Tackling Compulsive Behavior

On the football field, do not expect your opponents to be nice to you. Their goal is to demolish you to oblivion. Battling temptation is not gonna be fun.

It’s going to be war. Time to rally courage. Why do you want to win? Is it important? Are you ready to pay the price of pain for freedom? Can you see the victory? Do you want it? If you are saying “yes” with burning desire, you are ready.

If you are not ready to quit, don’t even try. Quitting for a few hours or days is only a tease. It intensifies the desire. Almost quitting reinforces the addiction and strengthens the attachment to food.

The only effective way of ending an addictive behavior is to stop it. Anything less will only increase the addiction, making it more deeply engraved. You really have to set your mind about winning and win the first time you try. No half-hearted effort will do. Struggling and losing will painfully increase the power of the addiction. When we fail with quitting an addiction, we come face to face with our helplessness and loss of control of our life.

Bad Food Hit List

Write out a list of the foods which you eat the most and rate them one to ten, with ten being healthiest. The toxic, high-fat foods go at the bottom of the list. The nutritious food describing its qualities and effect on your body. We tend to forget the bad qualities and remember only the flavor. We might like the taste of beans but forget how much we hate the gas problem. We eat chocolate, then remember its effect when a mountainous pimple appears on our noses as a reminder. The one that agrees with you goes at the top. Write a line beside each.

Decide which foods are the worst offender to your health and score it off the list. It may be potato chips or french fries. A few times each day, encourage yourself by saying, “I am french fry- free.” Take the time to feel good that you have removed that food from your diet. Remind yourself why you have crossed it off. We think of junk food and addictive drugs in the same way; we forget the harmful effects and remember only the good. By remembering the harmful qualities of that food, it keeps you focused on why you choose not to eat that food.

I was addicted to bread. I loved the smell of toast. Banana, honey and peanut butter made it complete. But bread causes an intense reaction. It made me sleepy and unfocused. For me, eating bread was like using drugs. Numerous friends would comment on my condition, only to raise an eyebrow when I said, “I ate some bread.” I would wake up with my skin and eyes puffy. I hated what it did to me but loved the taste. One day I woke up particularly out of it and my friend, noticing my state, jokingly called me, ‘bread man.’ That was it; the bread was in the garbage. It was war. This stuff is out of my life. It was the point of having enough, and the term ‘bread man’ engraved my mind with the image of a spaced out bread junkie.

That is how you must see yourself: in the worst light. Look at how bad your addiction is with greasy skin and heartburn. See addiction to food for the ugliness it has. It has to go. Addiction has mocked you for the last time. You are up for the fight. You will not lose. You have the tools, the desire and the knowledge. Goliath is about to face David! really is. It is humiliating that you are stealing your dignity. Remember the worst experience of feeling stuffed and bloated with gas.

Some strategies on creating good habits:

1. Get Focused in the Morning. Write what you want to accomplish the night before and you will see your self achieving it easily. Create enthusiasm to accomplish the work. Spend a few moments in prayer. A short period of stretching exercise or a short walk will also help get you focused.

2. Worst First. We try to avoid facing confrontations, problems, hard work and our addictions, but when we do, it feeds into our worries and fears. Face your fears and problems head on. Do the worst first. You will win. It will feel good. Then the rest is easy stuff. Face the worst tasks first. Work on high priority problems and goals first. Do what can be easily done that will have the biggest impact. See the end result and desire for it. Focus on what you can do. Don’t waste time dwelling on your failures and problems. If it is a decision, get it down on paper, look at all the factors, make a decision and then refuse to worry.

3. Face fear head on. You can do it! Make a stand. It may take everything you’ve got. Your knees may be shaking. Emotions may be screaming and every thought shouting, “I can’t.” Tearful eyes see nothing but a long list of past failures. Ears echo with mocking voices. Meanwhile, you feel as courageous as a wet dew worm but don’t give in. The hardest steel faces the hottest furnace. You will come out on the other side tempered, refined and purified. You have nothing to lose but the dross in your life.

4. Shop With Discipline. You should eat what you buy. You have to prepare yourself to face walls of temptations and smells. Plan what you are going to buy, and be ready to resist buying anything else. See yourself shopping, ignoring temptations, coming back with healthy food and making a fruit salad. Expect shopping day to be tough. Remember to feel good about getting past the candy bars and bakeshop. A small amount of discipline in this area can have a big effect on diet.

