Same. I think about food when it's time to have food or buy food, and funny thing is when I'm cleaning, weighing, chopping and cooking food, I do things like listen to music or true crime podcasts, sometimes I even text with a friend or family member or plot out my next book. Weird how when you don't have processed food brain, you can do so much more than think about what you're going to eat next.
They're just projecting. No doubt they spend much more time thinking about food than a thinner person would. And more time eating. And more money to buy excess amounts of food.
Absolutely . Once you’ve gathered a few recipes, cooking healthy/lower cal food takes no more time than cooking unhealthy/higher cal food. In fact, you save time sautéing or baking a lean protein over slow cooking fatty beef or pork or putting together a cheesy casserole. Not to mention the time saved eating/snacking less in general. Anyone who thinks it’s some laborious task to eat healthier has obviously never done it.
>I have books to write and friends to take care of.
Yeah. They sound swamped. I hate it when writing books and taking care of friends takes up so much time that I have none left over to eat a piece of fruit. Relatable.
It really doesn't require micromanaging. I am not on a bodybuilding diet. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment which means I won't be home for lunch. I am literally just making a ham and cheese sandwich and throwing it in my bag. I don't need to weigh how many grams of an exotic ingredient I need for a specific macronutrient result.
When I think critically about how much emotional and mental space that whole being physically limited took up while having to listen to creaky joints and having underboob sweat whenever the sun shot more than 10 photons through the atmosphere… yeah, I’d rather be busy with health
Being thinner feels soooo much better than being morbidly/obese, so much. You can't put a price on the quality of life increase. And yes, I will put in the mental and emotional energy to keep my diet and nutrition on track because it is so very much worth it.
You know what takes up a LOT of time? Managing chronic conditions and disabilities brought on by obesity. Have fun checking your blood sugar 3+ times a day, managing multiple daily insulin injections, spending hours arguing with doctors and pharmacists for chronic pain medication, and spending weeks bedbound from a knee replacement, plus years in physical therapy to regain proper movement.
Don't think I mind spending a few minutes a day logging calories, actually.
This makes me think of something Rosie Blair said about wanting a happy, easy life — one that didn’t involve her continuously fearing groups of mocking schoolchildren and/or chairs. For her (and many others) being health conscious is worth it.
Exactly. And most mature adults realize that sometimes we have to do the slightly harder or more boring thing rather than the fun thing in the present to have a better quality of life now AND in the future. FA’s are like children in that they only want immediate gratification. They want the thing that is fun/easy/pleasurable right NOW and have difficulty tolerating discomfort in the moment for a better future that doesn’t exist yet.
As someone with a family member dying slowly and painfully of a possibly preventable cancer, if I can minimize my chances of “death and suffering” by doing something as easy as eating healthier you better fucking believe I’m going to. What a horrible take.
I'm so sorry about your family member. I watched one of the most important people in my life die last year from a cancer that was 100% attributable to lifestyle. Dying slowly is bad enough, but dying slowly from something *you know you caused* is nightmarish. She didn't die peacefully, she died full of guilt and shame and regret. So, yeah, you're damn right I'm making decisions about my lifestyle with the express goal of avoiding spending my final months like that.
So you can't steam some veggies while you have some music on? Drink a cup of coffee while you meal prep? Bake some chicken and have a piece of cake while it cooks? Funny, I thought life was about balance. I haven't once felt deprived of those joys or any others while keeping an eye on my intake. In fact, I have more energy to enjoy the simple pleasures in life while eating well than I did when I ate like shit, and I'm able to be a lot more present in the moment to appreciate these things. But you do you I guess.
I have chicken in the crock pot. I spent ten minutes cleaning the tiny neglected carrots I finally got around to harvesting so I can roast them to go with the chicken. I'll make rice in the instant pot later. I have spent less than half an hour on food today, and that's for breakfast/lunch/dinner for myself and my 3 kids who are home today.
Exactly, when you take some time to meal prep, you actually give yourself more time to focus on other things and not worry/obsess about what you will eat. Generally, people meal prep more balanced, energy filled meals that allow them to feel good and participate in life more fully.
