Friday, July 17, 2009

Food Relationships

So I was thinking today that there are two ways to approach changing my relationship with food. Well, there are probably a million but here is what I was thinking.

I used to always fantasize about cooking really delicious healthy food. Sometimes I do - but I was thinking was great ingredients, fresh herbs, great spices, so it's an enjoyable experience but healthier and more sophisticated. It's not just adding french fries and cheese to every dish.

Then the other day I was thinking about downplaying the role food plays in my life. What if food was just nourishment - something I ate to nurish me and fill me up, but not an elaborate ceremony - just get it in to get full. Would that help me detach from by food obsession and then come back have a healthier relationship later on?

You know, should it be like a break-up - we can't see each other for awhile because it's too painful. We can only be friends if we take a break. Or should it be like the first approach - meeting someone better so I can move on and never think about the old one?

Did this make sense?

4 comments:

Rachel said...

It definitely makes sense - my vote is for the first option. I think food should be celebrated, just not as a way to distract or comfort (if that means binge like it does for me).
Maybe it would work for you, but personally I could see myself getting poorer nutrition if I let myself 'break-up' with food.

Chavonne said...

I agree with Rachel. It seems that there needs to be a time of separation. I know I had to say goodbye to Oreos for a time. It's ludicrous to think I'll never eat another one again, BUT I know that I need time until I'm ready to eat them without going off of the deep end.

I feel it's really important to take time to experience delicious, healthy flavors while one works to lose weight. I know that if I see it just as nourishment, I will lose interest and end up overeating again.

Fatina George said...

It's easy for my to get really excited about a plateful of super nutritious food, I love it. But there's also something else that just...I don't know, gnaws at me.

I think it's my self-destructive behavior from high school trying to relapse.

all cats go said...

Hi. I recently came across your blog--good reading!

Something that clicked with me and helped me to lose weight at one time was a statement about eating when you're not hungry being like piling fuel into a cold furnace.

I think you can do a little of both: appreciate flavorful "healthy" food, while also viewing it as nourishment/fuel rather than total foodie-ness. I'm kinda tired of everybody jumping on the food-orgy bandwagon...I've been a food-obsessed binge eater most my life and it seems the trendy thing right now is to be obsessed with food (whether cupcakes or organic veggies), at a time when I'm trying to NOT be obsessed, to not fetishize it (been there, done that, ate everything ever).