Food for thought?

I should start by saying that this is a personal challenge of mine, that I'm still fighting. I've always found it hard to lose weight and this has got harder once I became sober. I thought looking at other posts online, that when I got sober the weight would just fall off, due to all the calories that I would be saving by not drinking. Unfortunately, this never happened.

Not understanding this was a serious risk to my sobriety, there were times after I first got sober that I thought, what is the point? Is sobriety going to make me, fatter and fatter?

However, 3 years on I'm pleased that I never let it beat me, this is something I'm still learning about every day, and I'm very much looking forward to learning more from others at Its That Sober Guy on this very subject.

But without further ado, here are a few things I've learnt about eating since becoming sober.

Emotional eating

I drank for lots of reasons, however, two of the main reasons, were to celebrate or because I was sad. I remember my parents saying to me at a young age, “I needed to work all week to look after a family but then it was ok to relax at weekend.” They probably did not say this, however, my brain from an early age said, “work hard in the week, drink all weekend.”

When I became sober, I quickly realised that I missed drinking to mark the end of the work week. However, I did not realise that I was rapidly replacing alcohol with food. Often ordering takeaways or buying sweet treats on the way home from work. I try to be more mindful now of my feelings. I do still allow myself these things, but I try to plan.

The advice of others

One of the first things a sober buddy told me, was that when you get sober, it can be helpful to replace alcohol with sugary drinks. This is quite good advice as the body does crave the sugar that was in the alcohol, but what I never considered was how addictive sugar is. Personally, if I'm given the choice, I would consume all the sugar in the world to not drink alcohol, however, I would like to remain sober while slowly reducing my sugar intake.

Boredom

One of the greatest things I found about getting sober was all the extra time that I had. This was both a blessing and a curse. To start with I used a lot of this time, to eat! Eating from boredom is one of the worst things for me, not only was I increasing my calorie intake, but I was not even enjoying the food that I was eating.

I’ve had to look for other things to do to fill my time, some of the things I now do instead of drinking, spending time chatting to sober people, listening to the 100 greatest albums ever, and taking up various forms of exercise. I try to mix up what I do with my time so that boredom becomes less of an issue.

In Summary

I’m still very much learning when it comes to what food I decide to put in my body. However, I’m finding that focusing on the reasons why I eat, as well as what I eat, is helpful for me to stay mindful about food. I look forward to hearing more about your journey with food either before or since becoming sober.

Ben – It's That Sober Guy

Disclaimer – I'm not a trained addiction or mental health professional, information is based on my own life experiences and shared in good faith to help others.