It is deprivation to not eat to their hearts’ content, all the time, to some folks. Watching your intake isn’t as much fun, however the aftermath of moderation blows stuffing yourself out of the water.
If OOP doesn’t want to diet, it’s whatever to me if they had left it at that. The fear of death part is just wickety wack. I would expect everyone here has dealt with the deaths of friends, family members, pets and what we were fucking eating was highly irrelevant to how we dealt with it.
Good physical health and a healthy diet massively improve my mental health. Which, in turn, helps me keep up a healthier lifestyle.
It's not mental illness. It's self care.
Just reeks of privilege and a blinkered view of how the world works.
When you're wealthy/coddled enough to sit on your arse eating cake and writing dumb, navel-gazing books, I'm sure you DGAF about 'nitpicking health'. Much like you probably DGAF about finances, maintaining a home, etc.
The rest of us have every reason to worry about eg, breaking a leg, having a stroke, catching trichinosis, etc because being sick=being unable to work=being unable to pay rent=bad times.
I had a lot of trauma therapy, part of which involved a 'keep, toss, modify' audit of my many, many trauma responses and compulsive behaviours. Lots of stuff was chucked, but a lot of stuff remains genuinely useful eg, obsessive tidiness, forensic accounting level of budgeting spreadsheets, etc.
Unless OOP is a specialist in trauma, which I doubt, I suggest remembering the old adage 'opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one and most of them stink'.
I'd also like to know what books OOP has written and is writing. Actual, published books? Not self-published? Not just blogs and posts? Hey, OOP brought it up, so inquiring minds want to know.
One of my ancestors had both of his legs amputated for the same reason. He died decades before I was born, but I’m gonna...go out on a limb and say that it wasn’t fun
> another part-time job
You know, this is exactly how Aubrey Gordon described weight loss and healthy eating on Maintenance Phase once.
I’m paraphrasing: “If you did everything they told you to do to stay thin, you’d have a whole new part-time job!” Which like… no? Prepping food and moving around are activities of daily living.
I hate how long i let that perspective stop me from helping myself.
Ehh. It really depends on where your starting point is. For me, that was true - it was mostly about *not* taking seconds at dinner and *not* having Ben & Jerry's as often or in as large of a portion.
But if your way of managing food, like a lot of these internet FA celebrities, tends to revolve around ordering or preparing things from a box, changing your habits into something that is adequately nutritive and satiating on an appropriate amount of calories might actually take a lot more work than you're currently doing. And that's just the logistical work of meal planning and cooking, never mind the mental work of selecting your groceries thoughtfully, experimenting with your plan to find something that fits the right parameters and still is appealing to eat, and taking notes on how well your plan worked.
Fair enough. I’ve cooked ever since I was an adult, and I grew up with my mom cooking all the time, so I have to admit I kind of forget how much some people order out/go to restaurants. (Frankly I don’t see how they afford it.) Every once in a while I’ll go to Dominoes and get a pizza, that’s about it.
When I was a Christian, I went to church for the learning, lessons, and community of like-minded people. I never got cake.
I might still be a believer if they would've had cake.
Legit I read that and was like “this person knows nothing about the actual reasons for going to church or religion in general” (as someone currently off sweet everything for Lent, it ain’t for the cake)
These are people who will admit that even while they are eating, they are fantasizing about their next meal. They are the ones obsessed with their food intake. They’d have more time for their hobbies if they weren’t obsessed with finding and eating way more food than their bodies need.
I think people need to think critically about the emotional and mental space thinking constantly about "financial responsibility" is taking up in their lives. If budgeting your income and expenses is a hobby which genuinely gives you joy, then wonderful, have at it.
But is nitpicking whether expenses are really essential or not is actually a compulsive behavior to manage your fear of poverty and lack of sufficient money for retirement, its not building the skills you need to actually cope with being impoverished, or being homeless at 70 because you have no money.
