Sometimes I think I'm going crazy. I'm naturally a little "obsessive" about stuff, but this is the WORST. Nearly every minute of the day, I'm thinking about dieting, or weight, or food in some way or another. Planning my meals, thinking about my weight. Calculating how much I'll weigh in (fill in the blank). It's not even that I'm having any cravings or that I'm hungry - but I'm always thinking about what I did eat, what I will eat, how I might be able to tweak what I'm eating. How I should exercise, how many glasses of water I still need to have....you get the picture. Does that happen to anyone else? How do I get to a place where I'm just doing what I need to do without thinking about it all the time?

Learning a new behavior always takes extra thought. Eventually the new behavior becomes routine and requires less thought. You just do it out of habit.

Additionally, I've done a bit of thinking about my own addictive/obsessive personality lately. When I don't want to deal with something, like something I need to do or some emotion/feeling (usually a negative one) I look for something to distract me. Since I have my eating under control for the moment, I start looking for other things to distract me. (My current list of unhealthy distractions seems to be growing. I think it'd be nice if I could turn that focus toward exercise or house work. lol) I am getting better at recognizing when I'm distracting myself, and sometimes I can work through the negative emotion without reaching for something to dull it or distract from it. But I've got a long way to go before I'm close to doing this on a regular basis.

Could you be using this as a way to avoid other things you don't want to deal with?
Honestly, if it's not hurting you, or anyone else, and it gets you through the day, don't worry too much about it.

I think most of us focus our attention on getting it right when we start eating to a new plan.

I still log my foods and plan my meals in advance after nearly 10 years of Atkineering, but as it has become a habit nowadays it doesn't seem like an obsession to me.

Geez, you're only turning the way you eat inside out and upside down! It would be surprising if you didn't have to think about it!

I do it. I also went nutso thinking about food, think about food prep, find new meals, obsess over the scale every minute, cram in tons of water and worry about eating out, social things.....blah blah blah.

I did it for a good bit of time.

but it starts to fade out as you are longer on plan.
eating lc is a huge change. wanting to lose bigger weight is hard also and you want to see progress. it is on in the forefront of your mind.


but it slows a bit so I feel better about it now. You will too.

hang in there.

Yep. I think it pretty much goes with the territory. Changing the whole way you eat is a biggie so it is natural that it dominates a lot of your thought. If you didn't think about it you would probably automatically pick up the biscuits as they were passed by.

Are you still eating dairy and gluten? Eliminating them and eating enough vLC foods to eliminate hunger is the only WOE that got rid of my constant thoughts of food, dieting & weight.

And just as an example of WHY it is not a good thing - I'm sitting at work right now reading this board ;-) I do worry that I'm so busy thinking about "this" stuff that I'm not paying due attention to the...less interesting..things that pay the bills!

Well, that sounds perfectly normal to me. LOL!

I can totally relate to your post 2thinchix and you have me thinking about when it all started.

I'm at work reading this board too. It's my go-to place when I'm stressed, bored, happy. Huh, come to think of it, I used to use food the same way. I agree with the others - what you are doing sounds perfectly natural. I obsessed too for a long time while I was figuring out how to make this work forever. Even now, two years in, I think in advance about what I can eat and drink. I will look up restaurant menus in advance if I'm meeting friends to make sure there's something I can have - and I've asked to change the venue sometimes too. I still weigh once a day even though I get-it about fluctuations. I still keep a daily food diary.

Me, too. I think about my menus and I plan all the time. I'm always looking for more information on low carb nutrition and will buy every new book that sounds interesting to me on the subject. I also re-read my old books. Two new books just arrived in the mail this weekend.

I totally get what you are saying - and I also wish that I didn't obsess about it as much as I do. The food part doesn't bother me much. I don't mind thinking about what I plan to eat or whether options are on plan. What I don't like is the obsession with weight loss. I wish I could just eat on plan and let the results be what they are going to be without focusing on what the scale says. I know that I am losing weight. I know that I feel healthier and more energetic. I know my clothes fit now that didn't fit before. I know I look better. But I can't seem to let that be enough. I still want to see a number on a scale at a particular time. (I want to have lost 20 pounds by X date, 30 pounds by Y date, be at goal by Z date.) I really do annoy myself sometimes!

I obsessed a lot at first,but once it became normal,well it's just normal.
What's interesting is on looking back,I obsessed even more about food before I started this way of eating,but that was the norm as well.
I rarely think about food anymore and eat,on average,one meal a day..I like this approach to eating a lot!

I have to post in this old topic..those sympdoms are so me..I need to read this board every day to collect some food idea, interesting issue and topics..I woke up early to cook,I plan every upcoming meal in my head during my work,on the bed, on commutes, I off to Cold Storage when I am doing 24 hours fasting during my lunch time just to look around for some nice ingredients (nothing to buy in mind); I check out on food nutrition website online during my break time (or work,you know..) for crying out loud, this isn't me at all! I am obsessed you might said lol