Hey Subeta!

So, food. I don't have a great relationship with it. Particularly the sweet stuff. The truth is, I am pretty lucky in that I'm very happy with my body and seem to show almost no physical symptoms or hints of what I know are the bad habits that I have. For example, I got in from work an hour ago and thought "wow, I'm starving." So rather than make dinner, I grabbed a handful of sweets and a breadstick. Of course, I'm still hungry.

I have always been a grazer when it comes to food and I snack a lot. I often prefer to have repetitive, light bites rather than full meals. Despite that, it's been making me rather unhappy lately. I find myself eating sweet things even when I don't want them. I get hungry all the time at work and so end up repeatedly buying chocolate bars to keep me going, or relying on pathetic packets of food with no beneficial qualities whatsoever. Ignoring any health concerns I may have, this is bad for my bank balance.

So, here are my questions to you guys... How's your relationship with food? Have you had a similar experience to me? And any ideas of how to get out of it?!

I have a pretty bad relationship with food as well...

I'm an avid snacker, particularly late at night, and unfortunately for me, it shows 120%.

What I've done is to just not look at or go to places where I can buy it. I'll also think about how much of it I have at home already and should probably not spend any more until I'm done with those.

That seems to have mostly controlled the spending issue...the continued snacking, not so much. cries

I will definitely be taking your advice in regards to staying away from places which sell food that I'm going to crave. Curse working in town!

I used to be the same at night. These days I seem to be more of an early bird than a night owl, which seems to have curbed it a bit...but I appreciate that that has a lot to do with my job. I sympathise with you, Yethi. :( ❤️

Food has been my mortal enemy since my freshmen year of high school, especially candy. This time of year was always bad because of the large variety bags of snickers, Twix, Reese cups, etc. I would grab handfuls and mindlessly indulge in front of Subeta, then secretly hide the wrappers. I really couldn't help it, and I was piling on weight. I think I got to 202 lbs my sophomore year.

I knew that telling myself that it was bad for me wouldn't help. I knew that it would always be in the house because my family is far from health conscious. I also knew that telling myself that I couldn't have it would only make me want it 200% more. So, I went vegan lol.

When I made the connection from food to other living things, a 180 degree flip happened. I shed some tears over some dairy industry videos and started following a lot of Tumblr blogs that were dedicated to everything vegan. I started reading labels and automatically shunned anything that contained milk, meat, eggs, carmine, processed sugar, etc. In order for me to have sweets, I would have to make them myself. Since I hated to cook, that was very rare!

Now, after three years, my sweet tooth is cured with a piece of dark chocolate or fruit. My taste buds have changed dramatically and strawberries cure cravings like candy used to. Plus, I can eat fruit until I get sick and the calorie/fat content is no where near what a candy binge would be. 202-121 in a year. :)

I think it's a combination of work and home stress that also leads to my cravings...those I can only have so much control over :c

If no one has applauded you yet for being so amazing, let me be the first!

My family is the same, however, mom adds oil to fire in the sense that, if you don't finish your food, it means you don't like her cooking. And yes, you can get into a full blown argument with her over that.

I think I'm going to try going low/no carb for a while and hopefully that'll at least stops the gain. I was on a yogurt x cereal diet for a while, and that did make me feel better, but we had to make a really sudden move, so that got thrown out the window. I'm also not a fan of salads, so it's been tough to find something that works. If you have any sage advice, it would be awesome. * w*

In my opinion, carbs can be SO tricky. Your body uses carbs as a primary energy source, so no carbs might not be the best. However, no simple carbs is a better plan. You have simple carbs (White bread, white rice, pastries, potatoes, soda, etc.) and complex carbs (legumes, whole grains, fruit, etc. Basically, your high fiber foods). Both simple and complex carbs cause cravings because your brain is addicted to that energy source, however, complex carbs take a long time to break down, and your body will not crave snacks between meals.

So low carbs would be a better choice, especially with complex carbs. Like for me, since carbs make up a large part of my diet, I'll start the day off with a large fruit smoothie, and for dinner I'll have a meal that is veggie/bean (protein) based. I usually lift weights after dinner, so I need that protein to tone up. :)

Salads suck to be completely honest. The temptation to pour a bottle of ranch all over it defeats the purpose. Instead, to incorporate some veggies and to save calories, use lettuce leaves/cabbage as wraps or sandwich bread. Instead of eating in bowls, maybe bake dishes in carved out peppers/squash? Stuffed bell peppers and spaghetti squash is a diet saver for sure. :)

That is an amazing success story! It's so wonderful to hear a story of someone who has mastered their willpower...as I need to do. Your advice about lettuce leaf wraps and pepper bowls is really useful. I definitely need to try those!

