I am a clean your plate type of girl. Before if there was only one serving of say rice or meat I would put it on a plate and eat it after the meal...weird I never thought much about it before now....I have to say this tread has been 'food' for thought....

Yep, I'm the same way now myself. And I'm SOOOOOO glad. I'm not selfish or possessive over food anymore. If I get some, I get some. If not, oh well, I'll fix something else.

lol, me too. I could never figure it out. I'd make myself CASSEROLES for a SNACK at night or eat a whole bag of chips and sit there going, "Well I don't understand why I'm so fat, I don't even EAT that much!"

Good grief almighty.

I'd gain weight and couldn't figure out why.

Well DUH! We gain weight because we eat too much. Gee, hard concept to grasp, huh?

I think it's the "dieting" mentality that does this to us. It triggers a natural response to a very unnatural imitation of a starvation/famine situation that makes food the most important part of your life. If you've ever seen a dog that has been starved and neglected, for the rest of it's life it often weill have a problem with others approaching it's food dish.

My cousin's cat was a starving stray when they found him. They had him for about ten more years until he died of old age, but he never got over his food obsession. He ate more like a dog, bolting the food until it was all gone, and then would cry as though he were starving trying to get more food or treats. He begged mercilessly when anyone ate anything, and they had a terrible time managing his weight because he always seemed so hungry, it was hard to know when he had had enough, especially since he would cry and carry on for food so much if none was available.

In some ways I feel I am the same. The more I restrict my diet, the more food becomes the focus of my life. Since I have changed my focus, it has become a lot slower and harder to LOSE the weight, but a lot easier to maintain the weight loss. I am eating when I am hungry, but trying to make healthier, more nutritious choices and get more activity in. I think if I can eliminate empty calories, and can build my endurance to achieve an active lifestyle, maintaining a healthy weight will be maneageable, without the weird food habits that seem to go with the diet/binge cycles, but it's a very fine line to be walked, especially since a "whole food" lifestyle is a pretty foreign way of eating compared to the typical american diet, and it takes a good deal of reeducation. Being raised on what I considered "real food," as opposed to junk, I still had no idea how processed my food really was. Wasn't it in the 80's that (white) pasta was considered a health food?

This is a great thread. Please also see a related thread in the Whole Foods Lifestyle forum on Abundance Mentality by Glory with a great post by phantastica:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90558

This topic resonates strongly with me. I'm always afraid I'd never get "enough" of whatever, and it isn't limited to food. Still working on that.........

I can relate to all of this, and pretty much you said everything about me.

LOL At a recent picnic, rather than have that same mentality like I used to (wanting to hurry and get up there before the line got too long and I had to stand there long, and all the food would be gone), I purposely stayed seated and talking until the line thinned out. Most of the desserts were gone...which I was hoping, since they're my drawback.

My big thing when eating out was to order something that I knew had big quantities. If my plate was brought out with less food than my husbands, secretly I felt unhappy and like I was getting cheated. It didn't matter that both plates held enough food for a small family. Occasionally, I still have to remind myself that getting more is not better.

I definitely can relate to sharing food and making sure that I got the largest part.

It's embarrassing to admit this, but I wasn't one of those sweet sacrificing moms who wanted her kids and husband to have the best of the foods. Looking back, I was always right in the middle of it with my fork at the ready wanting the best foods for myself. Geez....that's not something I'm particularly proud of.