Oral Fixation

Once, when I was in college, we had a guest speaker come into our class to talk about smoking cessation products. I was in school to become a dental hygienist, so this was very relevant to our profession. One thing that the speaker stressed was that there are different addictions to overcome when deciding to be done with cigarettes: the physical addiction (which goes away the fastest), the mental desire (which takes longer), the habit (taking a "smoke break" at certain times each day), and, of course, the oral fixation. This one stuck out to me.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately even though I have never smoked. But I definitely think that I have some sort of oral fixation problem, and I think it is why I tend to overeat. It feels like I have an overwhelming desire to have something in my mouth at all times (and NO - not in a dirty way! Get your head out of the gutter!). So I eat when I'm not hungry, when I'm bored, anytime I walk into the kitchen, anytime I am near food...you get the picture. I also tend to chew on pens, sip my water 1000x an hour while I'm working, and chew on my fingers. Not my nails. My actually fingers. Yes, I have problems.

Is it possible that this is related to my anxiety disorder? Who knows. But it definitely seems to be the hardest part of weight loss for me. I want to eat ALL THE TIME!

It's why, I'm sure, that in the past I went from the next picture to the second in only one year:





That was a 40lb weight gain. With NO pregnancies in there. That's a LOT in only 365 days, and I am a bit embarrassed to admit it. But, it also makes me happy that I've "caught" my most recent weight gain before it spiraled out of control. At least I've at a healthy weight right now!

I don't know what this realization will mean for me, but hopefully it helps me to be more intuitive in reagrds to WHY I am eating. Am I actually hungry? If not, why do I feel like eating? Will a glass of water help? You get the picture.

In any case, I can't wait to taste success once again!