I have a horrible relationship with food too. I need to see it as my body's fuel, not as something that I eat just because it tastes good. Sometimes when I think of something or someone mentions a certain food, I crave it so much I have to have it. I love pizza, chips, donuts, cookies, all the things that are bad for me. And then when you add in my allergies, plus the things I won't eat because I'm morally opposed to it, there's really not much that's left that's both good for me and good-tasting. It's so damn hard. I work out at least 3 or 4 times a week, more if I can manage to talk myself into it, but if I can't figure out the food thing, I'll never lose weight.

I too, have a bad relationship with food. I found out in April that I'm diabetic and I have to quit the sweets. I can't seem to stop. I love pop, candy, chocolate, pastries... anything I can get my hands on. If it's in the house, I'll eat it all in one sitting. I'm fairly overweight and I'm working on it. This is actually the heaviest I've ever been, weighing over 265lbs.

Nighttime is my biggest downfall. I'll snack all night if it's something I like.

I'm also not a big fruit/veggies eater and instead of cooking, I buy take out.

I feel the same way about forgetting sometimes that it's FUEL my body needs, not just something tasty. It must be so difficult with your allergies on top of everything. :c Thankfully my exercise routine is also pretty good. latches on to teeny positives

(Oh dear Lord, pastries. Don't even.) I have the same problem with vegetables. I actually really like most fruits (probably due to the sweetness) but vegetables don't appeal to me at all unless they're bathed in a sauce to disguise them. Sigh.

I do have a mental image of the happier, more healthy person that I'd like to be... I feel like a kid when I binge on snacks.

Yes! And I had a total bonus moment today. I went over to a friend's to spend the day before I had to go to work and I always give her a hug as a greeting, sometimes I try to pick her up because she's a lot smaller than me. Well today I lifted her EASILY way off the ground and she was shrieking and it was hilarious. But mostly I was happy because it showed I'm gaining muscle in my workouts if nothing else.

I have a really bad relationship with food. I'm overweight and even though I'm walking all the time, lifting heavy boxes, etc. at work I maintain my weight because I eat a lot of crap. :/ I'm always buying snacks and I eat a lot of unhealthy foods. I don't usually eat a huge portion but the foods I eat aren't nutritious and they're very calorie-dense.

I really do need to start cooking more often but I always feel so tired and unmotivated since I'm dealing with anxiety and depression. I come up with a lot of excuses not to cook like not enough time and money, don't feel motivated to cook just for myself because I'm not worth it, etc. I just need to do it but maybe I need to treat the underlying cause first. :/ I eat to feel better but it doesn't make me feel better long-term and even in the short-term it's so fleeting.

My relationship food is probably unhealthy as well. I totally obsess about what i'm eating and why i'm eating it. I wait until I'm really really hungry and then eat, which I don't think is great for you. When I do eat, i restrict myself so much like i'll eat a cup of trail mix and make it last over the course of three hours. I wish I could eat stuff and not worry about the calories and stuff or ask myself if i'm really that hungry, but it's hard. The exception is fruit and veggies. I'll binge on those. Haha. Especially frozen grapes! They are sweet and take forever to eat because they're so cold.

I totally relate to what you've said about the not being motivated to cook and eating to feel better. What i've found that helps is to find a recipe that's quick and only like 4-5 ingredients and that you can eat leftovers of. I am a fan of quinoa, myself. It doesn't take long and I put lime in it and some seasoning, then bake fish in the oven. Baking the fish doesn't take long at all and you can do other things while it cooks (and use aluminum foil to help with clean up!) and then you can save the leftover quinoa. Protein, tastes healthy and light, filling! Yay!

i absolutely love food, i always have, but now my relationship with it is getting complicated because it turns out that i might have celiac's (that bullshit where you can't have gluten and you're in pain/tired all the time ;; ) so now i'm just. Suffering. i still love food but i dread eating?

Thanks for the tip. ^^ I've had quinoa a few times and I liked it and I usually like fish so that sounds really tasty. I'll have to pick some ingredients up soon and force myself to make a real meal. xP