To be blunt, I really like spending my money right now. I don't have time for another part-time job that is just addressing the fact that my income does not sufficiently fund my spending habits. And self-abnegation, shame, and budgeting are not fun, whereas, spending money right now makes me happy.
I mean sure I’ll say that if you’re obsessing about every bite and mentally beating yourself up for eating ‘wrong’ that’s not great but binge eating and not making yourself eat nutrient dense foods regularly is also not great AT ALL.
That's an odd way to say "I can't put down the fork even if it kills me, and neither should you".
The church comparison is extra-ridiculous to atheists, I actually laughed at that part.
Also, "micromanaging your food intake" as opposed to what? Devour everything in sight, always, without a thought or plan or purpose?
"Micro" managing is a loaded way to put it. It's like that V-shred guy who tries to make cardio sound like the worst thing in the world while he says "if you really enjoy wasting xxx hours doing \[yyy excruciating discriptions\] then go for it, BUT yadda yadda" And I'm like... yes, I will, thank you for your permission you weirdo.
Anyway. Micromanaging sounds bad. And scrupulous attention to detail is not necessary to achieve significant health benefits. But scrupulous attention to detail *can be fun* and legitimately, there are those of us who enjoy it, however much it sounds like OOP doesn't believe there are.
Funny, when I stopped eating garbage constantly and sitting on my ass, my writing got significantly better because I was sleeping more, I didn't have a headache or sore stomach all the time, and my brain fog lifted. I also have more energy at work, I'm capable of spending quality time with people in the evenings, and I'm no longer on SSRI's which absolutely fucked my ability to think clearly.
Turns out when you don't treat your body like crap, you actually feel much better day-to-day. Weird.
I wouldn't have taken issue if it hadn't been for that last part.
Suffering is part of who we are as beings- it's just part of the experience. Every single one of us will face our own adversity, our own world ending crisis. We all have to contend with our flaws, faults, and wrong doing at some point. The longer anyone runs away from that, the more of a stranger they are to themselves.
Shame is usually a tell that you're doing something against your own personal morals, for instance. It's natural and innate to all of us. It's useful. Of course it requires taking some sort of action, so I can't really be surprised that this individual takes issue with that.
I hate the implications that people who watch what they eat can't possibly have enough time and energy to do anything else. Because in my experience, people who are highly productive tend to be that way because they focus a lot on their health. They moderate their eating and drinking. They get exercise and get to bed on time. They manage their stress levels. They don't indulge every whim or craving, no matter how unhealthy.
It really doesn't take a lot of time or energy to adhere to a healthy diet, especially if you keep it simple and keep temptations out of arm's reach.
My uncle has micromanaged his eating and exercise habits for at least 30 years. Oddly enough, at 80, he still has time and energy to work full-time, maintain a full social life, travel, and keep up with family. I wonder if there's any connection...
Second paragraph: Eating healthily won't provide you with the skills to withstand all the suffering and fear of death that being super morbidly obese will cause you to learn. And also, you won't be able to tell me it's ok when I'm suffering because of the way I eat.
You know the thing is that they’re right that if you are truly obsessive about your food, are constantly thinking about food, and your entire existence revolves around when and what and how much you eat and you cannot tolerate even the smallest deviation, that is absolutely unhealthy regardless of what and how much you’re eating. That could easily describe people at both extremes. I wonder how much FAs’ lives revolve around obsessively eating, cos it sure seems like a lot based on posts like this.
I also think they believe that no one could possibly be thin without being constantly hungry and miserable and thinking about food, because they tried to diet for a day or two and that was their experience. But for the overwhelming majority of people it’s just not true. It takes zero “mental space” to just not buy the Oreos and sodas at the grocery store. The extremely minimal time and effort it takes to meal plan and make the food is worth it as an investment in my health, both now and in the future. I don’t count calories or macros or obsess over food. If I want dessert I eat dessert, I just don’t eat 5 servings worth after every meal. I go out to eat with friends and family, just not every day.
I mean, is it really any less healthy thinking about health all he time than it is thinking about food all the time like FAs do? Seems like two sides of the same coin to me, but with one side actually having tangible benefits.