5. Eat when you arrive home. The weakest time for most people on a diet is getting home after a hard day. Coming home from work, we want comfort. There are ways of getting comfort that are more beneficial than grabbing the fastest available food. Relax with a peppermint tea, unwind, take a shower, spend some time in prayer, do some stretching, take a short walk. Develop healthy ways of recharging your battery. It is good to prepare your mind for getting home. Decide to be at peace and not let things bother you. Decide what you are going to eat, see yourself eating it and feeling good about it.

6. Watching TV. TV is a food trigger. The refrigerator is close, and food commercials are running 200 images per hour into our cerebral cortex. Ever become bored during commercial time? The path of least resistance leads to the refrigerator. You need to put a few obstacles in the way. If food commercials are a trigger, watch nature shows or commercial-free TV. If you are just grabbing anything out of the refrigerator, make something healthy like cut veggies and leave them in the fridge. If boredom during the commercials is a trigger to eat, get some hand-weights and do some exercises, play an instrument, read a book, do some stretching, anything but walking to the kitchen.

7. Escaping the Table. Hanging out at the dinner table is a sure way to overeat. Have an activity that you want to do after the meal. Start to visualize yourself enjoying that activity as you are finishing eating. If it is going for a short walk, imagine yourself enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Imagine looking at the birds and feeling refreshed. When you imagine an enjoyable walk, you will easily move from eating, to get ready for the walk. Whatever you have chosen for your next activity, imagine yourself enjoying it.

8. Avoiding the Triggers. Most of us are overeating for a hundred different reasons. We are eating due to stress, irritation and frustration. It may be worry or overwork. We are eating out of habit and with no real direction or thoughts about what we are doing with our face in the fridge. Here are some strategies to stop the unhealthy triggers from controlling our life. Psychology calls these techniques avoidance strategies. They are used when we get the urge to eat. The urge will pass, but we need to do something else until it does.

Imagine a stop sign, and say, “No, I am not letting myself get away with it.”

Breathe a deep breath, hold for a few seconds, then breathe out slowly and relax.

Brush your teeth.

Drink two glasses of water.

Eat an apple.

Do 20 sit-ups.

9. Seat Exercises. A couch potato’s dream: exercise without leaving the sofa. Find a sitting position that is comfortable for you. Now, stick out your leg in a horizontal position and stretch your big toe out as far as it will go. Hold for 30 seconds or so. Now relax your leg and let the tension. Relax after thirty seconds. Extend your leg again and twist your foot to the right and pull your toes toward you. Do the same action with the other foot. If your arms are stiff from typing or working at a desk, stretch both arms above your head as far as they will go. Stretch your fingers upward. Breathe deeply and relax. Hold this position for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. flow out of it. Stick out your leg in a horizontal position again and twist your foot as far left as it will go and pull your toes toward you.

You can tighten any muscle group for three seconds: biceps, triceps, and even your butt muscles. Tighten for three seconds then release. Cover the entire body in a systematic manner. Legs, back, stomach, arms, and don’t forget the jaw. Tighten your shoulders by shrugging, then relax. Extend your jaw as far as it will go and hold for a few seconds. Stretch your neck up and tense your neck muscles. Concentrate on your face muscles. Tighten them by squinting your eyes, and tightly contracting your forehead and mouth. It will look as if you have just eaten a lemon.

Any exercise or effort will distract you from eating, and give you a workout to boot.

10. Walk. Walk the block for invigoration. That mini-blast of oxygen will vanquish tiredness and mental exhaustion. Leave your worries behind and be in the moment. Look at the birds. Be thankful. Let go, breathe deeply and relax. You may discover God has always been with you!

11. Calisthenics. Great for stress release. Helps dissipate excess nervous energy built up by obsessive thinking or stress. Stretching cleans out the lymphatic system, conditions the tendons and joints, and stimulates the organs. Focus on being relaxed, thinking encouraging thoughts, being at peace and prayerful.

12. Play an Instrument. Easily done if you are at home. Playing an instrument changes the focus of your thoughts and can burn excess energy. If you sing or play happy songs, it will help break the mood of depression and worry. Keep your thoughts encouraging as you play.

13. Read. Can give mental stimulation or relaxation. Reading short stories, a devotional, or just a few verses of the Bible can encourage you and lift a bad mood.

