Fitness and Nutrition Are Essential to Overcoming and Preventing Chemical Addictions

The topic of chemical addictions is one that is near and dear to my heart and affects so many of us both directly and indirectly. Alcohol, cigarettes, and pain killers are some of the intoxicants that usually come to mind when we hear the phrase “chemical addiction.” I would also like to point out that addictions to coffee and junk food (which are chemicals) are usually overlooked when we do an inventory of our own lives.

It’s not good for your health to drink more than one cup of coffee a day, and I drink at least two—so I am going to do a little lifestyle makeover myself. The excuse I use is that I juggle college and a professional life, so of course I need the boost, right? Wrong. The reality is that I don’t need to depend on caffeine for energy, and neither do you if we get enough rest, exercise, and eat right.

Below is a summary for Eat to be Fit-The Truth About Fat Loss , by Michael J. Foley with Pat Walsh. I recently made Pat and Mike’s acquaintance and thought this first-person account had some great insight on the subject of chemical addictions, and what we can do to overcome them:

Overcoming Alcoholism and Nicotine Addiction with Nutrition and Fitness

Toward the end of 1999, when I was 54, my doctor said “Your liver is failing; unless you stop drinking, you’ll die.” At the time I didn’t believe I was an alcoholic and thought I could stop drinking “on my own.” I was also smoking a pack a day.

On October 7th, 2001, at the age of 56, I had my last drink. A couple of weeks later I had my last cigarette.  My recovery included losing 30 pounds of fat, reducing my blood pressure, healing a failing liver, eliminating chronic bronchitis, adding hours to each day and years to my life. What I learned about the importance of nutrition and exercise during those 22 months may be helpful to others struggling to quit harmful substance addiction.

Quitting smoking and drinking is not unusual; completely eliminating the cravings for these unhealthy substances is unusual. Nutrition and fitness are not the first things most people think of when they consider recovery today, but I wonder how a physical disease like alcoholism can be truly overcome without careful attention to the physical needs of the human body. I hope my experience brings more attention to this crucial aspect of recovery.

My Drinking Heritage and History

Alcoholism runs deep in my family. Both of my grandfathers, hardworking family men when sober, became violent, destructive and abusive when drunk. My uncles were drunks, too. As a child I was fearful and nervous around these men, but as I grew up I didn’t connect my own heavy drinking with them. My behavior when drinking was different, so I thought I was different.

My parents drank with their friends, often becoming loudly drunk, but I can’t say for sure that they were alcoholics. They drank mostly on weekends while I was growing up. Alcoholism was not talked about in our family, but drinking was a big part of everyone’s life, including mine.

I was an alcoholic from the time of my first drink of straight whiskey, probably around the age of 5 or 6. It was the remedy for toothaches, sore throats and to help me go to sleep on occasion. I loved the way it tasted and made me feel: warm, fuzzy and relaxed. It took away the pain of my frequent sore throats—transporting me from the dismal, often stressful surroundings of my home to a place of peace and quiet. Alcohol comforted me and I couldn’t get enough of it.

I smoked my first cigarette when I was ten and enjoyed the different kind of buzz I got from that. My parents both smoked and it was easy excitement to sneak cigarettes out of the packs they’d leave lying around. When I met my future husband at age fourteen I quit smoking because he didn’t smoke. I didn’t take up smoking regularly again until I was in my mid-forties. Then I smoked a pack a day or more and was completely hooked.

I was a “maintenance drinker” most of the time. I drank every day as an adult and tried to control my intake so I wouldn’t become drunk. Fortunately, during my three pregnancies I had no desire to drink alcohol. I can remember taking a sip of wine and not liking it.  So I rarely had even a small drink while pregnant; but as soon as my healthy, perfect babies were born, I went back to my previous levels of consumption.

A high-functioning alcoholic, I began attending college at night when my children were babies. I earned a BS degree in Accounting, with honors, while working part time to pay my tuition. I was recruited by a large insurance company upon graduating at age thirty and had a successful 25-year career in information technology.

Being an active, secret alcoholic consumed a lot of time, attention and energy. And it produced enormous guilt. The first drink after work felt so good, so right—I could hardly wait for it. But with the ones that followed life became shadowy, thoughts grew murky, reactions and responses less and less appropriate.

