Anyone Look Back At What They Eat In Shock

lol !!! That sounds like me....

Back in the day when I worked in a busy ER, my diet consisted of three things: Sara Lee Coffee Cake, Pepsi, and black coffee...that's when I found the time to grab a bite in the break room during a long 18 hour shift. We ALL ate that way, doctors, nurses, PA's, and oddly enough, we were all very thin. Too thin, in many cases. I guess we worked it off running from one patient to the next.

I shudder to think of what we would look like today if we ate that way...now that we are of a "certain age" and our metabolism is as slow as a clogged drain.

Truth is, the thought of eating Sara Lee Coffee Cake makes me feel nauseated.

A little different, but, Krispy Kreme is directly across from my gym. BAD!

There was a Coldstone Creamery directly opposite my old gym. I'd drive out and it would literally be the first thing I saw as I was leaving the parking lot. It always seemed really unfair somehow.

The first thing that comes to mind is chitterlings. My mom would make them for the holidays...everyone would give the :noway: face every time I said I ate them.

Mom is gone now so there's no one to make them for me ..glad I never learned how to make them myself...can't imagine eating them since I've gotten older and done my research :embarassed:

I used to love making my own shortbread dough mixes using a whole 250 g block of unsalted butter with equivalent volume of sugar and flour. I would eat the whole mixture in one day and do this 1-3 times a week. I also did it with hazelnut flour, butter and brown sugar when I was living with my dad, or consume half a jar of tahini mixed with lots of natural honey throughout the day. I also exercised a lot and wondered why I could never get below 65 kg... lol.

THEN I went to live with a relative who's a really good cook for a month and my weight shot up to 72 kg due to what I was eating there.

Breakfast: Huge bowl of muesli, yogurt and honey with 4 pieces of generously buttered toast.
Lunch (at school): 2 sandwiches with generous amounts of ham, onion chutney, cheese and whole egg mayonnaise, an apple and piece of cake, like coffee cake. Never had mayo up to that point but then loved it so much I ate it from the jar...
Lunch (at home): Two cheese and spinach filled pita pockets, followed by a slice or two of cake and some chocolate.
Dinner: Meat of some kind with steamed vegetables, potato and a cream based sauce, followed by cake and whipped cream or Greek yogurt depending on the cake.

My relative, a very nice lady, didn't eat nearly as much as I did and that's why she remained reasonably "slim" for her age.

Oh man, it wasn't just the cupcakes, I used to have a thing about white bread too, loved the stuff, fresh from bakery of course w lashings of butter with a sweet creamy cocoa, now it doesn't even faze me, I dont need those things everyday anymore.

I drank a ridiculous amount of soda

Considering how bad I eat and how big I got I don't really look back in shock. It was all I knew back then, I guess what shocks me is that I was able to turn it around and go the complete opposite direction.

The first thing that comes to mind is chitterlings.

Forgive my ignorance, but I didn't know what chitterlings were. Good old Google helped me out. What do they taste like? I am imagining they are a similar taste and texture to sausages.

I'm from New Zealand, so we don't have many of the takeaway chains people are talking about, but I get the idea!

My downfall has always been huge portion sizes - too much of everything, so weighing and measuring food is the way for me to go.

i pretty much maintained an obese weight throughout my late teens to late twenties, my average day consisted of chocolate or full english for breakfast, no lunch, more chocolate as a snack, huge home cooked meal or huge takeaway for dinner, finishing the day with a large bar of chocolate, probably 2-3 times a week also consuming ridiculous amounts of sugary alcoholic drinks

i got married just before i hit 30, and thats when the weight really started changing, i was still consuming pretty much the same things (except alcohol) but started making the same lovely home cooked meals with extras, large buttery loaves of bread straight out the oven, with extra layer of butter dripping from it, puddings (cakes, cupcakes, tarts you name it) it was a pretty slow process but the weight was getting out of control, i started to feel tired all the time and was struggling to do everyday jobs without falling asleep really early, my solution, energy drinks! i started drinking one or two a day, and before i realised i was drinking 8 a day, nearly an extra 900 calories on top of the 3000ish calories i was consuming in food

it hit home at the age of 33, i was seriously out of breath after walking up 13 steps and having to lay down for nearly 10 mins to feel better, it was pretty close to christmas so resolved to start dieting on january 1st, when i eventually talked myself into getting on those scales i was so disgusted with myself, i had managed to reach the morbidly obese category, so started dieting and not looked back

we still have the same home cooked meals now, just "skinnier" versions of the same recipes, i still have chocolate, just not as much, and (unfortunately) i'm still consuming energy drinks, it seems a habit i can't break, but i now drink far less and the sugar free version, i'm not where i want to be yet, but i'm getting there, and no way am i ever going back to my former eating habits!

I forgot all about Slurpies. What's the giant one called? The one it takes two hands to hold. It shouldn't be legal to sell that much sugar to someone in one go.

The first thing that comes to mind is chitterlings.

Forgive my ignorance, but I didn't know what chitterlings were. Good old Google helped me out. What do they taste like? I am imagining they are a similar taste and texture to sausages.

I'm from New Zealand, so we don't have many of the takeaway chains people are talking about, but I get the idea!

My downfall has always been huge portion sizes - too much of everything, so weighing and measuring food is the way for me to go.

Hmmm. They really taste like another meat to me...closest I can say is chicken? Maybe similar to calamari? You guys have that? They are very soft and thin, some refer to them as slimy but that all depends on how they're cooked and how they are seasoned. Some people use vinegar, some use pork, it depends.

But done right, cleaned correctly, and chopped up they taste good.
They taste great with hot sauce !
Most people either eat them or don't.....OR can't get over the smell cause they don't smell the best while cooking...

I love reading all of these stories......my question is...and I'm sure this would require a separate thread, what made you change your habits? Why can you and I make changes, yet others say, "No Way can I eat healthy" ? just curious.....

When I was teenager I would wake up, eat two eggs with two pieces of toast, and then not eat again until around 3:30, where I would get a Mr. Big Burger with a drink and an Onion ring (yes, just one onion ring, Mr. Big's served gigantic onion rings with their great big burgers). After that I usually didn't have anything else to eat, but I drank the rest of my calories in beer, whiskey, vodka, whatever I could get my hands on.

I am shocked that I survived drinking as much as did back then. By the time I was 21, I was done with getting drunk though, no interest in it. Didn't touch a drop for over 20 years, but now on occasion I have a couple of glasses of wine, never over do it though.

Edit: While the above was usual routine, I was also capable of consuming huge amounts of food in a single sitting. I just didn't do it often. I could sit down and share a large Pizza with someone, and eat an entire half a pizza... and when it came to ice cream all bets were off, I could finish the carton if no one else insisted on having some.

I was amazed how I could eat over 3000 calories of "healthy" stuff in one day! The popular mantra now is not to count calories and that calories don't matter, but clearly they are a factor as I had gained weight from nuts, raisins, honey, yogurt, whole wheat bread… now none of those things are terrible (except maybe the bread, haha), but this site has taught me to watch the portions more carefully.