Chasing the Dragon Tail

Want a nice tummy?  Well it's 70% diet, 30% exercise.

Anyone every heard the term "chasing the dragon tail."  It's actually a term used for drug addicts.  It describes an addicts elusive pursuit of the ultimate high or the first high, the first high being their best high of which they will never recreate.  An addict will continue to use their drug of choice over and over again,  in larger volumes chasing that high.

I don't think I was ever a food addict but I do understand "chasing the dragon tail."  I understand it because I feel it, even today when eating certain foods.  Foods that are salty and high in fat, foods I crave.

Ever eat a potato chip, and it taste so good... then you eat another... still good.  And then you eat a few more... not as good.  The taste starts to diminish.  The first bite is always the best.  I have actually ate so many chips I couldn't even taste anything but salt and my tongue has went numb.  I know I am not the only one this has happened too...  you've done it too!  We all over eat, and we all eat the wrong things sometimes, but if food has taken over your life and is the only way you feel happy, it is time to get help.

I have some concern for some people in my life, and I feel they have become food addicts.  If your eating is our of control, again, please seek professional help.  Someone like myself can help you with diet and exercise, but if your relationship with food has become maladaptive then seek help from a medical professional or therapist that specializes in food addiction.  Just like a drug addict, food addicts, will kill themselves with their addiction, and it may be slow death.  A body that has been abused (poor nutrition and lack of exercise) will be overcome by disease and sickness in time.

This holiday weekend, I want to encourage you to think about what you are eating and it's taste.  If the items has lost it's taste then stop eating it.  This is a weekend full gatherings where overeating is more than a possibility.  Please eat to nourish your body not your soul, and I assure you a quart of ice cream never healed a broken heart. 

When I first started to lose the weight, and even today, if I want a bite of something I take one or two, but no more than that.  I know I am not going to get the same feeling and enjoyment that I did with the first bite, and I just want enough to stop the craving (and the withdrawals, just kidding!!!).

Two notes about this post.  First, thanks to my friend Chris for giving me the idea for this post.  I wish he was here this weekend to help me write it.  I help him with term papers, and he can help me with blog post (that seems fair), maybe next time...  A course I don't think he has even read this silly blog, so maybe we should start with that.  LOL

Second, I thought you would all enjoy this talk by President Uchtdorf (I'm Mormon, don't forget!) and I am really happy my friend Ethan reminded me of this.  Not only did I need to hear it, but I know some of my readers do too.  In some recent posts, I might have seemed hard on myself, just like some of you are, but I want us all to remember to keep reaching for our goals but to love and cherish the process of obtaining those goals and that we don't have to be perfect.  Thank you Ethan;)