I think I should print something like this--"obesity is worse than the worry" on a card and keep it with me at all times. True, it's worse. Maybe consciously thinking that will contribute to helping.

I hadn't mentioned what you did, but that as well: sometimes it's hard to know what is best for us. Maybe if this was the only thing we had to worry about, it wouldn't be that bad, but I bet most of us do have other things in life to worry about that do and have to come first.

Oh well. I'll suck it up. From what you all said, it seems it's indeed a phase more than something definitive, so it's very likely possible to deal with it.

Oh geez, that's a problem at times, too. If the food is far from me, it's okay; if it's right under my nose, it's not. And too bad if I come up as some greedy b*tch of whatever, but I still have that atavic instinct of "I must get one because if I don't, then someone else with and there won't be anything left for me"--no matter whether I actually really like that food or not, no matter if I really feel like having it or not. I've already happened to eat and prefer my apple/banana/healthy whatsoever snack to that junk, yet still crave it just because someone else might have it before me (I don't give in, but it remains on my mind all the same). The worst part is that if I want, I can get better croissants at the baker's near where I live (for instance), so it's not a matter of seeing exceptional foods that will never appear in my life again in the next five years! I think I'm slowly getting over that 'instinct', but man, it's not easy.

Hehe, yeah. Good thing that I'm not exactly tired of the whole managing thing, then, I see there is still hope. It's still less bothering to watch my food intake than to go to the office every morning.

I usually count WW points, but just to double-check my diet, I ran it through a calorie and vitamin/mineral program recently. It has made me very obsessive and is taking a lot of time, I notice it now and ruminate about it when I eat lower calories than I think I should on one day(even though I'm not hungry) or when I don't get enough zinc from food, or when the combination of some nutrient in my diet added to my the amount in my multivitamin is way too high, etc. I'm still in the geewhiz phase with the program, but I can see it's going to get old REAL fast.

I tend to cycle through different means of calorie counting, but generally end up back with WW etools and point counting when I get sick of doing something more involved. It just takes me less time. Since it's a sort of rounding to the nearest 50 calories, it results in me micromanaging my diet less, I don't worry if the portion isn't perfect (I do try to overestimate, though). Since many healthy very low cal foods are zero points, I often don't bother to log them and concentrate on the foods that are higher calorie. If a food isn't in the database, I just pick something that is likely to be the same or higher calorie level and log that instead (I could do that with other calorie/nutrition programs, but it bugs me because then the exact calories are off or the nutrient levels are very wrong, etc). So the simplified calorie counting of WW results in me thinking about my diet less.

I recall one early study of calorie restriction on normal weight people. The researchers noted that they became rather food obsessed! Seems a very common response.

Interesting study, atalanta. Back when I was normal weight, and even once I began to gain weight, I just never thought about food much. Had no idea how many calories I was eating, what the nutrient balance was, and so on.

So by comparison, I must now seem "obsessed"--but really, I think I'm just paying attention.

I don't get into worrying about micronutrients. I take multivitamins and call it done. The only one I do try to watch is calcium--I noticed that without supplements I get only half of the RDA of calcium, even though I consume dairy products every day. That was pretty scary.

Jay

Hi Kery,

I always plan and think about food, and I also kind of cycle as to how much it bothers me that I spend so much time/energy on it. I don't usually mind for the exact reason that Lily stated: "obesity is worse than the worry." When I was heavy, I thought about food all the time too - how good it was, when I could get more, what a fat cow I was (clearly did not have a good body image), and once I learned a few things about nutrition, how terrible for me what I was eating was. So now I think about food and plan out my healthy eating, what workout I'm going to do today, what are my weightlifting days this week, special events to deal with... I'm ok with it, since I figure I'm expending about the same amount of energy in a much healthier manner.

I do, however, try to plan a lot one day a week so I don't have to later. On Sundays I cut up veggies, make a big dinner with leftovers, plan what I'll bring to work for breakfast, see if I have lunchmeat, etc. - so that later in the week when I'm busy I don't have to plan/think quite so much. I can just grab my tupperwares each morning and know that I've already make meals that fit my nutritional goals. Knowing I've got my veggies cut up really does let me sleep easier.

I'm also a lot like Anne, in that when I'm at work and there is junk food it's a big distraction. Usually work is sort of a 'safe zone' for me. Distraction methods include insisting on moving food off the coffee table (5 feet from my desk) to the kitchen down the hall. I try to go out and do field work when I know there's junk sitting there. My food cabinet at home is a safe zone, but my roommates don't always have just healthy food, and I will do everything I can to avoid looking at it (including leaving the house to go for walks, going to bed early - other things that help me function better anyway). It definitely helps me keep food distractions to a minimum, so I don't obsess too much.

Hmm, I don't know if typing this has helped me sort anything out. Maybe it's helped you, Kery. I'm definitely still at the "distract myself from it" stage. I have modified my behavior but not my thinking at this point when it comes to food. As I typed this my office mate put a bag of oatmeal cookies on the coffee table, which has led to a conversation about the virtues of nuts in cookies, brownies, and ice cream. Luckily I have a banana to eat, and some field work to go do now.

~Megan

I think you have a very busy and interesting life. The down side is that it sometimes it gets to be too much, and your mind just has to obsess on somthing to keep you from feeling overwhelmed. I guess this is along the lines of what JayEll said.

A little in a hurry right now, but I wanted to say this: reading your answers, about other people's similar experiences, and seeing that apparently, it's indeed not that uncommon to start 'obsessing' about this all, do help a lot. Not in a 'misery loves company' way, but in a positive manner, i.e. if another person has managed to go through this successfully, then it means there are ways and we're not doomed. So, thanks a lot.