I think a lot of people look at food as "the enemy" when in fact it surely is life-giving and pleasure-giving as you said, Grizzly.

The problem is that most people prefer to look at external causes as the root of their problems instead of realizing that the root of many of our problems are within ourselves. It's much easier to blame something/somebody else rather than to look in the mirror and say that our attitudes and behaviors are at fault -- that we must take responsibility for ourselves and our own happiness. A little philosophical, but that's what I believe.

I love food. I just am smarter about what food i eat and how i eat them now. I am a vegetarian as well and rarely eat junk food. Some of my most favorite food pleasures are sweet potatoes, chocolate sorbet, fruit, dried fruit, frozen fruit pops, and cereal (dry).

The key to losing weight is portion control. Not food avoidance.

People (especially runners, in my experience) like routine. I get grumpy if I can't do my long run on the weekend, speedwork on Wednesday, etc., and god forbid I get sick for a week and can't work out.

It is too easy to transfer that personality trait/obsession onto diet as well. Grizzly and Merigayle are right on. I've lost around 30 lbs. in the past year (Weight Watchers) and have been appalled by things I've heard and seen - rigidly counting calories (I have nothing against counting calories) to the point where people don't eat after 2 pm because they've already eaten their quota, refusing to go to social events with friend or family if food will be there, even one woman taking a roll out of the bread basket at a restaurant and wiping it on a dusty windowsill so she wouldn't eat it. That is no way to live life.

Grizzly,

Funny Bone is actually Robin Tara. She is a sicko who encourages troubled people in this forum to give in to their eating disorders. Do not engage her.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Ice Cream:
I love certain foods and dislike other foods, and then there are quite a bit of foods that are neutral to me. There is nothing wrong with liking food, but it sounds as if you abused food in the past, and probably loved that abuse., in addition to loving the kind of food that you gave up.

I must say that your post sounds like an accusation, though. I do not know what its purpose is, beyond claiming how great you are. And frankly, I do not think you ate "more" food than before. You definitely had to eat less calories to lose all that weight. Or are you just looking at the numbers of carrots vs. the number of potato chips?<HR>

Well, here's my 2c. Grizzly's post was, for me, not an accusation. It was, for me, a reminder of what food is.

Food is fuel, yes, but it is also the first asparagus of the season, a tangerine at Christmas, your first boyfriend offering you a bite of his chocolate bar, your child's expression when she first tastes banana and loves it, the smell of bagels baking the first time you make them, the risotto you made with your college room-mate, chicken soup when you're ill, spiced beef like you get nowhere else in the world, juniper berries making you smile because they remind you of good gin, the tomatoes you grew in your first garden and which were the best you ever tasted, blue cheese from the deli after a long car journey late at night when you were 12, the secret family recipe for salsa picante.

It's a bacon sandwich when you get in from the pub, all salty and oily, it's watching the faces of people you love as they taste something delicious you've made. It's two of you making your own pasta, hardly able to stand from laughing. It's memory and it's hope and it's love.

And it's offering a friend you've never met a recipe for jam, because you're offering him the pleasure of making and eating it.

And yes, I feel sorry for people who don't feel about food as I do, just as I feel sorry for people who are color-blind. They're missing out on something that gives me such joy. And if you don't like that, in the words of a very wise and dear friend: Bite me.

Funny Bone, you seriously need help. I don't believe you have an eating disorder, I think you are just seriously sick. If you did have an eating disorder, you would know how difficult it is to go through one and you wouldn't encourage it in people. I should just ignore you. I know you are just saying these things to annoy people, but you really ****** me off this time. Pretty much everything you say is false. I hope nobody listens to you. You don't seem to be a smart person so hopefully anyone who reads your posts will see that and not take your advice.