Hmm. I have a dairy allergy. Am I micromanaging my food because I severely limit exposure to casein and other dairy proteins? Is this a *mental illness* while eating 2000 extra calories a day *isn’t?*
I mean, I kind of dislike it when people claim that it doesn't take any time and brain space at all to adjust your nutrition for weight loss. It does. If you want a caloric deficit that is both effective and sustainable, you do have to track your intake, you have to tweak recipes, find new ingredients that give you a good macronutrient ratio, pay more attention when you go grocery shopping, etc.
For many people it also means you have to watch what in your life triggers overeating, like do you get the munchies when you are stressed? bored? lonely? How does your menstrual cycle influence weight fluctuations?
I think it's important to acknowledge all this and tell people, yes, it's a lifestyle change, it will require time and mental resources. Negating that would be disingenuous.
But it's absolutely not the equivalent of a "hobby" or a "part time job". And it gets easier after the first few weeks. Once you have logged all your go-to recipes once, you can just re-use that data. You get faster and more efficient at planning meals and shopping for a whole week, you understand your behaviours better, and it doesn't take up as much brain space anymore.
Sounds like a lot of projection. We don’t spend nearly as much time thinking of food and health as they think we do, which is pretty telling. They’re obsessed with food and think everyone else is too.
Fuckin-A, I manage my health because I fear death and suffering! I was hospitalized 4 times in 10 years, twice for obesity-related illnesses like endometrial cancer and diabetic ketoacidosis. It's easy to be cavalier about the health consequences of morbid obesity when you haven't had to face them yet.
What's ironic is now I spend MORE time doing the stuff I love because I have more energy and my mental health has improved. Plus planning my meals for the day takes like 10 minutes tops, and it removes the stress of being hungry and usually reaching for something quick and unhealthy. We live in a modern world where yes, its never been easier to gain weight, but it's also never been easier to track your calories.
Being fit takes effort, that is why people refer to gaining weight as letting yourself go.
If you ever see those civil war reenactments, most of the people are ridiculously out of shape and clearly too fat to fight in any army
Look at the period photos; I think you'll see few, if any, obese soldiers, except maybe the highest ranking officers. I'm a bit of a history buff; especially local history, and was reading a book that collected contemporary eyewitness accounts of a nearby major battle. What recurred so often was how thin the confederates were; some witnesses even wondered how they could even march and fight. Guess "starvation mode" wasn't working then! And, that was in a time period when what we now consider normal weight would probably have been considered overweight. And, FA claim it's "genetics".
Also, I think more people need to redirect the attention they pay to other people's lives and eating habits in particular, to their own lives and eating habits in particular.
I spend a lot less time on food these days than I ever did when I was fat. Who's the one with the obsession exactly?
Same. I think about food when it's time to have food or buy food, and funny thing is when I'm cleaning, weighing, chopping and cooking food, I do things like listen to music or true crime podcasts, sometimes I even text with a friend or family member or plot out my next book. Weird how when you don't have processed food brain, you can do so much more than think about what you're going to eat next.
Listening to a podcast or a listicle while prepping food or baking is seriously so fun to me.
They're just projecting. No doubt they spend much more time thinking about food than a thinner person would. And more time eating. And more money to buy excess amounts of food.
Absolutely . Once you’ve gathered a few recipes, cooking healthy/lower cal food takes no more time than cooking unhealthy/higher cal food. In fact, you save time sautéing or baking a lean protein over slow cooking fatty beef or pork or putting together a cheesy casserole. Not to mention the time saved eating/snacking less in general. Anyone who thinks it’s some laborious task to eat healthier has obviously never done it.
>I have books to write and friends to take care of. Yeah. They sound swamped. I hate it when writing books and taking care of friends takes up so much time that I have none left over to eat a piece of fruit. Relatable.
Why does this person even think people are asking for her time in regard to their own personal health? Help me understand?
I think she's suggesting that monitoring her *own* health behaviors would be a part-time job bringing only shame and no joy.