14. Prayer. In the humility of being on our knees, we draw on the highest strength: the strength of. The greatest tool to challenge mood. It can be done while walking, exercising, or at any time. It is calming before sleep, reduces anger and dissolves pride. Prayer reduces better than a tranquilizer. It combats fear, worry and distorted thinking. Kneeling on a cushion while leaning over a chair or a bed is a comfortable position. You can put a towel or a blanket over your head to give you a feeling of seclusion.

15. Clean Up. Your house or office reflects your attitude. Dirty dishes and piles of paper say one thing: this person is unorganized. Organizing is an investment in the future. You reach for something, and it is there. Many people who are depressed and worried let their house and personal hygiene go. Cleaning and getting organized is the opposite mode. It feels good to have your house clean and your life organized. Cleaning can be stress- reducing. You can enjoy it. Use a ten-minute break to organize or clean. Do not get frantic trying to get it done. This is “time out” cleaning where the goal is to enjoy it by feeling good about what you have done.

These are only a few ideas of many that you can do to put an end to unhealthy triggers. Rather than stand in front of the refrigerator, fighting painful battles, take a mini-break. They are the pauses that refresh, peaceful moments in the storm. Time for you to recharge so you have the mental staying power of an Ever-Ready battery.

Imagine going to a restaurant in eager expectation of your favorite meal. You are starving. As as you sit in the chair, waiting for the order, you notice the kitchen door is open revealing, dirty utensils, a grease covered stove and a floor covered with trampled food. Cockroaches and flies are crawling over trampled food and dirt. The worst part is that the chef is filthy and his forehead is covered dripping with sweat onto the food he is preparing. What would your reaction be? Return and await the meal or run in disgust with a feeling of nausea in your stomach.

What happened to your hunger, the expectation and craving for your favorite meal? It was erased by a more powerful emotion. Repulsion is a powerful emotion. That process can be a tool in fighting compulsive behaviors.

What you think about something determines your mental associations. For example, when you think about beer in the background of your thoughts at the subconscious level, you may have warm associations with good friends, great parties and feeling good. Those attractive mental association are stronger than the negative repelling association such as killing brain cells, increasing the size of a beer belly, drunken driving charges and reducing your health.

To fight compulsion we need to change the attractive associations for the negative associations. Here is an example.

Imagine a dead animal at the side of the road crawling with thousands of white maggots. The image of maggot-ridden road kill will effectively stop you from eating a hamburger or anything else you were thinking of munching on.

Using revolting thoughts can shock you back to reality. Overeating greasy, salty, chemical-laden food is not normal. TV advertisers have associated toxic food with fun and enjoyment. We are told that we deserve it. Meanwhile, the followers of this golden message are riddled with disease from the effect of this modern-day diet. Even in the face of illness, we still associate salt, sugar and fat-filled foods with a pleasure that we deserve.

As a cure for emptiness, the pleasure of food can become drug-like in how it affects our thinking. It becomes distorted. We become obsessed with pleasure. Like an addict, we become fixed on that pleasure and forget the harmful effects. Pleasure becomes our god — a god who trades moments of comfort for control of our lives. We dance to its urges like puppets on a string. It’s a dance of death. Pimples, embarrassing gas, obesity, bloating and disease are signs on the road to oblivion. It is time to turn around.

Please post some of your stories of trying this.

Imagination
Enter a relaxed state through taking deep breaths, holding for two seconds, and releasing slowly as you say the word peace. Here are some effective mental exercises that will build enthusiasm to eat correctly, and stay positive.

Ø Imagine yourself living perfectly on your desired diet. See the joy on your face and imagine how good your body feels.

Ø Imagine you going through the day and eating perfectly, being happy and eating healthy foods.

Ø When you get home from work, imagine yourself going into the house happy and content and eating the right foods.

Ø If you are going to a restaurant with some friends, imagine yourself ordering a small portion of something nutritious and being content with that.

Ø Whatever task you are about to do, imagine it going easy. Imagine it being fun and enjoyable completing the task.

Ø Before you go to bed, imagine yourself having good, relaxing dreams and a peaceful sleep.

Ø If you are entering a conflict, imagine it all working out and the conflict being resolved.

Ø If you are learning an instrument or playing a sport, see yourself doing it perfectly.

Ø Before you go to the gym, imagine you are going to have an excellent workout and feel good about it.

