Your relationship with food

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Replies

  • Pipsqueak1965
    Pipsqueak1965 Posts: 397 Member
    @Machka9 - you wrote this just earlier!

    I'm very much this way and pretty much always have been. :) I enjoy some food, of course, but I've thought of food as calories/fuel since I was 16 or 17 years old.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,707 Member
    @Machka9 - you wrote this just earlier!

    I'm very much this way and pretty much always have been. :) I enjoy some food, of course, but I've thought of food as calories/fuel since I was 16 or 17 years old.

    Yes I did ... "I enjoy some food, of course". :)
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    I don't think that I should have to treat food only as fuel. I think food is a special thing, but we don't treat it as a special thing when when overeat everyday and the "treats" become everyday foods. Doing it this way helps make the holidays seem even more special.


    I often tried to make ordinary weekends special with food. It was a mistake, at least for me. I also wouldn't be content to have treat food for Christmas or a couple of days around it. I would want to have treat food for 2 weeks surrounding it. Now holidays are more special because they are not diluted.

    On the other end I would sometimes settle for a large caloric fast food meal (multiple burgers, large fry, large coke) when I didn't really care what I ate and wanted something fast. I realize now how foolish it was because I didn't usually even enjoy the food that much and it was high calorie.

    Weight loss for me has meant learning to navigate both situations. Contain one to a reasonable amount of food while using the other as an advantage instead of just shoveling food into my mouth.





  • justMbailey
    justMbailey Posts: 8 Member
    I love food :). I wake up thinking about food. I’m always having to decide not to eat or I’m pretty sure if snack none stop.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,847 Member
    Danp wrote: »
    Quite simply, food isn't just fuel and it's folly to think you can view it as such.

    Anyone who tells you that they just treat food as fuel for their body and they're not subsisting on a puree nutrient paste is kidding themselves.

    Soylent :lol:
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,847 Member
    edited November 2019
    I think my relationship with food comes in two distinct parts.

    Firstly, I’ve loved to cook and bake since I was very young, 7 years old I was regularly baking supervised, but unaided. By the time I was 11 I was researching and cooking full meals. It’s always been my stress relief mechanism. So it’s hard to keep that passion under control sometimes! Cooking for others and for myself is my favourite way to express myself.

    Secondly, whilst I’ve been overweight for periods of my life, I’ve also been underweight and a healthy weight for similar periods.

    What changes it for me is who I’m cooking for, basically. Periods of my life when I’ve lived alone I’ve been at my lightest weight, but at my heaviest it’s because I’m cooking for others with healthy appetites. I’m very short and petite, build wise, so naturally need much smaller portions than other people but that’s not always what happens to my plate when I’m eating with others!

    The lesson I need to learn, long term, is portion control. Not a ‘back of a packet’ size portion but one suited to my size and stature! I’m learning that I’m totally satiated with a really small portion, when compared to ‘normal’ portions. But that’s a lesson that’s been a long time coming!

    I can so relate to this!

    "Periods of my life when I’ve lived alone I’ve been at my lightest weight, but at my heaviest it’s because I’m cooking for others with healthy appetites."

    I'm not nearly as creative (or caloric) when just cooking for myself, but I love to cook for others.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,707 Member
    I've come to learn that hormones and body chemistry can *deeply influence* how we experience food in general. I've been BOTH ends of the spectrum. When I was pregnant, the hormones going on made just the *smell* of cooking meat intolerable and gag inducing, and normally I'm a dedicated omnivore. When my pernicious anemia (B12 insufficiency) was undiagnosed, I was nauseated ALL THE TIME, and I was on MFP to make sure I was eating ENOUGH, after I lost 23 lbs because I wasn't paying attention to what I ate. Right now, I'm BACK on MFP because I'm recovering from iron anemia and early on I put ON 20 lbs because I stopped moving as much with a headache for a month straight, and now I'm losing weight way too fast because the iron correction has regifted me the ability to move around pain free, but my appetite is lagging behind and the "normal for me" amount of fat in my diet is suddenly causing some stomach upset.

    We definitely don't all experience food in the same way, and even the *same people* may not experience food the *same way* over the course of their entire lives. MFP is a tool we can all use to help us quantify something (calories) in a way that we can understand cerebrally if our intuitive grasp has suddenly changed, or is skewed by past experiences - either good OR bad, or just... unexpected and weird.

    Thanks for this post. I'll also add that the senses of smell and taste can affect how a person regards food too.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,581 Member
    I don't think that I should have to treat food only as fuel. I think food is a special thing, but we don't treat it as a special thing when when overeat everyday and the "treats" become everyday foods. Doing it this way helps make the holidays seem even more special.

    I agree! For example, I love shortbread cookies, but only make them for Christmas. Such a treat that way. :)
  • axsxmxa
    axsxmxa Posts: 15 Member
    I don't think that I should have to treat food only as fuel. I think food is a special thing, but we don't treat it as a special thing when when overeat everyday and the "treats" become everyday foods. Doing it this way helps make the holidays seem even more special.

    I think this is a wonderful way to think of it. Completely agree.