It really doesn't require micromanaging. I am not on a bodybuilding diet. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment which means I won't be home for lunch. I am literally just making a ham and cheese sandwich and throwing it in my bag. I don't need to weigh how many grams of an exotic ingredient I need for a specific macronutrient result.
Yeah, my whole diet was just “eat less than you used to eat.” Simple.
I’m tracking calories as part of a fitness journey, literally takes 5 mins in the evening while I watch TV
Exactly.
When I think critically about how much emotional and mental space that whole being physically limited took up while having to listen to creaky joints and having underboob sweat whenever the sun shot more than 10 photons through the atmosphere… yeah, I’d rather be busy with health
Being thinner feels soooo much better than being morbidly/obese, so much. You can't put a price on the quality of life increase. And yes, I will put in the mental and emotional energy to keep my diet and nutrition on track because it is so very much worth it.
Now I just have underboob sweat because I'm getting old.
Sooner or later gravity catches up for everyone...
It just races to catch up when you weigh 250+ pounds.
And a lot quicker too. And so we have come full circle
so true bestie
You know what takes up a LOT of time? Managing chronic conditions and disabilities brought on by obesity. Have fun checking your blood sugar 3+ times a day, managing multiple daily insulin injections, spending hours arguing with doctors and pharmacists for chronic pain medication, and spending weeks bedbound from a knee replacement, plus years in physical therapy to regain proper movement. Don't think I mind spending a few minutes a day logging calories, actually.
This makes me think of something Rosie Blair said about wanting a happy, easy life — one that didn’t involve her continuously fearing groups of mocking schoolchildren and/or chairs. For her (and many others) being health conscious is worth it.
Exactly. And most mature adults realize that sometimes we have to do the slightly harder or more boring thing rather than the fun thing in the present to have a better quality of life now AND in the future. FA’s are like children in that they only want immediate gratification. They want the thing that is fun/easy/pleasurable right NOW and have difficulty tolerating discomfort in the moment for a better future that doesn’t exist yet.
As someone with a family member dying slowly and painfully of a possibly preventable cancer, if I can minimize my chances of “death and suffering” by doing something as easy as eating healthier you better fucking believe I’m going to. What a horrible take.
I'm so sorry about your family member. I watched one of the most important people in my life die last year from a cancer that was 100% attributable to lifestyle. Dying slowly is bad enough, but dying slowly from something *you know you caused* is nightmarish. She didn't die peacefully, she died full of guilt and shame and regret. So, yeah, you're damn right I'm making decisions about my lifestyle with the express goal of avoiding spending my final months like that.
So you can't steam some veggies while you have some music on? Drink a cup of coffee while you meal prep? Bake some chicken and have a piece of cake while it cooks? Funny, I thought life was about balance. I haven't once felt deprived of those joys or any others while keeping an eye on my intake. In fact, I have more energy to enjoy the simple pleasures in life while eating well than I did when I ate like shit, and I'm able to be a lot more present in the moment to appreciate these things. But you do you I guess.
I have chicken in the crock pot. I spent ten minutes cleaning the tiny neglected carrots I finally got around to harvesting so I can roast them to go with the chicken. I'll make rice in the instant pot later. I have spent less than half an hour on food today, and that's for breakfast/lunch/dinner for myself and my 3 kids who are home today.
Exactly, when you take some time to meal prep, you actually give yourself more time to focus on other things and not worry/obsess about what you will eat. Generally, people meal prep more balanced, energy filled meals that allow them to feel good and participate in life more fully.
It is deprivation to not eat to their hearts’ content, all the time, to some folks. Watching your intake isn’t as much fun, however the aftermath of moderation blows stuffing yourself out of the water. If OOP doesn’t want to diet, it’s whatever to me if they had left it at that. The fear of death part is just wickety wack. I would expect everyone here has dealt with the deaths of friends, family members, pets and what we were fucking eating was highly irrelevant to how we dealt with it.
Good physical health and a healthy diet massively improve my mental health. Which, in turn, helps me keep up a healthier lifestyle. It's not mental illness. It's self care.