Spiritual Snap Shots.
Ø See yourself happy, full of peace, love and joy, walking in the freedom of Christ.

Ø See yourself gaining in strength, courage, honesty, determination and persistence.

Ø See yourself before the throne of God.

Ø See yourself living a disciplined life, radiant with life, love and success.

Ø See yourself with no needs, content and wanting nothing.

Ø See yourself being tempted and winning.

You failed gladiator school. The military rejected you due to sofa disease. You were never cut out for war. Your jeans still have peace signs, but now you’re in hand-to-hand combat with Mister Big, the Cookie Monster and Ronald McDonald.

Battling with desire hurts, especially, when you say ‘no’ to a pleasure that is moments away. As seconds tick by, you can feel your resolve eroding. The harder you fight, the more you suffer. Previous defeats make the battle even more painful. Emotions escalate, needs are not being met and past pain stirs up other neglected needs. You are moments away from blowing it. Your emotions are clanging like a pinball machine.

This is the place where you win the battle.

Accept the intensity of your feelings. It is okay to feel this way. You can handle it. We feel driven to eat because we feel that we cannot endure the discomfort any longer, so we give in to get relief. But we can endure it, and much more. Try to let go and float through the pain. Find peace within you and hang on to it. Do not fight the desire.

You don’t have to act. Just float through the pain, accept the emotions, and remind yourself of what you really want.

The battle is due to wavering between two decisions. If you were resolute, there would be no conflict. The battle is escalating because you are allowing your mind to rationalize as to why you can indulge. Part of you is uncomfortable because it knows the consequences of wavering in that decision. Goals will be lost. The fleshy part of us is using rationalization to get at the pleasure. The reasoning will be faulty. Challenge your thinking. Most of the time, the rationalization is along the line of I feel hurt and I need this to feel better. Challenge your thinking. Is this the best way to ease the pain? Is this really what you want? Make a decision. If your decision is to indulge then enjoy it, but remind yourself of the consequences of that action. And remember that doing something once is giving yourself permission to do it a thousand times. “Just this once” is a lie.

You do not have to go to a gym to develop discipline. You can flex the mental muscle while doing laundry. Every time you apply mental effort to relax, pray or encourage yourself, you are developing self-discipline. Even doing dishes can develop discipline by keeping your thoughts positive, staying at peace, praying and feeling good about your accomplishments. Not only do you get clean dishes, but also a clean thought life.
Write a list of all the positive things you can say to yourself to encourage yourself to eat healthy and then start thinking nothing but encouraging thoughts. After a while, it will become automatic. You will realize that most of your down times and frustration are due to negative thoughts. When you change your thoughts, you will change how you feel. It is just a matter of doing the work.

Remember that you have spent years as a negative thinker. This is not an overnight project; you need to add about a hundred positive thoughts to compensate for the twenty negative ones. It will take time, but you will see the benefits within hours. You will be more at peace, discipline will increase, and you will feel a sense of accomplishment. Best of all there will be an overall feeling of wellbeing that feels natural. There will be far fewer compulsions and urges, as you become more content. People will greatly enjoy your company because you are at ease with yourself and others. Investing in your brain has the greatest gain.

The Munchies lurk in the shadows of your living room. It’s an ambush mission. An innocent victim obliviously watches TV. They hit, full force during a potato chip commercial. You never saw it coming. Their main weapon is the urge. Not just a regular urge, but a focused craving that can be maneuvered at will towards a particular brand of potato chips.

Awareness is the first defense. In martial arts they teach you to deflect a punch rather than stop it. It takes less energy and uses the motion of the attacker against him. Deflection is the style of defense needed in battle against cravings. You cannot stop them by trying not to think of the munchies.

Like a boulder rolling down a mountain, cravings bounce and bang into other needs, stirring emotions and desires into an avalanche. A tiny craving has become a powerful urge that affects every fiber of our being. Allowing a craving to build anticipation can only lead to disaster. Deflection uses the energy of a craving to form positive thoughts. It is best done quickly before the emotions escalate.

