no.

it wasn't sit down and eat what i want. when i want. there was no real genuine pleasure. i could never fill the void. i was always 'hungry' thinking about food yet not waiting long enough to actually be hungry.

no. no. no. i don't miss that.

i didn't get fat on fast food. i ate whole pots of spagetti. even if i make it with chicken, that's no way to live. i can still eat pizza, noodles, cereal. however, my tastes are different. it tastes too salty, sweet. i used to love alfredo sauce. now? its so bland. its like eating paper and even looks plain. putting even more super glue on my hips and thighs.

so now my taste buds have decided to be high class. i prefer extra basil, a dash of curry seasoning, red pepper...whatever i'm in the mood for. if it has too much fat it's often completely undesirable. makes my stomach hurt. (evoo seems to be the exception) when i contemplate eating the junk which is high in fat/calories it's just not worth it to me. if i have pizza. it's a sliver or my own version. even if i wanted to i can't eat the volume i used to eat.

i miss 1 thing. i want to drink large cups of water. 32 oz. but that's no big deal.

I could never live with the idea of "NEVER"...that thought alone makes me want to GORGE!:o

I've been on a meal plan that has taught me alot about my eating habits. The plan allows for one "cheat meal" per week. YES, anything you want to eat...but there's a catch! You MUST watch your PORTION SIZES! This allows me to eat my favorite foods and as such I feel 'rewarded' for all my hard work all week.

The crazy thing is that knowing I have this 'guilt free' CHEAT MEAL once per week, makes it easy for me to not always take it. I only utilize it maybe once per month! But knowing I CAN use it whenever I want it...makes me NOT want it as much (if that makes any sense..haha!)

OP, I say...reward yourself with some icecream...just not the entire gallon;) You run...you take care of yourself...and heck...the extra calories every now and again actually shock our bodies into dropping more lbs...GO FOR IT!!!:congrat:

i sometimes feel envy, bc my bf is one of these people. seems effortless. but he does pay attention. he doesn't eat often, so his stomach is smaller than mine was. he stops when he's full. has tons of muscle. if he noticed he was gaining too much, he would cut back. it's actually hard for him to gain sometimes. and he's embracing eating healthier. he'll most healthy stuff i cook. most veggies. he does w/o. i'm sleeping or after work he uses the gym at work. he also eats light or nothing on day there's a big meal like buffet or holidays. he doesn't emotionally eat.

all this is just not really visible. he doesn't obsess or talk about it.

I feel quite moved reading all these posts...posts of commiseration, sympathy, empathy, encouragement, devilish encouragement... ;)

I have to say that since I've lost weight and am steadily in the mid-upper 120s, I let out my frustration on the weekends. Weekends lately have become synonymous with disgusting pigouts with friends that result in feeling unpleasantly stuffed and guilty, therefore kicking me back into living the healthy way during the week. I need to fully convince myself that it's OK to go ONE weekend without overdoing it.

alexandraT Your "before" situation is the same as mine, to a T. I gained weight because I was so happy and confident I didn't feel like I needed to worry about it. I'm still not ready to accept that in order to be as healthy as I can, I can't keep up my weekends habit. But like a bratty spoiled kid, I want to have my cake and eat it too and wash it down with guilt-free 4 am pizza.

I don't miss my old self. :no: I think maybe because I didn't really leave it. I eat the same way I did before but with better portions. Sometimes I get a feeling that I wish I could just dig into a pot (yes POT) of macaroni and cheese like I used to but as soon as the thought enters my head my stomach bubbles with acid and I'm reminded of the old reflux attacks I had. That's all I need to knock me back to my senses, thank goodness. I can still have mac and cheese, it's just a side now.

I do miss the Chinese Buffet though. I miss being able to go to a restaurant without fear of salt. I hope I can release that fear once I hit maintenance. I hate what it does to the scale.

I can definitely relate. There are times that I want to stomp around and throw a tantrum that I can't be like those "other people" who can eat whatever they want, or even people who can eat more than I can, and stay skinny. It frustrates me that I have to be careful and choosy about what I eat. I miss the days when I could curl up on the couch and just have a whole bag of popcorn, or when I could go to a restaurant and choose the entree that looked tastiest- not what looked healthiest. Those are the things I'm homesick for.

In the same breath, I think about missing fast food and junk food, but I also know that it makes me feel like crap, so they're all very short lived fantasies that are, luckily, becoming fewer and far between. But I still miss those days where I just ate what I wanted, whenever I wanted to, and didn't care.

I love what you have written here. It really is true, isn't it, and it's also the reason you always start "tomorrow" or "on monday", because you aren't quite yet ready to face that never.
I love your thought about "not yet". Even if the time to eat those things never comes - and even if you pass caring about them - it makes it easier JUST NOW

Sounds like a great read and what a wonderful analogy. I do sometimes "miss" just eating whatever I want- but I try to remind myself the good I'm doing for my body and how much longer I'm going to live because of it. :)

See what you think of this thought.

Suppose you went to the doctor, and he or she says, "I'm sorry to tell you, you can never eat iceberg lettuce again."