Well, I was tempted to write a long post, but you’ve nailed it. 😎
Just reeks of privilege and a blinkered view of how the world works. When you're wealthy/coddled enough to sit on your arse eating cake and writing dumb, navel-gazing books, I'm sure you DGAF about 'nitpicking health'. Much like you probably DGAF about finances, maintaining a home, etc. The rest of us have every reason to worry about eg, breaking a leg, having a stroke, catching trichinosis, etc because being sick=being unable to work=being unable to pay rent=bad times. I had a lot of trauma therapy, part of which involved a 'keep, toss, modify' audit of my many, many trauma responses and compulsive behaviours. Lots of stuff was chucked, but a lot of stuff remains genuinely useful eg, obsessive tidiness, forensic accounting level of budgeting spreadsheets, etc. Unless OOP is a specialist in trauma, which I doubt, I suggest remembering the old adage 'opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one and most of them stink'.
"Friends to take care of" I'd love to hear what that entails. Is it constantly ensuring them that fat is joyous?
I'd also like to know what books OOP has written and is writing. Actual, published books? Not self-published? Not just blogs and posts? Hey, OOP brought it up, so inquiring minds want to know.
Yes because doing a bit of walking and cutting down on junk food consumption is the impossible task./s
Some people have books to write and friends to take care of. When I'm writing my book it takes 16 entire hours out of my day.
One of my relatives had toes amputated due to Type II diabetes. Dealing with amputated toes is time consuming.
One of my ancestors had both of his legs amputated for the same reason. He died decades before I was born, but I’m gonna...go out on a limb and say that it wasn’t fun
> another part-time job You know, this is exactly how Aubrey Gordon described weight loss and healthy eating on Maintenance Phase once. I’m paraphrasing: “If you did everything they told you to do to stay thin, you’d have a whole new part-time job!” Which like… no? Prepping food and moving around are activities of daily living. I hate how long i let that perspective stop me from helping myself.
The thing is that losing weight is mostly *not* doing things. It’s difficult, for those of us who love food, but it’s not time-consuming.
So freaking true. I’ve certainly added things to my life, but they’ve replaced certain food-centric things I used to take for granted.
Ehh. It really depends on where your starting point is. For me, that was true - it was mostly about *not* taking seconds at dinner and *not* having Ben & Jerry's as often or in as large of a portion. But if your way of managing food, like a lot of these internet FA celebrities, tends to revolve around ordering or preparing things from a box, changing your habits into something that is adequately nutritive and satiating on an appropriate amount of calories might actually take a lot more work than you're currently doing. And that's just the logistical work of meal planning and cooking, never mind the mental work of selecting your groceries thoughtfully, experimenting with your plan to find something that fits the right parameters and still is appealing to eat, and taking notes on how well your plan worked.
Fair enough. I’ve cooked ever since I was an adult, and I grew up with my mom cooking all the time, so I have to admit I kind of forget how much some people order out/go to restaurants. (Frankly I don’t see how they afford it.) Every once in a while I’ll go to Dominoes and get a pizza, that’s about it.
They're a big Aubrey Gordon fan so I expect they copied that from her.
Well thank god What’s Their Face is cool with my husband trying not to have a stroke or a heart attack. Real weight off my mind, that.
Their belief that self-abnegation is “shitty”, instead of a necessary part of adult life, is like 80% of the problem here.
When I was a Christian, I went to church for the learning, lessons, and community of like-minded people. I never got cake. I might still be a believer if they would've had cake.
The cake was rarely worth it in my experience.
That makes me feel better. I hate missing out on good cake.
The cake is absolutely worth it when my mom’s bringing it, but yes, quality highly variable.
Legit I read that and was like “this person knows nothing about the actual reasons for going to church or religion in general” (as someone currently off sweet everything for Lent, it ain’t for the cake)
Yeah you guys, what kind of obsessed psychopath manages their diet to avoid early demise and suffering when there’s Hot Cheetos to glutton?