Compulsive Neuron Patterns

Your brain has adapted its neurons to your present lifestyle. For example, many people like to wake up slowly while reading the paper and drinking a coffee. Billions of neurological cells have become adapted to certain amounts of neurotransmitter stimulation, in certain sequence, at certain times. If a visiting friend interrupts that morning schedule, even if you are not conscious of it, there will be a feeling that something is not right. You may become irritable and edgy throughout the day. The brain has not received its normal doses of neurotransmitters in the normal sequence and rhythms, and they react with stress as though something were wrong.
It has taken years to establish your present addiction to food. Your entire neurological processing is dependent on the pleasure of food for balance. Your neurotransmitters are expecting the next fix. Food is your escape, relief from worry, entertainment, and comfort, and is more intimate than your best friend. Removing food from its powerful position by cutting down food intake causes imbalance. You feel vulnerable and sensitive, similar to the effects of drug withdrawal. The symptoms are physical and emotional: anxiety, irritation, restlessness, headaches, stress and feeling out of balance. You are forcing your brain to change its neurological process, a change that sends shocks throughout the body.

As kids, we discovered an electric cow fence. No barbed wire and mesh for this farmer, just a thin orange wire two feet from the ground. We dared each other to touch it. Timidly, I reached out my hand. At first, there was nothing, then ZAP. I leaped back with a howl. After a few minutes, I calmed down. I decided that I could handle it, so I grabbed it again. Another ZAP but this time, I just let go. On the third time, I grabbed the wire and hung on, ZAP, ZAP, ZAP. I discovered that I could easily endure the shock if I just relaxed.

A small calf could have walked through that fence, but that small shock was enough to stop a 1000 lb. bull. Like that electric cattle fence, cravings keep us in place with small shocks. If we only held tight and ignored those shocks, we would realize how powerless they are.

Your freedom is only a few shocks away. Let us leave the land of Burger Kings, Dairy Queens and burger shepherds wearing clown suits. It is a land of sickness, disease and death. If you listen in the quiet, you can hear The Shepherd’s voice. Softly, He calls us onward. Green pastures and still waters await us.

Overcoming compulsive behavior is a the challenge of your life. Challenge is exhilarating. We love competition for that reason. It challenges us to give our best.

We need challenge to grow. The greater the challenge, the greater the growth. That is why dreams are important; they bring us to the edge of challenge. The Bible does exactly that. It paints a picture of those who have overcome and are seated in heaven, surrounded by angels, ruling the universe from the golden, 1,500 mile-high

New Jerusalem, and then challenges us to overcome. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. (Rev. 21:7) Challenge draws the best out of us, and God knows that.

In choosing your goals, choose goals that will challenge you beyond what you believe you are capable of achieving. Usually the things that we don’t want to do are the best for us. Morning exercise is arduous, but it is a great way to start the day. When we face pain, our determination becomes stronger. Facing pain develops resolve and shakes off that overly sensitive-to-life feeling. Calisthenics, cycling, running, swimming and weight lifting strengthen discipline because they pit determination against pain.

Controlling food intake is a serious challenge. It is time to pit your determination against pain and face the ugly giant … the feeling of hunger.
Are you up for challenges that will cause growth? Are you up for challenges that will force you to give your best? If you are, it’s time to make some decisions, durable decisions that won’t weaken during the onslaught of temptation. You may lose a few battles, but with resolute decisions you will win the war because resolute decisions are powered by focused determination that screams, “I won’t quit or back down.”

Rebuilding discipline is not easy. Like going on a long journey that you are not enthused about. The first step is the hardest.

Welcome to the war zone. Decked out with your new florescent joggers, off you go to Mr. Muscle’s Gym. Entering the world of fitness machines, you become increasingly conscious of the bulging belly stretching the elastic of your track pants. You discreetly suck it in as you walk over to the exercise bike, the only machine you recognize. It’s been years. The seat seems so much smaller than you remember.
After a few moments of peddling, lungs gasp for air as the body screams, “What are you trying to do? Do you hate me?” Horror sets in as you realize how far your health has deteriorated. After only 20 minutes, you drive home to collapse on the sofa. Images from the gym haunt your mind: sculpted muscles and tanned, sleek bodies. “I could never look like that. This is me, so I might as well accept it.” Desperation calls for action. Staring wide-eyed at your vacuum cleaner, you consider Liposuction. But that’s just too radical.

Is Discipline Painful?