Well, probably you will feel a teeny bit sorry about that "loss," or maybe you'll just shrug and say, "Oh well!"

And yet the lack of a fast food burger or pizza makes you sad? Why is that?

Well, it's not about the nutrition, and it's not about the flavor (because let's face it, they are usually not that good). So perhaps it's about a feeling they give you. Perhaps it's an addictive behavior that represents something else, like freedom, joy, fantasy... A "hit" of your favorite drug.

I love clams. Love them. I can never eat them again. I have developed a sensitivity to them such that they could kill me. Just one! Just the juice from a can! :eek:

I feel sad about that. But you know what, life goes on.

I've given up other things, too. Tobacco, for example. I don't feel homesick for a cigarette anymore because it was a long time ago. I can't be around smoking at all now, it seems so disgusting.

My point, and like Ellen DeG. I do have one, is that to a great extent habit, addiction, or fantasy is involved in these tender feelings toward a particular food. These foods are a symbol. It's not really about the food.

You can get over that. :yes:

Jay

To be totally blunt, I wouldn't miss iceberg lettuce the way I miss a fatburger because the fatburger just plain tasted good to me. Some of the former "fat" foods I enjoyed still sound enjoyable to me; others sound kinda gross and greasy. The stuff that still appeals will probably continue to appeal, but not because of any feeling more tender than "cheez-its, you are yummy!" ;)

For me, it really is that simple--some stuff tastes great, and sometimes (though not always) that stuff isn't all that great for me especially as I'm losing weight. Fortunately, I also think that asparagus and lean turkey and crisp apples taste great too, so I focus on adding more of the better-for-me stuff I like rather than on how much I miss the less-good-for-me stuff I like.

In one sense, I'm already "over" cheeseburgers; I don't feel deprived, I don't pine for them, I'm not moved to eat one and count it as most of my day's calories. But in another sense, I don't know that it's realistic for me to believe that after 41 years, I will transform into the kind of person who really would prefer a salad to a slice of fast-food pizza 100% of the time.

Yes, but that's what's called a false dichotomy. It is almost never a choice between "a salad" versus "a slice of fast-food pizza." There is a world of choice between those two.

I stopped eating fast-food pizza years ago when I was stuck at an airport and the only choices were fast food. I went for Pizza Hut. I regretted it for hours afterward, not because it was a "bad" food choice but because I had terrific indigestion and still felt underfed. :p

To each his or her own!

Jay

You're right--it absolutely IS a false dichotomy and I should've recognized it. I regularly eat pizza, but now it's pizza with a homemade crust, vegetable toppings, and a light sprinkle of cheese instead of a heavy layer. It adds up to about 500 calories for the whole thing, but I split it up into two meals and enjoy it with a salad or soup.

So why would I talk about "missing pizza" when I already get to eat pizza? And like you, I used to feel kind of crappy after eating FF pizza. I really don't miss it, yet I used that as my example.

What's interesting is the difference between this post in which I see the false dichotomy you pointed out and acknowledge that no, I really don't miss fat-pizza as I have my own version to enjoy. What's changed? I ate! I was hungry when I posted earlier and now I'm not.

The pizza in my mind sounded a lot better when I was hungry; now it or salad or a cheeseburger or whatever all sound equally "meh" because I'm no longer feeling hollow-bellied. Maybe "fat" foods only sound better to me when I let myself go too long between meals. Considering I used to eat two huge meals instead of six small ones, maybe that contributed to my always opting for the most fattening option after not eating for twenty hours at a stretch.

Lesson learned. I genuinely appreciate your post and what I learned from going back and reading this thread. Thank you! :)

And thank YOU, Nola Celeste! I think this is really important:

Absolutely a factor!

That's why it's good to have a plan in mind...

Jay

My sadness isn't about missing food I used to eat, because like others have said, some of that food doesn't taste as good anymore or I've found better and healthier substitutions.

My frustrations is that I am eating less, more healthy, limiting my calories and my weight loss is sooooooo sssssslllllloooooowwwwwwww.

On very bad days, when I'm tired of this whole thing, I think about how I used to NEVER have to count calories, never had to worry if this food was going to put me over the limit, whether it was okay to eat 1600 today if they were all whole foods/grains and no junk, or whatever, and I even though I weighed 20 more pounds than I do now, I wasn't so obsessed with food.

Now, I am, and I lose weight at such a glacial pace, it's sometimes hard to remember that the focus is on my health, rather than just pure weight loss.

My sadness is not for the food, it's for not belonging anymore.

I can't go back to being completely oblivious & unthinkingly doing what I thought a lot of people all around me were always doing -- I mean in eating certain stuff & staying far away from the gym.

I feel exiled, like I had to go away from all the others & eschew their routines because there's something wrong with me, so very wrong that I can't ever be like other people who get to eat all the stuff advertised everywhere I look.

That's what bothers me the most, having to be one of the weird ones.

Which is why reading about others' discontent here on 3FC is so very comforting.

I was weird when I was fat, and now I'm not fat, but I'm weird in my daily habits because I have to be, to avoid the weirdness of going back to being fat.

Choose your weirdness.