How many times a day do you think about food? - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

ubergirl · 10-12-2009, 08:12 PM

Today I had a chat with a friend whose daughter suffers from anorexia...

She and I were talking about what it is like to obsess about food all the time.

She told me that her daughter thinks about food 2000 x a day, and that a friend who had WLS told her that she had changed from thinking about food 2000 x a day to only about 500 x a day.

That's when I realized that somehow, I'm not really sure how, I'm not that kind of person anymore.

I used to think about how fat I was, when I was a young woman, probably once every 6 seconds all day every day. Finally, thank god, I outgrew it.

Then, for a long time, I did think about food all the time... should I eat, shouldn't I, what should I eat? Can I get to the store? Can I buy candy? Will I have time to eat it...

But, now I realize that I'm really not dealing with that right now. I think about food, like what am I going to prepare, and do I have to go to the store... but not that constant chatter that made me feel like I always had a devil on my shoulder.

I'm VERY THANKFUL for that.

JulieJ08 · 10-12-2009, 08:19 PM

I find myself thinking too much about food sometimes. I try to fight it by thinking about something else important. I try to make myself someone who has better things to think about - sometimes I do better than others

I don't mean it as a criticism, it's just a mental strategy I use to try to change my own outlook and habits.

Tibouchina · 10-12-2009, 08:29 PM

I'm still at the point where I think about it tons. I consider everything I eat so carefully, since if I just eat, it will be with disastrous consequences. I think out what I want vs what I have a craving for, until I match up to something I am happy with. I'm sure it will ease with time as I make better choices overall and don't crave things so much.

beerab · 10-12-2009, 08:38 PM

Honestly I don't think about it like I used to. I remember before I used to obsess about it- what I'm going to eat, when I'm going to eat, etc.

Now the only times I really think about it is at mealtime and when I'm planning what to make for the meal, that's it.

CLCSC145 · 10-12-2009, 08:55 PM

When I was heavily binging, I could hardly think of anything else. I was constantly thinking of what I would eat next, when I would eat next, how I was going to get it, how to hide it, etc. I feel like I think about food a reasonable amount of time now - when I'm hungry, when it's time to eat, when I'm grocery shopping, do I have enough food in the house... It's infrequent now that I think about eating when I'm not hungry. Food ads on tv still have the power to get me wanting to eat food that is absolutely not on my plan, but I try to change the channel.

ubergirl · 10-12-2009, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CLCSC145

When I was heavily binging, I could hardly think of anything else. I was constantly thinking of what I would eat next, when I would eat next, how I was going to get it, how to hide it, etc. I feel like I think about food a reasonable amount of time now - when I'm hungry, when it's time to eat, when I'm grocery shopping, do I have enough food in the house... It's infrequent now that I think about eating when I'm not hungry. Food ads on tv still have the power to get me wanting to eat food that is absolutely not on my plan, but I try to change the channel.

Me, me, me. This is it exactly!

That's why I was so surprised and pleased to realize that is no longer the case... I think about it a reasonable amount now but not obsessively.

That obsessive thinking is just so freaking destructive, and apparently the anorexic and the binger are just two sides of the same coin.

paris81 · 10-12-2009, 10:04 PM

How many seconds are in a day? Just kidding. I do think about it a lot though. WAY more than I did when I was binging. I think about what I'm going to eat, how many calories does it have, when will I be hungry next, should I just have snack, or should I go ahead and eat a full meal, etc, etc.

It's better now that the semester has started, and I'm almost always busy. But over the summer, I really did think about food constantly.

HeyHeyGabby · 10-12-2009, 10:44 PM

I'm pretty sure I'm thinking about food the same amount as i always have (which is a LOT), I'm just thinking of it in different ways. I'm calculating calories and thinking of what i should eat instead of having an incessant crazy person screaming and complaining about how much i want/need/ or 'deserve' (haha) to eat crap.

D22Guzman · 10-12-2009, 10:45 PM

I honestly think about food all of the time I can t stop thinking about food and everyday i tell my self to day is the day I will start to eat healthy and begin a healthy me....but it just nver happens. I always seems that I over eat and some how end up at the side of my toilet trying to throw everything back out as if I was back in high school with my bad habits that i have to get rid of especially when i convince my self that the best way is to go run to cvs and buy a box of laxatives...which i kow wont work. I will i will definetly start working out and eating healthy trying to lose weight the healthy way I way 230 and i want to way 130 so i need to lpse 100 lbs which i am convince will never happen if i keep this up but no I will lose 100 lbs and will post my journey if your interested in reading it. promise

cfmama · 10-12-2009, 11:02 PM

I only think about food all the time during that tom... and it gets a bit hard then but I can distract myself easily. The rest of the month it's pretty easy to do this

Suezeeque · 10-13-2009, 01:57 AM

Now that I'm on a food plan that I prepare and shop for at least 3 days ahead, it relieves me of the necessity to think about what I'm going to eat. I just look at my menu; and, with few exceptions, that's it. I can't allow myself to wing it because for me that's just inviting disaster.

Sometimes at night when I'm watching TV, if it's been a couple of hours since I ate, I do think about wanting something to eat. So far I've resisted and am taking it a day at a time.

I don't know if it's getting older and having countless days of thinking about food in every possible way, but I finally just got so tired of it. I was telling my son last month that my whole life, since I was about nine, has been filled on a daily basis with thoughts about food: what to eat, how much to eat, feeling guilty about overeating, eating in my car on the way home to dinner and having to force myself to eat the meal, waiting until everyone is asleep and sneaking out to the kitchen, hiding food in my bedroom, counting calories, counting fat grams, counting carbs, counting points, and ALWAYS being on a diet, just falling off a diet, or planning to start a diet.

I've only been on this food plan for a month and I know to NEVER, EVER take anything for granted when it comes to not overeating at any given time. I can be cruising along for months, one time it was 13 months, and all it took was a s'more when I was camping to set me off on a binge. So, I'm only going to say that for today, I'm not obsessing about food.

VernDern · 10-13-2009, 02:14 AM

I think about food all the time. Im constantly planning and going over what I want to eat, why I cant eat it, debating on whether Im going to eat it anyways....Its crazy and a bit obsessive but in some odd unhealthy way it keeps me on track and motivated to make better decisions.

Its when I stop thinking about food all the time that I start gaining my weight. I hope one day...perhaps after I reach goal it wont be so badly.

Bonnie+J · 10-13-2009, 03:25 AM

when i was binging i never really thought about it. it was just automatic. i never felt guilt over it either, i justified it by saying i deserved it.

but now, i think about it alot. i check the time and think its been x amount of time since i've eaten, i think about what i'm going to eat when i next feel hungry, about whats in the fridge, and then when i have free time i search for healthy recipes so i can make it the following week. and for me, its healthy. i am noticing when i eat and learning to listen to my body. it will get easier when this way of eating is my new automatic, but until then i have to make myself think about it.