Craving Change

I completed the Craving Change workshop that has been put on by Primary Care, where the dietician suggested much good stuff, but never really addressed cravings like I have. There were some thinking models, all of which are incomplete. It was a reminder of how fucked up our current culture is, and how far I have regressed from our current culture in my thinking about food.

She introduced a concentric circle model of the reasons for eating, but I think it is correct, but not in the correct order. The primary is energy, but out from that should be a biochemical ring, for those that eat because of excess insulin, lack of leptin signaling, recalling that high insulin blocks leptin signaling, and therefore lower carbohydrate, therefore lower insulin is required for weight loss.

The next should involve a change in thinking, a change in beliefs, to some form of eating small three or four times in the day, regardless of hunger. This change in beliefs, and subsequent required action is the portion that I have been struggling with these last years, with attached weight gain. This was totally absent from the model.

Along with the foregoing, there is a related biochemical ring, that of the cortisol, serotonin, dopamine struggle going on in the brain. Cortisol and excitement drive eating, as does dopamine. Too much brain stimulus... drive both ends of the three brain chemical dance, only satisfaction and contentment, aka not struggling is neutral in the drive to eat. Anything we do drives eating, it is the absence of effort that must accompany sustained weight loss. That is not made clear. Taking on weight loss as a job is fine for weight loss and regain cycle; that is what is promoted. There is little psychological information available about life between the cycles of loss/gain. That is what is missing from society, as it exists today. I am only concerned with this life today, that is all we have.

Outside those rings are environment, emotional, social, availability, issue rings. Food addiction, and behavioral addiction to eating are not considered, yet we know that these are real and often the driving force in overeating. These mask learned behaviors that forced epicgenetic changes, reinforcing the driving of overeating. Staying away from food pushers is easier than resistance in their presence. That explains much of the problem.

The solution is understanding the problem and changing my core beliefs to something else from what society has trained into me. Many foods are poisons. Food pushers must be avoided. Do not take to much food. I need more carbs than the LCHF people to avoid the chemical/liver craving, but not many.
     

I feel a change coming on

Changes are coming. To what, I am not sure. But an early part of any change is letting go of the past behavior/ actions, and perhaps doing something else.

Cognitive therapy, as describe has three loci: thinking, behavior, and emotions. Yet when I look at my cognitive process in meditation, there are four parts: thinking, behavior, emotions, and beliefs. Attach the body and we have the Buddhist five aggregates. Cognitive therapy ignores beliefs, yet that is the easiest to change, the fastest to change, and perhaps the most unforgiving part of the thinking processes. When I adopted the belief that wheat has no place in the human diet, wheat and wheat products stopped being part of my diet, yet I still find I consume wheat as a filler in sausages, or did. Yet no wheat is a belief, not just thinking. Beliefs are thoughts that we do not question, they are givens, and are not yielding to pressure the same way a thought is. Perhaps this is a distinction without a difference, or not. But there is a distinction, for when eating something is considered to be not even possible, the problem just goes away.

Some retired persons can simply go home, sit down and do nothing, watch TV etc. Spend no money, and be happy doing nothing. Not I. I need thing to do, things to think about, places to go, and the like. I do not need other people much; they are just drags on my freedom. I cannot express many things without creating offense, so I keep silence, and just go away. I like to be right, and know that I am right, more or less. But I need to be active at something that I enjoy, or at least can tolerate. There are many things that I do not like, and other things that I cannot do because of interference from others, who shall not be named, but she who must be obeyed.

Opinions as these are not popular, but once we have them, what do we do? The world is overpopulated when we use Co2 level as a guideline. This guideline influences how I feel about the third world, and the US. The logic is indisputable, as is there is absolutely no evidence of any god, but masses of evidence that people have long held a "belief of god(s)".

Pushing of gods and/or religion onto seniors seems to be in fashion at all the local seniors centers. I just find such behavior to senior abusive.

But if we consider the senior abuse line, they listen but do nothing, as in the case of my brother in law. The natives harasser him, but the RCMP will do nothing. I offered to let him live here, but he does not want to leave the town. He did put his house up for sale, but the town has become native, and is a dyeing Saskatchewan small town, so sale will be slow. Oh well, he is of the wife's family and was among the "comes with."  The town has lots for sale for 100$ if you are willing to build within one year. His old house is just that, old, but functioning. He has stopped paying taxes also, because the natives are getting is money first, but he is unable to say no to the beggars/harassers. Oh well, it is his life.

