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Showing posts with the label willpower

Loop Policy

 In my introductory post , I laid out the "highlight reel" of the past dozen years of my life—a story marked by profound grief, intense stress, and a lifelong battle with my weight and health. I also shared how I came to realize that my "comfort food" was, in fact, an emotional eating pattern I (and many of us) learned in childhood. It was a simple, deeply ingrained reward loop: Skinned knee -> Feel Bad -> Get Ice Cream -> Feel Better As I grew, that loop became my primary coping mechanism for everything . Stressful day at work -> Feel Bad -> Order a Pizza -> Feel Better Argument with a partner -> Feel Bad -> Eat a bag of chips -> Feel Better Grief, loneliness, or just ADHD-fueled boredom -> Feel Bad -> Eat -> Feel Better This loop was a temporary fix that created a permanent, spiraling problem. It was the root cause of my 190-pound weight gain and a major contributor to the inflammation that damaged my heart. My medication (Wellb...