Thinking about food

I was reading this post by Jen wherein she highlighted a comment that had been made on her blog.

So let me get this straight…..you (ladies) are pre-occupied with food and when to eat. Obsessed, in fact. Your men (for the most part) are not, and the fact that they don’t struggle with this makes you “sick”? I think that this whole group needs to see a therapist for EDs! When you find something worthwhile to do with your life, the timing of your meals won’t matter. So go find “it” for you and leave your food in the kitchen where it belongs.

This comment got me thinking, thinking about thinking about food. When I’m dieting/watching what I eat/whatever you want to call it, I think about food all day long. I am either eating or thinking about eating. It doesn’t help that with Nutrisystems I can eat 6 meals a day because this means that I have to think about my meal at least 5 times a day (no thinking about breakfast, although I probably do think about it the night before).  But even when I’m not on Nutrisystems I’m thinking about food. And the weird thing about it was that I didn’t realize how much I was thinking about food until I read that quote.

I would love to think about food as fuel. I know it is fuel but rarely do I think about it that way. Normally I either think about how many calories it has (not in the fuel sense, but in the how much of this can I eat sense) or how delicious it will taste.

But that’s not my reality.

And for those of you that think Nutrisystems is a diet where you don’t have to think too hard, I’d say you are wrong. While Nutrisystems provides the main entree for each meal, you have to add dairy/protein, veggies, fruits, and fats (men get to have carbohydrates too but that’s not in my plan I love and now miss carbs), so you have to think about how to add those items to your meal. I actually think this part is fun and I really like the veggies and fruit combinations I’ve been eating, but obviously this  just makes me think about food more. And now that I’m on Nutrisystems I’m constantly thinking about the next time the system isn’t going to work. Right now, that’s potentially tomorrow. I’m still trying to figure out how to make it work (I’m volunteering at an event from 5:30 – 8 where they’ll have free pizza and beer and then after that I”m going to book/wine club where there is always great food and, of course wine). I’m less worried about the food that will be there (although we all know that I cannot tell myself no) and more worried about how/when to eat dinner. I would love to say that I could bring a salad to the volunteer event and then just have one piece of pizza as my entree, but I don’t have that kind of willpower. I just have to say no to all pizza. So my plan right now is to pack my dinner and hope the place has a microwave. If not, then I may be in trouble!

So sorry for interrupting this post about thinking about food with…more thoughts about food.

The reason I think thinking about food is bad that I think I often think about food to the point that I make myself hungry even if I’m not. That sentence made me realize something: I am a food addict. I don’t think I’ve ever written nor said those words out loud.  Too bad this isn’t one of those things you can just quit.

Any tips on how you stop thinking about food?