So here is the coming change perhaps:

If obesity is largely psychological, and we are being influenced by opioid peptides in food, are the cravings that I feel just the driving force of opioid addiction, and the hunger of not eating just normal hunger from not eating? So I am left with two driving forces, hunger and opioid addiction.

So opioid peptides in food are from wheat, dairy products. Ground meat products often contain both milk proteins and wheat filler. So then I am left with solid meat and vegetables as before.

I know this to be true, but am as yet unsure how to apply it unless I am gone from home most of the time. I cannot not eat and sit at home, but I have little choice but to sit at home. My right hip is in too bad of condition to just walk, and archer is OK for a few hours, but that is the extent of my pain endurance. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.



 

Let the dervishes whirl

Societal Change

Is it a process or does it just evolve? The internet has grown, first by a plan, and then it was set free with many people adding to the system, without much control... just like well, a weed, but it has purpose and use and value; yet there is much bullshit masquerading as real and valuable. But the growth rate is far faster than societal change, yet these two are so similar.

When we start to analysis the content, we immediately see in both, the width of the "bullshit bands", for the lack of a better way to describe the volume of false and questionable information, flowing in both systems. Bullshit has now a definition; stuff that nobody cares if it is truthful or not, just about the volume. Loud and big, bold, and runs over reality and truth.

Ultimately, it is all about cleaning the garbage from our minds. Obesity is about wrong beliefs about what should be eaten an why. It is also about eating less than our physical body demands. Recovery is all about learning how to reach satiation, with less food than we would like. It is learning to starve ourselves down to "normal" weight, and maintaining that biochemical state, not allowing enough food to enter the body as the body would like, while knowing that usually the biochemistry wins. But all those who think it is personal choice please leave the building and fuck off forever. We are just responding to the biochemistry, and if your biochemistry does not have this problem, you have no right to criticize those of us who have over excited hormones. The biochemistry always wins.

Within society there is wrong information, and finding and removing that information is a big part of life growth. Religion is all wrong, as it is based on a wrong concept. So what is to be believed? Politics is questionable, sports... well it is entertainment and a bit of "professional",aka, they make money off it, and then there is the recreational exercise... which we all need exercise... if we do not get it at work. But when the pain starts, it screws everything.

Society needs to change, one person at a time. It is us that must change, and let the world flail about. But what is society, and what is entertainment business profit driven promotion, all above society, but not really part of society? and what of those people caught in the spin of the political / marketing business machinery, entertainment creation bullshit generation machine? Let the dervishes whirl overhead.

Obesity is a psychological problem

If I were to eat only 1800 calories a day, I would not have a weight problem, but since I am unable to do that, it is a psychological problem. Could it be any more clear?

We have scales and good data as to caloric density on every package.

But the medical industry as not figured out how to fund the treatment of psychological issues, beyond those who have some form of insurance, and have no clear and simple treatment that can be demonstrated to work. Cognitive therapy shows the most promise, but what is the correct point of view? How much help is a mentally fucked up councilor? How few councilors are not fucked up? Have I ever met one? No.

Primary Care says cravings are caused by emotions. But the craving can arise directly from the situation, what ever that is. So when I walk by the refrigerator, I want to eat, when I see food, I want to eat, when it is breakfast time, lunch time, supper time, TV commercials, and whatever, I want to eat. McDonalds, Tim Hortons and  the like do not effect me in this way as they do not serve real food. As the French say, as comes the food, comes the appetite, or something like that.

So the whole thing is about not responding to my cravings, which are now the first and only reaction I have from many situations.

But I need to starve to lose weight, or should that loose weight because we do not want it to be so tight. Yet primary care says do not starve, because it damage the metabolism, but it does what it needs to do. So they are unwilling to recommend the only thing that works because it also does damage.

But when we realize that overeating is a psychological problem, does that change the emphasis and provide a different solution?

