Not eating for pleasure
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^^^^
this.
learning about calories and the value of a calorie and what macros were as a child/adult would have saved me an in sane amount of time.
seriously- I remember a time where I thought calorie counting meant I turned into one of the vapid cheerleaders who were obsessing about their weight at 110 pounds in high school.
So much negative bad information. Would have saved me a lot of time had I know better.
also Fuk kale.0 -
kommodevaran wrote: »What I initially wanted to discuss - although a lot of interesting stuff has come up - was whether eating healthy food you don't like, is a common reason people give up their diet/new lifestyle.
I suspect so. I think it's common for people to have an idea of "diet food" that is basically not that tasty or interesting--I also think this is related to a kind of puritan idea that if it's too delicious it must be bad for you (see also descriptions of food as "sinful" or of eating as "being bad"). I get the impression that it's not that uncommon to have diaries that are all boneless skinless chicken breast with diet foods all the time, and I know years ago that was kind of my impression of what dieting involved, if not some weird set meals such as Beverly Hills Diet or whatever one saw in women's mags in the '80s. I also think this is why many people diet for a time and then go back to their former ways, as the diet isn't a sustainable way of eating, since there's no concern for taste. (I think it's normal for humans to care about taste--it's not like the effort to cook foods in the most tasty way is a new-fangled thing.)
Of course, I think lots of stereotypically healthy foods (veggies) are important to eat whether one is dieting or not, but the trick is to find out how to make them delicious. I actually care more about eating delicious foods when I'm watching what I eat, as you can't just go eat something better if you waste calories on something disappointing.0 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Why? And how does it work out?
I see quite often people in here stating that they now eat only to fuel their bodies, not for pleasure. Are those the same people who used to be overweight? And eat for pleasure then? How can you just switch? Isn't that a recipe for disaster...? Making it sooo easy to slip back to old habits? I am eating both for health and for pleasure now, trying to be sensible and kind to myself at the same time. I cook most of my meals from scratch, and they all taste delicious. I never eat anything I don't like, but I don't eat everything I like at once either.
I fully admit to not reading these responses, but clearly these people haven't figured out how to cook the food they "should" be eating properly. I have to eat more protein than I would prefer but a properly prepared, juicy chicken breast beats the pants off of something sad and overcooked every time.0 -
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For me, food is fuel, but I eat foods that I like. I am enjoying the taste of new things, like whole grain wild rices and Tabboulah, but I eat realistic portions and I am loosing weight and feeling better overall.0
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GuitarJerry wrote: »Eating for pleasure is indulging in rich creamy ice cream, or donuts. Eating for my body is eating baked chicken breast. They are different things to me. I do not eat for pleasure. It is a chore and a task. I don't enjoy anything about it, except, I love being healthy and strong. But, the eating part is not enjoyable.
because you can't have delicious chicken breasts?
why not?
breasts are always good.0 -
I dunno - I've had some of my best lifting sessions after a monstrous bacon guacamole burger. I also happen to really enjoy a good salad. And I can make a tiny piece of super high quality cheesecake last half an hour and savor every bite. When I first started my weight loss journey I saw it as a choice between eating and not eating. I chose not eating and wound up anorexic. Then I started eating everything I wanted and gained a ton of weight. But I, too, thought healthy eating was just kale and juice fasts and that was boring. I've finally come to realise that I can make my macros fit all kinds of delicious dishes and I've learned how to savor my splurges. So I think it's totally possible to eat to fuel my body AND savor my food. Meatloaf and veggies might take a lot more effort to prepare than ordering pizza, but I will really enjoy it once it's fixed, and I know I'll feel better the next day, too.0
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These things are not mutually exclusive. Properly prepared chicken breast with the right mix of herbs/spices/salt/fats can taste extremely indulgent. If you become a connoisseur of seasonings, you can make almost anything taste fantastic.0
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I eat chocolate for pleasure .. otherwise no. It is just what needs to happen to prevent death.0
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chrisskellinton wrote: »people lie...........people eat good to look better........u can't really get both and be happy ALL of the time........so you eat bad here and there to pacify yourself.
Nope, sorry...that's a sad and incorrect view. Many of the dishes I make are as good, if not better, than the equivalents I've had in restaurants. I eat more so-called bad foods when I don't have time to cook. Given time, I prefer my own cooking because it tastes better and is way more satisfying.
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chrisskellinton wrote: »people lie...........people eat good to look better........u can't really get both and be happy ALL of the time........so you eat bad here and there to pacify yourself.chrisskellinton wrote: »
I shouldnt have to MAKE......it should taste good and I want it regardless.......SnuggleSmacks wrote: »These things are not mutually exclusive. Properly prepared chicken breast with the right mix of herbs/spices/salt/fats can taste extremely indulgent. If you become a connoisseur of seasonings, you can make almost anything taste fantastic.
