How to cope with cravings and urges to eat without turning to food

Food obsession

I can be watching TV, reading a book, working, or even playing a game on my phone and all of a sudden, I think about food.  Usually something highly palatable and sometimes something nutritious. The food thoughts quickly turn into an obsession.  I can't stop thinking about it.  The obsession becomes uncomfortable and impossible to tolerate.  My brain screams "I WANT FOOD!  I WANT FOOD!  NOW!".

Old neural pathway to cope with food thoughts (The Highway)

My brain has two neural pathways when it comes to cravings and urges to eat, which I like to call the highway, that were created by 25+ years of bad habits and old behaviors:

1. Fight the urge to eat: When a craving or an urge to eat hits me, the first thing I want to do is fight the urge to eat. I try to resist the urge as long as I can but I can't stop thinking about food.  It doesn't take long for the food thoughts to turn into an obsession which becomes intolerable.  I usually eat to stop the obsessive thoughts and the uncomfortable feelings that comes with fighting the urge.  And once I start eating, either I eat too much all day and/or I binge.
2. Turn to food automatically:  Sometimes, when the urge to eat hits me, I'll simply eat whatever I'm craving and when I tell myself "I shouldn't eat" that, my brain quickly responds "I don't care" and I simply turn to food.  

How to cope with cravings and urges to eat without turning to food

Creating a new neural pathway (Country Roads)

By participating in new activities, forming new habits and behaviors, I am training my brain to create a new neural pathway, what I like to call the country road, to cope with my food obsession.  

Instead of fighting my cravings and my urges to eat, I choose to experience and accept my cravings and my urges to eat.  It's time for me to stop trying to avoid and escape my experience with food.

How to experience my cravings and my urges to eat to create a new neural pathway?

Instead of fighting the urge to eat or binge, I observe my thoughts and my feelings as they cross my mind.  I make space for them.  When I choose to sit with my thoughts, I find that they don't hold as much power and it is much easier to tolerate.  

Urge surfing is also a great DBT skill to cope with urges to eat. When I feel the urge to eat when I'm not physically hungry, I surf the urge without giving in to it or pushing it away.  I sit there and observe my thoughts without judgement.  I observe the urge as it rises in intensity, riding it to its peak until it finally starts to subside. 

By accepting that I have obsessive thoughts about food, I can learn to sit with them.  I can ride the urge.  By repeating this new behavior over and over again, I am creating a new neural pathway in my brain.  Using the old Highway to cope with my food obsession is no longer working for me. It's time to make room for a new coping mechanism. 

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." - Albert Einstein.