Healthy Relationship with Food?

HarveysBud wrote: »

How does one build a healthy relationship with food?

I am obsessed. If food is around it consumes my mind. I was at a work meeting the other day and it was catered, which for me, is the worst. Big table in the back of the room loaded with food calling my name. And when we do break for lunch, I am almost embarrassing. Portions are excessive. I don't stop when I am full, more so when I hate myself (not literally, but you know what I mean).

Any insight is more than appreciated. 

I have struggled with binge-eating for years which manifests more or less for me the way you are describing.

I still struggle but not nearly as bad.

For me things that have helped over recent years have been:

• Being kinder to myself.
• Not labelling foods as bad/good.
• Understanding what triggers me to eat in that way and tackling that.
• Adjusting portion sizes.
• Focusing on tastes/textures and slower eating.

More recently I've found through a self-help program that taking the focus off calorie counting for a while and focusing more on regular meals and problem solving is helping.

Have you tried calorie counting, a food diary, and using a food scale to crunch the numbers? The process provides useful information. I knew my eating was out of whack, but I didn’t understand how until I started a food diary.

Use the MFP calculators help you find your daily calories to maintain your current weight. Then make a plan for the week to stay within that number. It’s a place to start.

Another aspect of food diary calorie counting that doesn’t get much discussion is that you can be sure that you are eating enough. Do it long enough and it will train your eye as to what an adequate portion is.

Right now your brain my be screaming at you that you can’t or don’t want to get involved in the weighing and measuring and number crunching. But in the big picture its just a method to learn to work within some reasonable limits. Going in, I had no clue at all what a reasonable amount of food was.

A couple of thoughts- were you actually hungry at that work meeting? Overly hungry? Did you eat breakfast?
I got away from the office food by becoming a gremaphobe after watching the behavior of my coworkers around the food that was out one day.

Check out the podcast We Only LOOK Thin. The hosts are on a lifelong journey to manage their relationship to food. Lots of deep stories plus some humor and lots of practical tips.

I personally chose to make peace with the fact that I'm highly motivated by food and more attracted to it than the average person. It's just how I am, be it biologically or psychologically or both. Humans evolved to be motivated by food and developed various levels of food seeking. It's not pathological unless it is (like eating disorder), and it doesn't need to be fixed unless it's a problem.

Instead of fighting it, I decided to find ways to not have it affect my desired calorie balance and actually use my love for food to help me with this. For example, when I feel tempted by that dry cake on the counter I tell myself: "of course you can eat it now, but it will mean that you won't get to enjoy that delicious pasta you're planning for dinner this evening. Your choice." I then, predictably, start having thoughts about the cake and how unappealing it is compared to mouth watering pasta.

When I go to places where I expect to eat a lot, I plan for that. I eat less for a few days and bank the calories. I imagine a worst case scenario of calorie intake and I plan for it. This way I'm not stressing when the day comes. I just enjoy the food and the company. I deliberately pick a few foods I really really like and want and enjoy them and by the time I'm done eating (yes, big portions), I don't want the less enjoyable foods and don't feel like I've wasted my calories. More often than not, picking the things I enjoy the most gives me enough satisfaction that I end up eating less than the worst case scenario I planned.