Category Archives: food philosophy

Hello my name is Lori and I love food!

Haha – that title almost sounds like a 12 step admission, doesn’t it? While a big part of my blog has been about losing weight, it also is about food.

(Tonight’s dinner with the new Sea Pak popcorn fish!)

I am in a good place now as far as my relationship with food goes, but that was not always the case.

I used to categorize food as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – meaning good for me and bad for me. So, I was either eating good or eating bad, depending on what point I was in as far as dieting went. I was either on or off a diet. The problem was, I loved to eat (still do). I felt guilty for wanting to eat food. I felt guilty for loving food. Like there was some kind of shame to be had for enjoying it.  I thought I had to eat a certain way to get the weight off, which was not a way of eating that I enjoyed.

This really was exemplified for me when I went on Weight Watchers on the early Points system. Please note, I am not knocking WW, but this was just my experience when I was on it. I began to value foods based on their points value rather than their nutritional value.

I developed some rather weird habits. I didn’t want to eat bananas because they were 2 points, so I ate other fruit and didn’t have bananas for a really long time. I would try to compose point values for meals that were my ceiling. Like I didn’t want a dinner that was more than 8 points, and I wouldn’t think of having 8 points for breakfast!

I would never have eaten this for breakfast:

I was still feeling guilt about eating certain foods and then I would have days where I just didn’t count points because it was too hard to figure out and it was depressing at how they added up to a lot! So there was a lot of moving of foods around to fit into this. Then I was  starting to eat the sugar-free, fat-free stuff with little nutritional value (frankenfoods).

I had that really long plateau and some regain, which was then the point I did Nutrisystem to stop thinking about food and sort of regroup.

A few years ago, I tapered off that and was thinking about how to eat on my own and, more importantly, what I really enjoyed eating that was also nourishing to my body.  Light bulb moment – They didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

I have done a ton of reading over the last few years on nutrition and kind of experimenting as I have been much more active.  Here I am expressing my new found love of coconut water:

I realized that I could experiment and it wouldn’t ‘ruin’ anything I was doing weight wise.

If it didn’t work, I could just go back to what did until I tried something new.

After I got rid of processed foods and realized how real food actually tastes good and eating healthy didn’t mean cardboard, I began to experiment with more new foods and recipes.  Something I never would have made, let alone eaten in my former life:

Palak chole. Who knew how good this was?

Of course, not everything I tried was something I would ever want to eat again.  Like Shiratake noodles.

But I pressed onwards. :mrgreen:  I love to play around with recipes and to play around with ways of eating.  As many of you know, I have been experimenting with a few lower carb days each week.  I have eaten new foods as a result of this and enjoyed them!

Food is fuel, but food also is one of life’s great enjoyments!  It’s okay to love food, and to especially love the food that loves you back.  You all know I love to have the good stuff:

But always balanced with the other  good stuff:

Maybe this moderation thing isn’t so bad after all.

Challenges in weight loss and maintenance

I was going to title this something like struggles in weight loss and maintenance, but I really want to focus on reframing that word.  

Debby wrote an eloquent post on this subject the other day, and she commented to me about how it was good to hear someone else with the same issues.

I get emails or comments from time to time about how I stay so focused and determined.  Here’s the secret – I struggle, too!  I really think being a successful loser and maintainer is understanding that you are going to face tough times and you won’t always win.  Put me around certain foods or in certain situations and I will face plant into enough food to make me uncomfortably full – even when that was not my plan.

Sometimes it is just the urge to let up and eat.  When that happens, I refer to it as the old me having a temper tantrum.

Old me:  I want to just eat without thinking about it.  It’s not fair that other people can eat food and not gain weight.  Why can’t I just eat what I want when I want?

Following cues from the Beck book, I try to reason with said self with things like:  You know you don’t need to eat 6 servings of cereal, 1 is enough.  Of course it isn’t fair, but you just have to accept that and move on.  You can eat whatever you want when you want, but you have to be prepared to weigh 250 pounds again.

The old me sounds pretty petulant, right?  That voice pops out from time to time and sometimes reasoning with it just doesn’t work.  It’s much easier to give in.  We’ve all been there.

I have learned that when I do give in, it isn’t the end of the world.  I won’t gain back 100 pounds with 1 day of bingeing.  I do seem to be able to stop it pretty quick these days, though, and I think that is the result of years of practice.  I am not like a lot of the bloggers or people on forums I read that charge on down to goal losing a large amount of weight and keep it off.  It’s been such a long process (years) for me both physically and mentally.  This blog has actually been a useful tool for me to ponder things and get feedback (so thank you, gentle readers!).

I do win sometimes, though.  And all that good food you see on my blog is the result of learning to love different foods and making them taste good.  If you haven’t read my food philosophy, you can here.

I guess I would leave you with the thoughts that even when you get down to a happy weight, don’t expect to magically stay there, or that you are completely changed.  Heck, the journey down is the same way.  As imperfect beings, there will always be challenges, but what will make you successful is how you cope with those when they arise and learning how to speak to yourself with kindness.

My food philosophy

I wanted to talk a little bit about my food philosophy now. I do blog about food a lot and thought I would share what drives what I eat and how I view it.

1. First and foremost, I have to like the food I am eating and that food has to be good. If I were to have to eat dry toast, plain egg whites, lettuce and sugar free jello, I just would not be happy. (Not knocking anyone who loves these, it’s just not me). Yes, the scale would probably plummet down, but I would be miserable. I figure if the food I eat is satisfying to my taste buds, it will be satisfying to my mind. That means if I want a cookie, it’s the best *one* I can find, not a whole sleeve of Oreos to try to satisfy a craving. You really only get so much food in a day, so make it worth eating.

2. I don’t consider anything off-limits. Now, that doesn’t mean that I am going to eat a pound of chocolate a day or dive face first into cookies (although that has happened before), but I never tell myself that I cannot have something ever again. That is a sure-fire way to send me on a binge of said item. What I do is to give foods a nutrient cost, so to speak. More fat/calories gives the food a higher cost. So if you think of your daily foods as a bank balance, if you have a higher weight item, then the other items need to be of a lower cost (ie lean proteins, fruits, veggies, etc) to balance out. I think this way over a longer period as well. So, if I know we are going out for dinner one night, that means I need to rein it in a little bit a couple of days prior. This eliminates the guilt factor. This reason is why you see me eat bagels a couple times a week. I love them, I plan for them, I enjoy them. Yes, this requires thinking about food, but mindless eating got me up to 250 pounds.

3. I know where my food comes from. I am not a vegetarian, and am really not interested in becoming one (although I had thought about it for a while). However, I do care how the meat I consume is processed and raised. So, we purchase our meat locally from small farmers. We are pretty lucky that we are able to do this here and have a wide variety of products to choose from. It does make eating out a little difficult at times, but we do try to stick to those principles. There are other things we try to get locally, or at least make sure it is from the US. It’s apple time, but interestingly enough – a lot of apples in our store (Pink Ladies) come from New Zealand. ???? So we do a lot of label reading, even on produce.

4. Never feel guilty about eating. Ever. Foods are not inherently good or bad. Food does not have morals. It doesn’t judge you on how much you eat of it. We do that all by ourselves. I have those days where I eat more than I should of those costly nutrient foods, but you know what? There is always the next meal to be back on track again. I think it is worse to beat yourself up about it because then it makes what you ate not worth it (see #1), which compounds the problem.

Following these guidelines for me has helped me keep off over 100 pounds for more than a year and still enjoy food, because it really is worth enjoying!

I don’t know if you need to have a personal philosophy about food, but it really wouldn’t hurt you to take a hard look at why you eat what you do.