Willing to go to any lengths for recovery. This is the beginning of long-term food addiction recovery. Many food addicts who call our offices or come to our events, are often shocked by the idea of weighing and measuring their food. Some even criticize this as promoting a “diet mentality” or as being “overly rigid” or “encouraging food obsession.” While many food addicts who were reluctant to weigh and measure their food in the beginning have thought these things, almost all of them have come to understand the value and reasoning behind this concept.
The greatest benefit of weighing and measuring for food addicts is the peace and serenity that come from being 100% certain that they are following a healthy eating food plan that is non-addictive. Many food addicts, in addition to being addicted to certain food substances are also addicted to eating large amounts of food. This is known as volume addiction. Weighing and measuring food takes away any “wiggle” room that contributes to food obsession and manages volume addiction. This means that food is in its place – as a means of nourishment and not used as an emotional crutch.
Another benefit of weighing and measuring is the stability it provides. Whether in recovery or not, we all go through emotional times in our lives. For food addicts, these emotions are excuses to over or under eat. Weighing and measuring keeps food addicts honest when emotions threaten to interfere with food choices.
While there are many other benefits of weighing and measuring that you can read about here, the cornerstone of recovery is the idea of surrender. In order to maintain long-term food addiction recovery, daily surrender to a new way of life, which includes a food plan and higher power, is the foundation of recovery. Many food addicts had to learn to develop an open mind, become willing to go to any lengths to make changes and ask themselves this question before becoming willing to weigh and measure their food, “How is your life working for you now?”