Huh?
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chrisskellinton wrote: »
I shouldnt have to MAKE......it should taste good and I want it regardless.......SnuggleSmacks wrote: »These things are not mutually exclusive. Properly prepared chicken breast with the right mix of herbs/spices/salt/fats can taste extremely indulgent. If you become a connoisseur of seasonings, you can make almost anything taste fantastic.
LOL!! You shouldn't have to "make" it taste good? What do you think the cooks in the restaurants do? What foods do you eat that aren't "made" to taste good, and just do that naturally with no seasoning or cooking skills? Is all you eat fruit and raw veggies?0 -
I really don't understand the comments that food is fuel only (both fuel and pleasure makes sense). I just ate my first clementine orange of the Christmas season and it was sensory perfection. It filled my house with a lovely smell, the juice ran down my chin and the taste was sweet. Thank god these bad boys are low in calories and come in vast quantities at at low cost this time of year.0
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GuitarJerry wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »Eating for pleasure is indulging in rich creamy ice cream, or donuts. Eating for my body is eating baked chicken breast. They are different things to me. I do not eat for pleasure. It is a chore and a task. I don't enjoy anything about it, except, I love being healthy and strong. But, the eating part is not enjoyable.
because you can't have delicious chicken breasts?
why not?
breasts are always good.
Its boring.
you're making the wrong kind of chickens then my friend!!!0 -
I guess it depends on where they are coming from. My definition of eating for pleasure when I first got here was to fix a bad day. I used food to make me feel better. Now my definition is to enjoy food that tastes good. That doesn't always mean it has to be a cheat meal or over done. But I do enjoy foods that taste good. Now I enjoy food but make sure they fit in my macros. And I don't go find a food that will fix anything. Now if I enjoy a cheat meal its because I have earned it.0
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I love food, and I love all kinds of food. Not sure if that makes me a "foodie" or not, but I for sure loving going out to a nice restaurant and enjoying a great meal, or a home cooked one that I have made.
From browsing through here it seems we are on the whole clean vs dirty thing. I.E. I have to eat healthy food that tastes bland to fuel my body, but if I eat a donut for pleasure that is bad, aka dirty …
I think we just need to realize there is no good vs bad food or clean vs dirty food; there is just food that your body uses for energy. Make sure that you eat the foods that allow you to hit your calorie and macro targets and you will be fine. Why does it have to be healthy vs not healthy….or tastes good vs does not taste good…???0 -
SnuggleSmacks wrote: »These things are not mutually exclusive. Properly prepared chicken breast with the right mix of herbs/spices/salt/fats can taste extremely indulgent. If you become a connoisseur of seasonings, you can make almost anything taste fantastic.
It can, but I think it's sad when people think that because they are dieting it's the only meat they can eat.
Probably because it would drive me crazy, and it's true that others might not mind it so much, but I've seen lots of posts along the lines of "out of chicken breast ideas" and while I have some chicken breast ideas my main idea is "eat some other sort of meat once in a while."0 -
Finding pleasure in food and enjoyment in eating is not the same thing as using food and eating to pleasure yourself.
There's nothing wrong with sitting down and enjoying a good meal and appreciating the effort that someone put into preparing that meal...the balance of flavors and textures, etc. Sitting down and enjoying a meal and finding pleasure in it is a far cry different than being sad or depressed or whatever...and eating to find some kind of pleasure.0 -
I ate so much chicken as a kid that I can't stand it any more, especially chicken thighs. I'll eat it out of politeness, but chicken meat is banned from my home.lemurcat12 wrote: »
It can, but I think it's sad when people think that because they are dieting it's the only meat they can eat.SnuggleSmacks wrote: »These things are not mutually exclusive. Properly prepared chicken breast with the right mix of herbs/spices/salt/fats can taste extremely indulgent. If you become a connoisseur of seasonings, you can make almost anything taste fantastic.
Probably because it would drive me crazy, and it's true that others might not mind it so much, but I've seen lots of posts along the lines of "out of chicken breast ideas" and while I have some chicken breast ideas my main idea is "eat some other sort of meat once in a while."
I eat chicken breasts in the form of pork chops and occasional steak.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »SnuggleSmacks wrote: »These things are not mutually exclusive. Properly prepared chicken breast with the right mix of herbs/spices/salt/fats can taste extremely indulgent. If you become a connoisseur of seasonings, you can make almost anything taste fantastic.
It can, but I think it's sad when people think that because they are dieting it's the only meat they can eat.
Probably because it would drive me crazy, and it's true that others might not mind it so much, but I've seen lots of posts along the lines of "out of chicken breast ideas" and while I have some chicken breast ideas my main idea is "eat some other sort of meat once in a while."
