January 29, 2007
My Love/Hate Relationship With Food
Which is something I’m sure many women can relate to, whether you’re big or small or tall or short or fat or thin or eat healthy or eat junk all the time or exercise every day or don’t exercise at all.
I was talking with some friends yesterday about being overweight and body image and it got me to thinking….was I really a fat child or was it just that my family didn’t know what to do with me since a) we didn’t share the same genes and b) I wasn’t built like them? Though I have to confess even at 10 and 11 I had celulite, which my grandfather took great delight in reminding me no 10 year old should have every time his sorry, drunken ass he got the chance. (from a writer’s standpoint I find the whole cause and effect rather fascinating especially after seeing the whole grandfather/grandchild scenario repeated with my youngest son and MY father).
And in today’s society even my 11 year old SON worries about his weight. He’s not thin, he may never be thin but he’s active and we’re working on his eating habits. I figure if I have to change the way I eat for like EVER, I shouldn’t have to suffer alone the least I can do is change the kids’s so they don’t find themselves in a health crisis long before they should ever have to face one.
Right now, however, I hate food. Okay, I don’t really hate food, it’s just a huge inconveniece/chore in my life. This happened last month too and I blamed it on TTOTM (that time of the month). For the most part, I don’t want to cook, I don’t want to eat, I don’t want to shop, but if I don’t eat I get very very sick.
So how do you feel about food?
*swallow* *chew a little more* *swallow* Um, food and I are great friends, buddies in fact. I’m not worried about it, well, I’m a bit worried, but I’ll be working on the smoking pretty soon and I am NOT going to go on a diet AND quit smoking at the same time. It’s funny, I used to think I was a fat kid/teenager, but when I look back at photos I realize that I wasn’t. Oh, I was a chubby kid, but that’s baby fat. But oh I would love the weigh right now what I weighed in my early 20s when I thought I was fat. You do need to eat something chica.
I LOVE shopping for food - but I am ever at a loss for being creative once it is in the house. I have one child that is uber-skinny I mean U to the B ER count bones on his sides skinny (of course, Ames you’ve seen him) but he eats more than any of them… it’s always a challenge no matter what - AND I think it just matters how you handle it. (You’re doing fine - you protect your kids and love them and that is all you can do)
as for myself… I have leanred after many years to ignore my mothers barbs - sharp as they may be.
It’s weird.
I’m overweight. Have almost always had a weight problem.
But I really don’t CARE that much about food.
Food is functional. It’s something I need to provide energy for my body. In all honesty, if I’m doing something that’s keeping me uber-busy, or if I’m really enjoying myself, I’ll honestly forget to eat.
And even then, I’m a grazer. Can only manage a little at a time (but can graze all day, dammit).
So I guess I’m also ambivalent about it.
I love food. Food network is one of my favorite channels. Unfortunately, I’ve put on a lot of weight over the last year and everyone seems possessed by the need to tell me how fat I’ve got (as if I don’t know). All I have to say to them and my mirror is
I’ll go back and addresse everyone else in a second but I had to come speak up to Scooper. WTF is it that makes people think we need their opinion about our weight? I mean really it’s a fucking license to be RUDE!!!!!!! It’s like a white couple adopting a Chinese baby and total strangers walking up to you and asking you about it. :pirate::pirate:
Bailey I’d kill to be a size 14 again! I am eating but it’s tough. I’m hungry but i have no interest in eating if that makes sense.
I’ve done this in stanges, the eating first (and the giving stuff up). And honest to God when I started this four months ago and the doctor said “I bet you drop 20-30 pounds by the next time I see you.” I thought she was full of shit. Really truly full of shit but it’s worked and I’ll be down at least 20 pounds when I see her the middle of next month. The smoking is next but I also believe that about 90% of that is mindset and a lack of stress which just doesn’t seem to be the order of my life.
Dennie I swear by allrecipes.com but I get in those cooking ruts too. the sad thing is you shoulnd’t have to ignore her barbs, I’m sure she means well (as most people do when they’re rude as all get out) but still.
Raine maybe I need to graze more. Kidding….I know when I get busy I forget ot eat too but now it makes me kinda sick. Food IS functional but I didn’t realize the type of relationship I have with food (in part bec that weight can be such a safety net and without it that barrier is gone) until recently. It’s babysteps though.
Oh God, I am SUCH a hopeless foodie, Amie! I love it. Adore it! And I curse what it does to me!
Unfortunately I’m a natural gourmet cook by instinct, which means I can easily duplicate just about anything I taste. Trust me, this is NOT a desirable skill for someone like me who struggles with being a food addict, compulsive overeater, yoyo dieter, chocoholic and a binge eater. :-/
My weight’s been up and down through the years because I eat when I’m happy, sad, angry, sick, etc. With age, my weight-related problems have settled down. Best of all, the crazed binge eating stopped several years back. And that’s good because I’ve never been a purger so whatever I ate showed up plastered to my ass for all the world to see. Argh!
Hey Daisy!! thanks for weighing in–no puns intended. I think I finally figurd out the reason I don’t feel like cooking is that I don’t feel like thinking about food!!!!!!