I spent the first 26 years of my life hunting for food, always finding excess. It was that natural food hunter in me that created the problem. I was on diets most of that time between, and by that time I had done 5 or six deep gain/lose cycles... most of a hundred pounds each time. I had no knowledge about how to eat right. That knowledge is not publicly available even yet, from the authorities. Some of us have figured out what is more likely to be correct, but the public authorities have issue with our plan, and it does not consistently work well, and is difficult for some to adhere to.  

Oh, really

Leduc Primary Care, whatever they are called, is putting on the Craving Change series again. I am attending, with the hope that I can pick up on something that I have missed, elsewhere, along the way in my studying this issue.

So the dietitian claimed the hunter gathers hunted dinosaurs...

She seemed claimed that when food was short, we put on weight, and while food was plentiful we lost weight. Perhaps she was trying to to say our bodies are more efficient when food is short, and less efficient when food is plentiful, which is even a stretch. After time, perhaps this is true, but that has nothing to do with cravings.

Their ultimate claim, so far, is that emotions cause cravings, and if we remove the emotion... by dealing with it the craving will not bother us.

But cravings can also be generated by... well... biochemistry, and a craving can be just a craving, just as hunger can be generated prematurely. So some of us must learn to live with hunger, and cravings, while not eating.  

Maintaining Serotonin

Maintaining Serotonin

So how does one maintain a sufficient and adequate level of serotonin to stay in a satisfied and contented state of mind? The government and industry does not want that, it kills the intensive to buy products which kills the economy. It would be disastrous to get all of the people into that state, but I, as an individual will have little effect on the economy. I am already cheep. So we each, as individuals, are into this "on our own", there is no help.

It is serotonin that keeps us in control, when it come to spending, and eating. That may be the key, according to Lustig and reason. 

Public Wrong Concepts

Free Will, is it real or imaginary? Sam Harris says we have little free will, as demonstrated by testing.

Two thirds of the population is overweight. Do they want to be, do not care, or have no free will? Or is it all chemical addiction... to our current foods?

The Stoics say we have control over our aversions and desires, while the Buddhist in non-self, five aggregates say we do not have control over our desires and aversions, only influences. Yet others Stoics say that if we do not resists, our desires will drag us down and pen us into styes, like pigs or wolves. That does not sound like control.

So it is likely that we only have influence over our desires and aversions, yet when we are going with our desires, life is easy; while when we are resisting our actual desires, life is a struggle. Kinda like riding a bicycle in a stiff wind. The trick is to get our desires to align with our rational plan. That is the problem. Our emotional desires often do not align with our rational plan. We have only influence over this, even though our ego says we have control, or we would like to believe we have control. To make matters worse, some may have control, and some may not. Perhaps control is a learned skill that some have and others do not. We may not be the same, some may have more control than others, or not, they may just believe they do because there desires match their reality better. Who really knows? Perhaps Sam Harris is right. It is all fixed by biochemistry. We have no choice.

We live along the lines our desires direct us down. We are guided in our decisions by our skills and desires. We are either successful or not. but we are directed forward... by our internal drive controlled by our desire, possible modified by our logical mind, perhaps not. So how would we need to live and develop this skill? 

First we need to remove the illusion of control... fiction. Is it our diet of fiction that is fucking with our minds. Electronic media, and the fiction content of all such programming...is that what is pushing desires off course? I expect there is a relationship between the amount of fiction in our lives and our overeating. Is it like the dog tied to the cart, being dragged along, where the cart goes.

Lustig makes it clear that contentment is what we need, which come from success, producing serotonin. Anxiety and cortisol, or pleasure and dopamine; both sets are antagonist of the central position of contentment. That is the problem in general, we are trying to stay on what has become a narrow ledge, where contentment was once a wide plateau. It is tough to walk on just the line.  Now the doing is the tough part.

Added:
Lustic new book,  Mind Hacking makes clear the three mind 'states' , dopamine, serotonin, cortisol... well those are really the hormones controlling, but all things do not work the same in all states. Free will, and the control of the rational mind are reduced in the dopamine and cortisol rich stages; so we need to be in the serotonin stage to effect appetite control. Duh. What did I just say?

To have appetite control, we need to have our mind bathed in serotonin. This is the contentment, satisfied, stoic joy, endaimonia state of mind. So the trick is to maintain that state of mind under life conditions. I have never lived nor worked in such a state of mind. I would get nothing done. Oh well, I am retired now.