That's a good point. Personally, I would eat shrimp every meal if I could afford it. Why can't shrimp be as cheap as chicken?
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I generally have been eating to fuel my body and to get the most "economy" from my calorie allotment for the day. That said, I enjoy most of the stuff I eat and would eat them even if I weren't trying to lose weight. But the stuff that got me fat, the candy and "junk" (that's what I think of it now) I avoid like the plague. I dunno that I will ever eat that stuff again because if I'm perfectly honest, even though it tasted good, it made me feel like crap. And not because of guilt. But because it make me feel lazy and stuffed and foggy. I can get as much pleasure from a pan-seared fish filet drizzled with herbs, olive oil and lemon as i can from a greasy slice of pizza. Besides, I live in NJ now and it's crap compared to NY pizza! Seriously, I would want to lay down and be lazy if I ate the greasy, fattening thing. That's how I got fat. If I ate the fish I would have energy because it's a light, bright meal.
My love/hate relationsip with food has come to this: I cannot obsess about food any more. Food doesn't make me happy. There is more to life than food. I enjoy a lot of things more than food. So every once in a while I can have a "tasty treat" but for the most part, I'd rather be off doing the things being fat prevented me from doing for the past 2 years.0 -
you're**sarahb2023 wrote: »feisty_bucket wrote: »First of all, it is not just a weight loss forum.Plenty of people here gain weight, lose weight and maintain
Sure.
"Goal: Maintaing Weight" has 143 pages of posts.
"Goal: Gaining Weight" has 108.
"General Diet and Weight Loss Help" has... 6619 pages.
If you look at the "I'm new here" messages, the common narrative is one of yo-yo dieting, sometimes over decades.
If people stick to steady deficits, they can fix almost any weight problem within a year. But that's not happening for a lot of people.
Why? I'm new here, but the Thanksgiving threads in combination with the backstories have been pretty illuminating.
I bet it's largely that a lot of people are really, really excited to eat. Unhealthily stoked, you could say. Rabidly enthused. Foodies are food hobbyists, and I think their attitude is often dysfunctional and enabling.
(But not you! You just have refined taste and appreciate the finer things in life. Go you! Mmm-wah!)
your kind of a dickIt can, but I think it's sad when people think that because they are dieting it's the only meat they can eat.
Probably because it would drive me crazy, and it's true that others might not mind it so much, but I've seen lots of posts along the lines of "out of chicken breast ideas" and while I have some chicken breast ideas my main idea is "eat some other sort of meat once in a while."
LOL- indeed.
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I see both sides to it. This has been an eighteen month long project so far, and it will be a lifetime change. If I hated what I was doing, I'd never last.
Being a long-time diabetic (now in remission) I do treat food as fuel. Very much so. Every meal, every portioning is a calculation. My dad told me very much the same thing; you have to treat it as a sort of medicine. The one time I really suffered was when I was on a dietitian ordered liquid diet (two weeks) that required absolutely no planning. I immediately got a severe migraine not thinking about it.
I like food very much. I approach delicacies with tenderness, and a tablespoon of some rich thing is just enough. So I better make it good and I better make it last.
Mindless eating is pretty much over. I had the munchies last night so I took a cup container and filled it with movie popcorn. Three times. I measured it so I would not mindlessly eat from the bag.0 -
Okay so the "I only eat for fuel" people, I gotta wonder, do you only have sex when you want to procreate, too?
I mean, don't get me wrong, I do choose foods that are good for me, but it's not like I sit on an iron spike and eat raw turnips*, either.
*Extra geek points if you saw what I did there....0 -
NoelFigart1 wrote: »Okay so the "I only eat for fuel" people, I gotta wonder, do you only have sex when you want to procreate, too?
I mean, don't get me wrong, I do choose foods that are good for me, but it's not like I sit on an iron spike and eat raw turnips*, either.
*Extra geek points if you saw what I did there....
Mario 2? I don't actually buy that there is anyone who isn't choosing fuel with taste somewhat in mind. Maybe something you hate here and there, but always choosing food that doesn't have some pleasantness for you? Yeah, no.0 -
If I ate for pleasure...my diet would consist of everything chocolate. And ice cream. Caramel too.0
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This would never work for me. I have seen people say it, and my dad even says it, but that sort of approach is rare. I just look for ways to get pleasure out of healthier foods. It's usually possible. Little bit of learned preparation technique here and there will get you far.0
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SnuggleSmacks wrote: »These things are not mutually exclusive. Properly prepared chicken breast with the right mix of herbs/spices/salt/fats can taste extremely indulgent. If you become a connoisseur of seasonings, you can make almost anything taste fantastic.
Yep, agreed. Chocolate isn't the only thing that tastes good.
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