bit it will not be food,
and we will have no desire to eat it
or so they say,
but the trigger may still be there,
so we need to do a replacement activity,
say a salad to deal with craving or hunger.

It is a plan but will it work?

Physical Craving

Here is a good paper reviewing the science of physical craving and food addiction.

http://foodaddictioninstitute.org/scientific-research/physical-craving-and-food-addiction-a-scientific-review/

There is much that could be added to this paper, but it is a good start.