Food that is.

Before I started my plan....all I thought about food. "This is so bad for me." "I can have a couple" "I am in the mood for?" "I really should not eat this, but...." "I do not want that for dinner" "Take out tonight?" Things like that. I would constantly obsess about it at a party let's say. "How many people saw me take that extra cookie?" or "One more peice of cake will not kill me". I would also be obsess about the way all this food made me feel and how "bad" I look, etc, etc.

Now that I am on plan, all I think about is food. "What have I planned for lunch" "Is this ok, on plan" "I am so hungry" All I can do is think about it. AM I the only one that has such a screwed up relationship with food? It drives me crazy. Anyone else? How to cope. I guess that goes with being a food addict....when am I gonna get the next fix????

I know what you mean, it doesn't matter if I'm "dieting" or not. Food and my weight are always at the center of my mind. I really would like to know if people at goal are still so obsessed with "it".

I understand what you mean. I am thinking about food right now and that is why I am on here trying to divert my attention. It is truly difficult. I am always counting down time until my next meal or snack. I do everything I can..I read magazines and books, surf the internet, talk on the phone, journal, watch movies, watch tv, log onto this website, read self affirmations, look at my skinny pictures, anything to try to divert myself. I don't know if any of those would work for you. I am trying to develop new hobbies also like scrapbooking and may get back into crocheting. Coping with wanting to overeat is a daily struggle. Some days I win, others I don't.

You are not alone. Me too ~ as you said ~ whether I am on plan of off plan, it seems like thoughts of food are always on my mind. Sometimes if I can keep myself busy with other things, I am able to not think about it for a while ~ but sometimes I feel too tired to keep busy. And like 72butterfly said it is a daily struggle and sometimes I win and sometimes I don't.

I STILL obsess about food and think about when and what my next meal is going to be when I am right in the middle of eating!! I don't think that it is something that will ever truly go away, just something that one has to learn to manage and deal with.

Thre is a really cool English book called Fat Girl Slim, and in it, Ruth Watson writes about the whole bizarre thing of losing weight, and one of the stupidest things is you have to think all the time about food, where the next meal is coming from, how it's balanced, does it come within calories.

It's not necessarily a sign of food addiction, IMHO, it means we are being proactive about our weight and health and taking control.

I saw this interview recently with Paul McKenna and he said, which really made sense to me, that people who are obese think about food all the time EXCEPT when they are eating.

I used to do this and it was just bug me to death because I didn't want my life to revolve around what I just ate and when my next meal was. Although I do still focus more time than I used to before deciding to get healthy on food, I don't obsess over it nor do I let it bug me like before. I take the time, usually first thing in the morning, for my planned meals and snacks for that day. I log it into fitday and then go on. I plan on trying to eat every 2-3 hours so I'm not as hungry when the "big" meals roll around. I do check my food log throughout the day but because I've already planned what I want to eat I don't feel like the food is controlling me. I can only hope this feeling does stay with me.

Oh, I can totally relate! It can be so all consuming can't it? Pre journey it was all about what can I get, how much, when, where, how long till I can get more (like a drug really). And during my weight loss it was the same thing, but with different foods and smaller quantities. Planning, preparation, waiting, temptation, it's all I could think about! But I'm happy to report that (for me anyway) it does seem to have gotten better with time. I can still be rather obsessive about it, but it no longer seems to consume my every waking thought anymore (for the most part at least!). So hang on, I think there might be some light at the end of the tunnel!

Beverly