Comments on: Ask Laura: How Do You Keep Track?

By: Ernie

Ernie — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:04:09 +0000

LEt's just face something that we all know and are not saying.

1) Dieting works, but only as long as you are willing to sacrifice. You give up a little here and there and voila! you're down a few pounds.

2) Human beings are not made to sacrifice for the rest of their lives. We are beats of pleasure. We can't get enough pleasure and we can't get it fast enough.

3) The moment a diet begins, what does any expert dieter worth their salt start looking for? The loophole. We figure out what we can "get away with" and still stay "on program". For example, I wasn't on the Weight Watchers Core Plan longer than a day before I figured out that I'm allowed to have a Burrito Bol from Chipotle. It's on the diet to have anytime I want it, but is it healthy? It's ridiculous what we do to ourselves when we think we have control over our obsession.

So, maybe eating obsession is in our genetic code? We dominate the planet, so we get whatever we want?

Maybe it's a by-product of childhood? I was the youngest of four children, so if I didn't eat it there was always someone to take it from me.

Maybe it's just that we like the flavors, tectures and smells of food.

And so we should.

By: iportion

iportion — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 00:45:50 +0000

I think a lot of people donâ€™t see that they were always obsessed before weight watchers, or calorie counting before they were but they gave into the preoccupation. I still think of food a lot and I know that I always will.

By: Braidwood

Braidwood — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:49:57 +0000

Hi, I’m taking a chance and writing from work because I can so relate to this post. Last Dec I started dieting even though I was at a healthy, but not fashionable weight, because I was feeling insecure. I lost weight. I don’t know when I realized that it was absolutely ridiculous, but at some point I did not want to obsess about food anymore. I read a book about Intuitive Eating (purposefully skipped the last chapter,) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312957211?v=glance, and I did something radical. I promised myself that I would never diet again. So, I ate whatever I wanted which included a lot of hot pockets and licorice at first. I went through a series of different cravings. I gained a lot of hot pocket weight. But, I stopped obsessing about food! I think the reason I still obsessed in my non-diet times before is because I knew that someday I would diet again, or “eat healthy” (code for diet) or “only eat when I’m hungry.” This time was different and I had a lot of different and suprising emotions come up about not ever dieting again. However, my relationship with food changed right away- for the better. Now, when I’m hungry I think about food. When I’m not, I don’t. Unless I’m around food and I want to try something- then I do. A big change is that I don’t feel driven to try something because I know that this party is not a special occasion. I can always have whatever I want. My cravings continually change. Right now I feel like eating fairly healthy foods. Last night I wanted fries, but today I wanted an apple, some organic food and a green drink. Out of ALL the options, which I freely allow myself, that’s what I wanted- and what I got.