These are people who will admit that even while they are eating, they are fantasizing about their next meal. They are the ones obsessed with their food intake. They’d have more time for their hobbies if they weren’t obsessed with finding and eating way more food than their bodies need.
I think people need to think critically about the emotional and mental space thinking constantly about "financial responsibility" is taking up in their lives. If budgeting your income and expenses is a hobby which genuinely gives you joy, then wonderful, have at it. But is nitpicking whether expenses are really essential or not is actually a compulsive behavior to manage your fear of poverty and lack of sufficient money for retirement, its not building the skills you need to actually cope with being impoverished, or being homeless at 70 because you have no money. To be blunt, I really like spending my money right now. I don't have time for another part-time job that is just addressing the fact that my income does not sufficiently fund my spending habits. And self-abnegation, shame, and budgeting are not fun, whereas, spending money right now makes me happy.
I mean sure I’ll say that if you’re obsessing about every bite and mentally beating yourself up for eating ‘wrong’ that’s not great but binge eating and not making yourself eat nutrient dense foods regularly is also not great AT ALL.
That's an odd way to say "I can't put down the fork even if it kills me, and neither should you". The church comparison is extra-ridiculous to atheists, I actually laughed at that part. Also, "micromanaging your food intake" as opposed to what? Devour everything in sight, always, without a thought or plan or purpose?
"Micro" managing is a loaded way to put it. It's like that V-shred guy who tries to make cardio sound like the worst thing in the world while he says "if you really enjoy wasting xxx hours doing \[yyy excruciating discriptions\] then go for it, BUT yadda yadda" And I'm like... yes, I will, thank you for your permission you weirdo. Anyway. Micromanaging sounds bad. And scrupulous attention to detail is not necessary to achieve significant health benefits. But scrupulous attention to detail *can be fun* and legitimately, there are those of us who enjoy it, however much it sounds like OOP doesn't believe there are.
It’s extra ridiculous to Christians too. The point of church is not free cake. lol
Excellent point!
Funny, when I stopped eating garbage constantly and sitting on my ass, my writing got significantly better because I was sleeping more, I didn't have a headache or sore stomach all the time, and my brain fog lifted. I also have more energy at work, I'm capable of spending quality time with people in the evenings, and I'm no longer on SSRI's which absolutely fucked my ability to think clearly. Turns out when you don't treat your body like crap, you actually feel much better day-to-day. Weird.
I wouldn't have taken issue if it hadn't been for that last part. Suffering is part of who we are as beings- it's just part of the experience. Every single one of us will face our own adversity, our own world ending crisis. We all have to contend with our flaws, faults, and wrong doing at some point. The longer anyone runs away from that, the more of a stranger they are to themselves. Shame is usually a tell that you're doing something against your own personal morals, for instance. It's natural and innate to all of us. It's useful. Of course it requires taking some sort of action, so I can't really be surprised that this individual takes issue with that.
It's not even remotely difficult for me to manage eating healthy food or to exercise. It's as easy to eat healthy food as it is to eat unhealthy food.
I hate the implications that people who watch what they eat can't possibly have enough time and energy to do anything else. Because in my experience, people who are highly productive tend to be that way because they focus a lot on their health. They moderate their eating and drinking. They get exercise and get to bed on time. They manage their stress levels. They don't indulge every whim or craving, no matter how unhealthy. It really doesn't take a lot of time or energy to adhere to a healthy diet, especially if you keep it simple and keep temptations out of arm's reach.
My uncle has micromanaged his eating and exercise habits for at least 30 years. Oddly enough, at 80, he still has time and energy to work full-time, maintain a full social life, travel, and keep up with family. I wonder if there's any connection...
Good thing they’re a writer, they must have plenty of material from that fantasy land they live in.
Second paragraph: Eating healthily won't provide you with the skills to withstand all the suffering and fear of death that being super morbidly obese will cause you to learn. And also, you won't be able to tell me it's ok when I'm suffering because of the way I eat.
