One thing I'm beginning to worry about is that I'm dreaming about food. Last night it was about eating pizza and it tasted SOOOO GOOOOD in my dream. I ate like 4 pieces. Another day it was about eating Reese's Peanut butter cups (my favorite) and I was snarfing a whole bag. In both dreams, AFTER I did that, I panicked, thinking in my dream head, "Oh no! Melissa! You aren't supposed to be eating anything with sugars and simple carbs!!!!"
Now, when I'm awake. I'm not suffering! I am eating great, not hungry and I feel great. Giving up the simple carbs has been amazingly easy and I hope it stays that way if I continue to have blood sugar issues as it will have to be a permanent change of eating only low carbs if I want to avoid insulin, which I definitely do!
But why am I having those dreams? It's worrying me because maybe on some level I really am missing carbs? Or is it that I'm worrying about messing up and ruining everything I'm accomplishing?
We deal with things in our way, and your subconscious is catching up with your conscious.
Because of eating disorders (and genetics), I started losing my hair in my early 20's. For all of my life it was way thick and down past my waist, then I lost about 80% of it and eventually shaved my head entirely.
Some of it grew back, but I still wear wigs and different hair pieces.
Anyway, for the first year or so, it was really traumatic on a conscious level. It bothered me, embarrassed me, and I cried over it a lot. THEN, one day I felt like I had 'handled' it. It didn't control my life, I moved on, felt better, etc.
But then the dreams started. I didn't understand why at the time, but I started having all these dreams about my hair. Dreams where my hair was it's old self again, and I would wake up freaking out and crying. In real life I was handling it, but internally I was taking the next step in control.
The dreams bothered me at first because I thought I was mentally regressing to where I had been before, but that wasn't it at all. I was just having to deal with it on all levels and at a rate I could.
That is where you are now. You have 'control' over it in your daily life, but there are going to be inner demons that you have to fight it out with too. Dreams are the most common way that our hidden emotions are dealt with.
I know those dreams are freaky, but from my experience they are a very good sign. They are a sign that you are changing in a very positive and substantial way.
Take it from me, they'll slack off after a while. God knows, I've dealt with them enough.
I have food dreams AND cigarette dreams. Even in the dream as I'm indulging in both of the things I've (in one case) cleaned up or (in the other) quit entirely, I feel panic once I've eaten/smoked: "Oh no! Nooo! I've made such a mistake and now it's going to be practically impossible to get back on track!"
I don't really mind the dreams or get disturbed by them, though. Instead, once I wake up, I relish the thought that I don't have to feel that panic in real life, that even if my subconscious mind still remembers doing that stuff, my conscious mind is completely able to exercise control. If my subconscious mind has some stuff to work out or if it's just throwing off random electrical blips that tangle up with old, unused neural pathways such as the ones that grew from lighting up a cigarette or eating a whole box of cheez-its, well, that's my subconscious mind's business. I won't let it bother me.
Rather than a sign that we're missing these things, I think such dreams are a sign that we're fully coming to terms with big changes. You aren't dreaming of gorging yourself--you're dreaming of realizing what you're doing and wanting to stop it. That's your brain (and mine) exercising the lifestyle-change muscles, so to speak, making it easier to decide against the big bag of peanut butter cups in our waking lives.
These dreams are a great thing, from that standpoint.
yes i dream about food when im on a diet, and get so upset, because in my dream i forget i am on a diet until i eat, and then i freak out.. you spend so much of your awake time thinking about your diet, or counting calories or whatever that it is bound to enter your head at night
I had a dream about food the other night but is was a little different - I had a dream that my family and I were on a long trip and we stopped at this small greasy spoon in the middle of nowhere to have lunch. It was all this truck stop food, but on the menu they listed the calorie counts next to each meal (yeah - like a place like that would do that!). And every single meal had like 1800 calories in it - even with a really small portion. And I was in like a total PANIC about what to do, because I needed to have lunch, but didn't want to eat so many calories.
I told my husband the next day and he was like "Worrying about calories a little too much I think!!"
Last edited by CherryPie99; 02-09-2011 at 04:18 PM.
I've had dreams where I binge on trigger foods, and a few where I'm counting calories, and upset because it's food I don't know the calories for. I go to OA, and they tell me these dreams are common and normal for those in recovery. Hope that helps--I'm NOT implying you need OA or a binge eater, btw!!! Just sharing my experience
I haven't had food dreams lately, but I have in the past, and I woke up happy that A.) I didn't actually eat all that food and B.) That I felt like I had, so I had a "fantasy" binge without the calories LOL Strange......I know and probably indicates a little obsession or deprivation? Hasn't happened to me lately, but I haven't had any serious cravings.
I dream about lots of things that are going on in my life. I have also dreamt of over-eating, smoking, drinking...(all things I have quit). When I waited tables in college, I had dreams I was waiting tables and get slammed with 6 or 7 large parties at once. Now that I work at school, I have dreams about school stuff. I have dreams about my kids drama, I have dreams about snow....(YUCK). No hidden meaning, just because these things are on my mind.
I think dreaming about eating foods not on your plan is really common on dieters. I know on the Atkins or low-carb diet, a lot people have "carb dreams" where they eat a ton of carbs. Personally, for me, I dream about eating offplan all the time, but I don't really worry about it - as long as it's just a dream
I have food dreams AND cigarette dreams. Even in the dream as I'm indulging in both of the things I've (in one case) cleaned up or (in the other) quit entirely, I feel panic once I've eaten/smoked: "Oh no! Nooo! I've made such a mistake and now it's going to be practically impossible to get back on track!"
I, too, have food and cigarette dreams. I dream that I am eating cake and I can taste the buttercream frosting, and when I dream of smoking I can actually feel the smoke going into my lungs. When I wake up I am in a complete panic (more about the cig dreams) because I honestly felt like I had been smoking b/c the dreams are so realistic. I think our bodies/minds miss things and we deal with it subconsciously through our dreams -- trust me, I'd much rather eat crap and smoke in my dreams than in real life!!
Dreaming about food?
That would be my guess. You know what you've got to do for your health. The things you're eating in your dreams are 180* from that. 
