Food Boredom

[SuziDavis 544]

I am at a point where nothing interests me when it comes time to eat so I just don't... I still will make my Protein coffee to try and get something in.

But has anyone else went through a funk like this?

[hills&valleys 130]

I hope to get back to that point after VSG surgery! Mentally, the thin-me vs the fat-me had a vastly different relationship with food. The thin-me lived by the ethos of "eat to live not live to eat" and "nothing tastes as good as thin feels". After a 2012 accident and major life change, I flipped to the "dark" side with food being more of a focus with my enjoyment in food replacing the of joy of living life's events.

Long term success will be increased if you establish some new habits and interests while taking advantage of the diminished focus on food. Look to becoming more active in your community, i.e. volunteer work, tennis, pickleball, adult softball leagues, Habitat for Humanity and/or; art, computer or carpentry classes at the Community College. WLS gives us a tool to help us to LIVE LIFE rather than just EXIST on the sidelines!

You are mourning the loss of your love affair with food. You have to replace that loss with a love of something else....preferably something healthy....active and more conducive with your new life's goals!

[summerseeker 1,848]

I can relate to this. I had a period where I just did not want to eat. I had lots of yogurt replacement meals. Real food still didn't taste good to me and there were lots of foods I just couldn't stomach. Going on holiday kickstarted my appetite. Lots of different foods to try seemed to switch my taste buds on again.

I love Asian foods and as I live in the back of beyond, if I want them, I have to cook them. I get so much inspiration from the pages - Food before and after. @Starwarsandcupcakes gave me miso [ never heard of it before] @Tomo does food I always want to eat, I drool looking at the photos.

Hang in there, do your best to eat 'proper' foods at mealtimes. Skinny people skip meals all the time. Just get your teams goals in, as in Protein etc.

[NP_WIP 273]

I feel like that now, I have stress from all parts of life and when I have to think of food nothing interests me, plus I'm cooking for 3 diff dietary needs right now. I have been surviving on baby bel cheese, avocado and tilapia this week, hopefully things will get better after next week so I can dedicate the time to meal planning.

[Lisa XO 117]

22 hours ago, SuziDavis said:

I am at a point where nothing interests me when it comes time to eat so I just don't... I still will make my Protein coffee to try and get something in.

But has anyone else went through a funk like this?

I'm still pretty fresh out of surgery but I am going through this now. I was able to start "normal" foods this past Tuesday and I really have zero interest in trying new things, exploring my new options, etc. It doesn't help that my tastebuds have changed. I'm bored with the whole idea of eating, it seems. I wish I didn't have to.

[Starwarsandcupcakes 1,897]

Sometimes blah periods with foods happen. I get pretty bored of eating the same stuff over and over so unless I look for something new and different then I don’t see a point. Try looking for a random recipe generator or asking people to link you to their new favorite recipes. Tonight for dinner my family had baked bbq chicken and pineapple. I had mine as salad and they had theirs over rice with broccoli.

[smc124 118]

On 02/19/2023 at 19:41, Starwarsandcupcakes said:

Sometimes blah periods with foods happen. I get pretty bored of eating the same stuff over and over so unless I look for something new and different then I don’t see a point. Try looking for a random recipe generator or asking people to link you to their new favorite recipes. Tonight for dinner my family had baked bbq chicken and pineapple. I had mine as salad and they had theirs over rice with broccoli.

Try asking chatgpt to suggest recipes. If you can be specific indicating you had wls or macros you require…it’s surprisingly pretty good

[Lisa XO 117]

2 hours ago, smc124 said:

Try asking chatgpt to suggest recipes. If you can be specific indicating you had wls or macros you require…it’s surprisingly pretty good

I just did this. Very interesting and will come in handy! Thanks for the suggestion.

[SuziDavis 544]

On 2/17/2023 at 3:05 PM, hills&valleys said:

I hope to get back to that point after VSG surgery! Mentally, the thin-me vs the fat-me had a vastly different relationship with food. The thin-me lived by the ethos of "eat to live not live to eat" and "nothing tastes as good as thin feels". After a 2012 accident and major life change, I flipped to the "dark" side with food being more of a focus with my enjoyment in food replacing the of joy of living life's events.

Long term success will be increased if you establish some new habits and interests while taking advantage of the diminished focus on food. Look to becoming more active in your community, i.e. volunteer work, tennis, pickleball, adult softball leagues, Habitat for Humanity and/or; art, computer or carpentry classes at the Community College. WLS gives us a tool to help us to LIVE LIFE rather than just EXIST on the sidelines!

You are mourning the loss of your love affair with food. You have to replace that loss with a love of something else....preferably something healthy....active and more conducive with your new life's goals!

I never really had a love affair with food. I am opposite, I have no interest in eating.

[SuziDavis 544]

On 2/18/2023 at 10:51 AM, NP_WIP said:

I feel like that now, I have stress from all parts of life and when I have to think of food nothing interests me, plus I'm cooking for 3 diff dietary needs right now. I have been surviving on baby bel cheese, avocado and tilapia this week, hopefully things will get better after next week so I can dedicate the time to meal planning.