Although I performed well at work, my emotional development was stuck somewhere back in my youth. Instead of learning how to cope with the normal ups and downs of life, how to relate well to others and figure out who the heck I was at significant times in my life, those life-lessons so important for growth toward maturity were drowned out, submerged by my ever increasing reliance on alcohol.

During many years of heavy, daily drinking and in spite of many disastrous consequences, including being arrested at age 34 with a blood alcohol level of .33, I steadfastly denied my alcoholism. I refused to accept the obvious, even after my younger sister died at age 40 of alcoholism and crack cocaine.

I was able to retire early at age 54, in the summer of 1999. Then, without a job to go to, without anyone relying on me for their care (my children were grown, out on their own and I’d been divorced for years) I could drink and smoke as much as I wanted without worrying about anyone noticing my overindulgences.

Recovery

What happened to make quitting booze and cigarettes possible for me after a life of slavery to these addictions? It happened almost by accident. During one of my longest attempts to stay sober, after learning my liver was failing, I read an article about a woman who started lifting weights in her sixties and I was inspired to try it. I had two young grandsons and wanted to get healthy so I could enjoy playing with them.

I signed up for a 1-month membership at my local gym, the Lifestyle Fitness Center on Warren Avenue in Portland, and began working with a personal trainer who helped me learn to use the weight machines and free weights. She introduced me to the nutrition/fitness counselor at the gym, Mike Foley, and recommended his 12-week program which included eating nutritious foods every 2-3 hours, all day long.

Mike and I developed a daily eating plan together using foods I liked. It included three meals and three healthy snacks with the exact amounts of calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates I needed to be healthy. It also included the time of day that each meal or snack was to be consumed. I had to keep track of everything I ate, writing it in a journal which he reviewed once a week. I also had to drink two quarts of plain water every day. No junk food or sugary snacks were allowed. These were all drastic changes in my eating habits, but I was able to assimilate them with Mike’s help during weekly consultations.

My exercise regimen included working out with weights for 30 minutes three times a week, and doing 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise (walking) four times a week. In the beginning I found all of this was a lot of work and had to push myself to go out walking with no destination in mind, no goal but to walk for 30 minutes. It felt strange, it all felt very strange, but I was determined to try. To my surprise, I felt better right away.

I began to realize all sorts of unexpected benefits from following this program, but the miraculous freedom from addictions didn’t happen overnight. After weeks of sobriety and healthy living I tried to drink like a “normal” person and failed again. But I had written a short article describing how much better I was feeling with improved eating and exercise habits, and after reading it, Mike asked me to write a book with him.

During the months that followed, I had many weeks of sustained healthy living interspersed with horrible binge drinking episodes that left me more dysfunctional and sicker than ever. Although Mike and I met every week to work on the book, I tried to keep my drinking secret, as usual. I was immersed in the process of learning and writing about nutrition and exercise, continually trying to apply the principles to myself, but still thinking I could someday drink like a normal person. Although I failed over and over, the memory of how good I felt while following the exercise and eating plan, and not drinking, kept me returning again and again to the healthy lifestyle.

Finally, in October of 2001, when we had finished writing, I tried once more to drink like a “normal” person and had one of my worst binges ever. I knew then that I could never drink again. It took that final attempt for me to finally accept my alcoholism. I made it my top priority to follow Mike’s healthy lifestyle program 100% and within two weeks smoked my last cigarette.

During my first year of sobriety I never went for more than three hours without a healthy snack (which always included protein as well as carbs), because if I did, the old cravings would immediately start again. I avoided sugar and other high-glycemic foods, knowing by then the importance of keeping my blood-sugar levels steady. I realized that my eating and exercise routines were helping me stay emotionally balanced and learning to cope with life’s ups and downs in a more productive way than I ever could when drinking and smoking.

I found a powerful weapon to keep cravings at bay while improving my quality of life in every way: healthy eating and consistent exercise. Although every human being is different and addictions are serious, complicated illnesses that exert a terrible grip on the spirit and free will of the addicted person, we all need good nutrition and exercise habits to be healthy. I hope someday information and counseling on nutrition and exercise will be available to each person struggling to break addictions and live a full, healthy life.

*Eat to be Fit-The Truth About Fat Loss, by Michael J. Foley with Pat Walsh, is available at Amazon.com

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About Author

Chris Willitts is an advocate of meditation and strength training, and the founder of Mindful Muscle. He is also a web designer, entrepreneur, and student at the University of Michigan with concentrations in psychology, sociology, business, and Asian studies.

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