Food Chat

countcurt

As somebody with weight management issues I've recently begun to really appreciate just how much time I spend talking about/thinking about food. Particularly so when I'm in a more successful phase regarding my weight.

Do you spend much time talking about or thinking about food? What think your friends/ relatives who don't seem to struggle with their weight as much as you do?

Here's more about it:

https://wordpress.com/post/countcurtblog.wordpress.com/449

Jerdtrmndone

Back on another WW. plan I did talk about food in my meetings, but also to others that were struggling to lose. Today it is more with DW and meeting her in the middle on foods that I like but rather stay a way from such as creamy soups.

minimyzeme

@countcurt , interesting read! (By the way, your link took me to Wordpress login page, not your blog--but I found it with a search.)

My experience has been almost completely opposite to yours, at least at the "fork in the road". I was pretty food-obsessed before I started WW in 2014. As in, I could (and did) often plan my day around it. While I never watched Food Network (except with my Mom, in her last few years), I thought about food a lot and made a point to eat it even more. Especially if I traveled for work or pleasure, I'd start planning my outings long before the trip (could have been a few hours or a week +). I'd plan where I'd be for each and every meal. There's some great internet resources for doing just that! At home, I was just as enthusiastic though the offerings weren't as exciting for me. That certainly didn't stop me though... In a nutshell, food was usually right up there in my thought process most of the day.

Something changed for me with WW. Maybe it was the oft-experienced 'sick and tired of being sick and tired' and realizing so much of that was related to my eating and drinking. I was definitely ready for a positive change. But I think it was the structure, accountability and 'requirement' to prioritize my foods via tracking that really helped me change my focus. I came to realize food wasn't really the be-all, end-all I had treated it as for so long. It was fuel and it could taste good or even great, but so could a bunch of other life experiences I had given up because being fat made them hard or impossible for me to experience or enjoy. I started to re-discover a sphere bigger than what my next meal was going to be, no matter how awesome I may have once thought that was.

While I didn't plan or anticipate that change in perception, I think it made my weight loss easier for me than it is for a lot people (judging from the stories I hear in the WW meetings I still attend). For that I'm grateful. Why it took that change for me to reduce the powerful seduction of food, I really don't know. All I know is I no longer obsess on it and I'm glad for that. (As I write that, I realize you're not necessarily describing an obsession, but for me that's what it was prior to WW.)

Thanks for sharing your thoughtful essay.

gadgetgirlIL

I could relate to what you wrote as I was that person until about the last 7 or so years. These days I'm much more likely to bore my friends with talk about biking or hiking and all the gear and gadgets associated with these activities.

Not sure what exactly changed for me. I had to give up gluten, dairy, and soy in 2006 to resolve long standing digestion issues. I was certainly food obsessed for the next couple of years trying to figure out what I could eat especially when eating away from home. But then at some point I had figured out what worked for me which included which restaurants could make me a meal that wouldn't make me ill.

The few times that I've been to WW meetings in the past couple of years, I see so many who are completely obsessed with products and points and whatnot. I'm just not engaged in those conversations.

Rachel0778

I've become less food obsessed as time has gone on. It used to take up an embarrassingly large part of my day. Thinking about food, dreaming about food, counting down until my next meal. Shocking I had to go through eating disorder therapy after all of that! Now I just plan it at the beginning of my day and go from there. The biggest shift has been allowing myself a daily treat and upping my intake (realizing that 130 pounds -20 pounds less than what I weigh in my profile photo, was not a maintainable goal).