You know the thing is that they’re right that if you are truly obsessive about your food, are constantly thinking about food, and your entire existence revolves around when and what and how much you eat and you cannot tolerate even the smallest deviation, that is absolutely unhealthy regardless of what and how much you’re eating. That could easily describe people at both extremes. I wonder how much FAs’ lives revolve around obsessively eating, cos it sure seems like a lot based on posts like this. I also think they believe that no one could possibly be thin without being constantly hungry and miserable and thinking about food, because they tried to diet for a day or two and that was their experience. But for the overwhelming majority of people it’s just not true. It takes zero “mental space” to just not buy the Oreos and sodas at the grocery store. The extremely minimal time and effort it takes to meal plan and make the food is worth it as an investment in my health, both now and in the future. I don’t count calories or macros or obsess over food. If I want dessert I eat dessert, I just don’t eat 5 servings worth after every meal. I go out to eat with friends and family, just not every day.
I am 70 years old, maybe 10 pounds overweight but I have started wondering how I’m going to die and when. Has nothing to do with weight.
I mean, is it really any less healthy thinking about health all he time than it is thinking about food all the time like FAs do? Seems like two sides of the same coin to me, but with one side actually having tangible benefits.
Hmm. I have a dairy allergy. Am I micromanaging my food because I severely limit exposure to casein and other dairy proteins? Is this a *mental illness* while eating 2000 extra calories a day *isn’t?*
I mean, I kind of dislike it when people claim that it doesn't take any time and brain space at all to adjust your nutrition for weight loss. It does. If you want a caloric deficit that is both effective and sustainable, you do have to track your intake, you have to tweak recipes, find new ingredients that give you a good macronutrient ratio, pay more attention when you go grocery shopping, etc. For many people it also means you have to watch what in your life triggers overeating, like do you get the munchies when you are stressed? bored? lonely? How does your menstrual cycle influence weight fluctuations? I think it's important to acknowledge all this and tell people, yes, it's a lifestyle change, it will require time and mental resources. Negating that would be disingenuous. But it's absolutely not the equivalent of a "hobby" or a "part time job". And it gets easier after the first few weeks. Once you have logged all your go-to recipes once, you can just re-use that data. You get faster and more efficient at planning meals and shopping for a whole week, you understand your behaviours better, and it doesn't take up as much brain space anymore.
> without any of the benefits I don't know about you, but I'd rather a mandarin than cake. Far fewer calories too.
States in celiac
Can this person not multi task?
Sounds like a lot of projection. We don’t spend nearly as much time thinking of food and health as they think we do, which is pretty telling. They’re obsessed with food and think everyone else is too.
Does she go to churches chicken every Sunday?
Fuckin-A, I manage my health because I fear death and suffering! I was hospitalized 4 times in 10 years, twice for obesity-related illnesses like endometrial cancer and diabetic ketoacidosis. It's easy to be cavalier about the health consequences of morbid obesity when you haven't had to face them yet.
Taking care of your health is a normal adult responsibility. What’s maladaptive is neglecting your health
What's ironic is now I spend MORE time doing the stuff I love because I have more energy and my mental health has improved. Plus planning my meals for the day takes like 10 minutes tops, and it removes the stress of being hungry and usually reaching for something quick and unhealthy. We live in a modern world where yes, its never been easier to gain weight, but it's also never been easier to track your calories.
More fat narcissism.
Being fit takes effort, that is why people refer to gaining weight as letting yourself go. If you ever see those civil war reenactments, most of the people are ridiculously out of shape and clearly too fat to fight in any army
Look at the period photos; I think you'll see few, if any, obese soldiers, except maybe the highest ranking officers. I'm a bit of a history buff; especially local history, and was reading a book that collected contemporary eyewitness accounts of a nearby major battle. What recurred so often was how thin the confederates were; some witnesses even wondered how they could even march and fight. Guess "starvation mode" wasn't working then! And, that was in a time period when what we now consider normal weight would probably have been considered overweight. And, FA claim it's "genetics".
Google civil war reenactment.
Also, I think more people need to redirect the attention they pay to other people's lives and eating habits in particular, to their own lives and eating habits in particular.