Most people connect discipline with pain. They consider the marathon runner training in the rain, and think that is insanity. It’s no fun forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do. But if you are achieving an important goal, discipline becomes much easier. An athlete training for the Olympics does not have a grinding battle with willpower every day. Although there are battles, it becomes easier as the routine becomes a lifestyle.
Discipline is a mode of thought. It’s easy when you are doing it and difficult when you are not. But with patience, the right attitude, and keeping your mind on the goal, discipline becomes second nature. You don’t have to force yourself. It just comes naturally. That is the way it should be. God wants us to become disciplined so He can bless us.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

It is easy to weaken discipline. Just spend years lying on the couch, watching TV, and eating junk food with no direction, goals or dreams. A lazy lifestyle weakens the discipline muscle to the point that getting out of bed takes effort. Even doing the dishes becomes work and searching for the TV converter is stressful.

Comfort is important. It gives happiness, right? I wish couch potatoes were the happiest people in the world. But, they are not. The couch is a prison cell, the TV a window to the outside world, a secure place that keeps out pain and rejection. The place is agony, for its walls scream you are powerless, hopeless, valueless with nothing to give. And so, couch potatoes live a miserable existence.
To gain discipline, you have to face pain. The more you face it, the more you gain confidence and determination. It is an exhilarating high to run five miles after you’re conditioned to running. It hurts to start, but as your training progresses, there is a feeling of freedom and joy.

It was an accident. I never intended to walk down the cookie aisle. I was really heading over to the vegetable section for lettuce. But there they sat, so innocently: President’s Choice Chocolate Chip Cookies, my favorite! I could feel the twinge of anticipation as I lay them in the shopping cart. Five hours had passed. The anticipation grew to urgency. I grabbed the cookies from the kitchen shelf. I had moved my well-worn chair into place, positioned the tray on the left side of the chair, found the converter, poured the coke over ice into my favorite mug. I flipped on the TV; then with a sigh of great happiness, I sat back to enjoy every bite.

It was a short, empty experienced. I felt cheated. Now I sit with nothing left but cookie crumbs and a chocolate aftertaste. As always, here comes the guilt to ruin the fun. I try to rationalize, but the voice of guilt is relentless. I sit in the dark, wondering if I will ever be able to become that mythical me that I see only in my dreams — thin, young, healthy and free. The problem is, as of late, it is becoming harder to dream. My battle with food addiction was long and painful.

I remember the Battle of the Bulge. The Ponderosa Salad Bar suffered a six-plate defeat. I remember a war with a chocolate Easter bunny. In the middle of the night, I bit its head off. I admit it. I was a food addict. My life was controlled by food. Moderation was never my strong point. When it came to ice cream, one scoop was never enough. I once ate a two-and-a-half gallon tub of maple walnut ice cream. It almost froze my stomach. To make matters worse, it was my roommate’s ice cream! I felt so badly afterwards that I put a 12-foot chain through the handles of the refrigerator and cupboards and told my roommate, “here’s the key to your food.” He wasn’t impressed.

I was not overweight, because I had a fast metabolism, but I desperately wanted to eat nutritiously to help heal the damage from drug abuse. Although I had gotten free from drugs, I felt weak and sick. The only way I felt better was to eat a light diet, but the more I tried not to think about food, the more obsessed I became. I would stop eating cookies for three weeks, eat one cookie, and then relapse with a cookie binge. No cookie was safe from me. In minutes, a bag would be reduced to crumbs. If it wasn’t cookies, it was chocolate. I became a chocoholic with a $28-a-day habit. I could drive only short distances, as I would have to stop every 15 minutes for a chocolate fix. Mornings were hell. There is nothing worse than a cocoa bean hangover. After hating myself for being so weak, I’d make a decision to stop, only to take another beating from Mr. Big.

Reading the Bible, I was amazed at the discipline of the Apostles. They were focused, resolute, persistent and patient. Meanwhile, I couldn’t win a battle with a peanut butter cup. In hand-to-mouth combat, I would come out a loser. I so wanted to be like those men of God!

I needed discipline. So off to the gym I went, dragging a drug-abused body through the paces. Little by little, discipline developed. I could even juice fast and my body was starting to feel much better, but in the area of diet, I was still battling with food.

I felt out of control.

The battle within my soul went on for many years, sometimes achieving victories over my compulsive behavior, only to fall again. And how I fell! Compulsion, obsession and addiction carry a stiff price. But just when all seemed hopeless, understanding came and that lead to the writing of the book Eating In Freedom and the creation of www.compulsive.ws. It is my hope that you too find your freedom.

Tom Coghill