YES!!! I cook for my husband, cook for my kids, bake for all of them, and when it's my turn... nothing. Or I want something that I don't really eat anymore. Like a bowl of Cheerios...lol

[hills&valleys 130]

3 hours ago, SuziDavis said:

I never really had a love affair with food. I am opposite, I have no interest in eating.

I am not criticizing you. People do not become morbidly obese if they have an adversion to food. If you never had a "love affair" with food, how did you reach a weight of 372 pounds? You may CURRENTLY have no interest in eating as a result of WLS but; as all of us who are in the process or have had WLS, we have or had an unhealthy and excessive consumption of food. The majority of obese individuals suffer from addictive and/or compulsive disorders. The energy from one activity (in this case, eating) has to be transferred to another to fill the void previously occupied by food and eating. This is why therapists encourage adding new healthy activites and interests to shift our focus on not what we have lost but what we are gaining.

[summerseeker 1,848]

14 hours ago, hills&valleys said:

I am not criticizing you. People do not become morbidly obese if they have an adversion to food. If you never had a "love affair" with food, how did you reach a weight of 372 pounds? You may CURRENTLY have no interest in eating as a result of WLS but; as all of us who are in the process or have had WLS, we have or had an unhealthy and excessive consumption of food. The majority of obese individuals suffer from addictive and/or compulsive disorders. The energy from one activity (in this case, eating) has to be transferred to another to fill the void previously occupied by food and eating. This is why therapists encourage adding new healthy activites and interests to shift our focus on not what we have lost but what we are gaining.

You may not think you are criticizing but oh boy, you are.

[smc124 118]

02/20/2023 11:07 PM, hills&valleys said:

I am not criticizing you. People do not become morbidly obese if they have an adversion to food. If you never had a "love affair" with food, how did you reach a weight of 372 pounds? You may CURRENTLY have no interest in eating as a result of WLS but; as all of us who are in the process or have had WLS, we have or had an unhealthy and excessive consumption of food. The majority of obese individuals suffer from addictive and/or compulsive disorders. The energy from one activity (in this case, eating) has to be transferred to another to fill the void previously occupied by food and eating. This is why therapists encourage adding new healthy activites and interests to shift our focus on not what we have lost but what we are gaining.

I gained 100lbs in recovery for an bulimia so I mean this just isn’t true. 

You speak about weight gain, and consumption as a compulsion and love affair as if they are inherently the same things and they just aren’t. No one calls alcoholism a love affair with booze, nor is a love affair with food is not inherently the same thing as binge eating disorder or the compulsive eating, addictive behaviors you describe. That’s not love that’s disordered eating and to many people who experience it it feels more like a prison than a romance.

Further there are plenty of reasons people gain weight or struggle to lose not limited to medical issues or life long yo-yo dieting socialized in people since childhood resulting in an insurmountably low bmr. It also ignores the idea of a body’s set weight which numerous medical studies have pointed to as a valid hypothesis and part of why wls is one of the only weight loss tools with long term sustainable success.

Let’s try to be sensitive that everyone’s story and struggle respect their own personal reflections of it.

[NP_WIP 273]

46 minutes ago, smc124 said:

Further there are plenty of reasons people gain weight or struggle to lose not limited to medical issues or life long yo-yo dieting socialized in people since childhood resulting in an insurmountably low bmr. It also ignores the idea of a body’s set weight which numerous medical studies have pointed to as a valid hypothesis and part of why wls is one of the only weight loss tools with long term sustainable success.

Let’s try to be sensitive that everyone’s story and struggle respect their own personal reflections of it.

Completely agree, everyone's situation and journey are different, and we have to be respectful of everyone's story.

15 hours ago, hills&valleys said:

I am not criticizing you. People do not become morbidly obese if they have an adversion to food. If you never had a "love affair" with food, how did you reach a weight of 372 pounds? You may CURRENTLY have no interest in eating as a result of WLS but; as all of us who are in the process or have had WLS, we have or had an unhealthy and excessive consumption of food. The majority of obese individuals suffer from addictive and/or compulsive disorders. The energy from one activity (in this case, eating) has to be transferred to another to fill the void previously occupied by food and eating. This is why therapists encourage adding new healthy activites and interests to shift our focus on not what we have lost but what we are gaining.

I understand where the OP is coming from when saying she did not have a love affair with food, neither did I. I ate because people told me I should be eating at certain intervals, or certain quantities even when not hungry, which ultimately led me to not understand my hunger/full cues and eating out of habit instead. I didn't enjoy eating unless I was trying different things which became eating out more often etc. Not everyone who is obese is thinking about food 24/7 or using food as a coping mechanism.

[hills&valleys 130]

22 hours ago, SuziDavis said:

I never really had a love affair with food. I am opposite, I have no interest in eating.

Love affair may have been the wrong term but we do have a dependence on food for a multitude of reasons. The point I was trying to make is that your lack of interest in food is the perfect time to establish a new and healthier relationship with food and to adopt new activities to transfer your focus before the Honeymoon Phase is over.