Are you a sugar addict?

1. Do you think about sugar products frequently during the day?
2. Do visions of certain candies or sweets get stuck in your mind, rarely going away until you obtain the snack and eat it?
3. Are you aware of the location of every sweet thing in your house or kitchen? For example, could you tell me exactly where every package of cookies, every Twinkie, ever piece of candy is lurking?
4. If special sweets come into the house, such as a box of candy or homemade cookies, are you haunted by them until they are gone (that is, eaten)?
5. Do you have a very clear awareness about how much of any sweet is left?  Do you get angry when you think there's a half-piece of pie left in the fridge and find that someone has snitched some so that only an eighth is left?
6. Do you hide the evidence when you've eaten sweets?  Do you wash pans or conceal wrappers so that your mate or children won't know that you've eaten?
7. Do you sometimes try to get everyone out of the house so that you curl up and eat your special food without anyone knowing?
8. At a party, do you try to disguise your trips to the dessert table?  Do you make excuses for the size of your helping?
9. Are you less interested in an activity if no food is involved? For example, if a dear friend were having a party with absolutely no food and an acquaintance were having a party to launch the arrival of a new pastry chef with fresh samples of his desserts, and these parties were at exactly the same time, would you have  difficulty deciding with party to attend?
10. If I mention a holiday, is your first thought the food associated with it? Let's try it: Valentine's Day.  July 4th.  Easter.  Anniversary.  Birthday.  State fair.  Circus.
11. Once you start eating sweets, is it difficult to stop?
12. Do you often break your own rules about when you'll stop?  For example: Do you set rules such as, I'll only have two cookies, I'll only eat one bowl, and then break these rules and set new ones, only to break these too?
13. After you eat all you can (the bag is empty or until you hurt), does your mood change? Do you feel dreamy or out of it? Is your thinking fuzzier?
14. If you'd planned an afternoon of eating and your best friend came to the door, would you try to get rid of her so you could keep eating? Would you feel impatient for her to go? If she called on the phone, would you try to end the conversation quickly? If a housemate came home unexpectedly that afternoon, would you feel angry and cheated?
15. Do sweets make up oo high a proportion of your daily food intake?
16. You are at a dinner party and the woman next to you leaves half a piece of pie on her plate.  Do your eyes keep straying to that piece of pie until the waiter mercifully takes the damn thing away?

A yes to more than half the questions raises the possibility that you are addicted to this category of food items.  If so, you are not at fault.  Very likely a combination of factors contributed to the development of your addiction. 

Taken from Anatomy of a food addiction by Anne Katherine M.A.

Question for emotional eaters group...

What do you want to get out of this group?

Issues with food

Our issues with food and challenges with health are always doorways that take us to deeper places in our lives that are calling for healing.  If you are overeating, this is ultimately a sign of some imbalance in your life.  If you are binge eating, what are your trigger foods?  If you are not getting enough protein or fat in the first part of your day, this can lead to binge eating later in the day.  Like overeating, binge eating is letting you know that something is out of balance in  your life.  You need to get this out in the open.  That is where I come in as a food psychology coach.

What is food psychology coaching

Food psychology coaching is the bridge between nutrition, coaching and psychology.  Or,  phasing it another way, food psychology is the study of how our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs affect our eating and our health.  As your food psychology coach it is my intent to help you to discover your relationship with food and who you are through what and how you eat.

New blog

I have decided to have two separate blogs.  One for my holistic health practice and one for my food psychology practice.  Although you can not have one without the other, some might just be interested in the nutritional information.

I have formed the N Central San Antonio Emotional Eaters group.  We are having our first meet up on Wednesday, March 16, 6:00 pm at the Barnes & Noble at Northwood.

Please go to my Facebook page and become a friend.  Just do a lookup for Cindy Zahn.