Obsessed

[george81]

Hello all, hope you are well. Is it normal to become obsessed about food whilst restricting calorie intake? I keep buying cookery books, looking at recipes, staring at ingredients and meals in shops and talking about food all whilst restricting my daily calorie intake to a low number. I feel like I need some control in my life, this is one way I’m getting it. Plus I deserve to be punished and stopping myself from eating the food I want is another way. I keep batch cooking low calorie meals and freezing them and talk about food and recipes all the time. Is this a common thing?

 

[Tawny]

I have heard of that.

I wish I could stick to my 2500 calories per day is it? The recommended intake for women.

Do you eat what you batch cook?

Nourishment is essential. You are suffering now but this is a bad way to cope. Please call your doctor. Other people feel the same as you, maybe you can support each other to grow healthily to prepare for the aches and pains of old age.

Life is so hard, I understand, painfully, but luckily very short. Time flies by season after season. Fast changing, another birthday.

One day at a time

Eat seasonally. Vitamins. Fish. Veg. Milk. Happy and healthy. Focus on that.

 

[Star1969]

Hi George
Yes it is common to be obsessed with food when you’re restricting. It’s your body’s way of trying to persuade you to eat more because it’s lacking the nutrition and calorie intake it needs to function properly.
I was tormented by seeing food everywhere. There is no escaping it.
This can seem like your body is being cruel by asking for something you don’t want to give it. The truth is the more you restrict the more damage you do to your vital organs so your body starts to ask for even more calories to repair the damage.

This feeling you describe is typical of an ED. The need for control and the need to punish yourself.
If you haven’t done so already could you talk to someone about these feelings?
If you can process why you feel this way about yourself, and get yourself to a happier place, you have a better chance of developing a healthier relationship with food.

I’ve been where you are now and it’s only because I’m in recovery from my own ED that I can share this with you. I’ve learnt how to control my life in healthy ways and that I never deserved all the punishment I inflicted on myself.
Try not to be so hard on yourself and I know you won’t believe me but your body is trying to help you.
I’m here if you need someone to listen xxx