Just wondering! I count it a blessing but just don't know what to think. I must force down food to maintain. Yesterday we had a potluck dinner at church and there was a huge spread of dessert. I stood and stared at each delicious, carby dish of junk for long moments and couldn't even work up the least bit of desire to cheat. I could smell the stuff but my mouth didn't water.

I'm so blessed, I hope it lasts.

Never experienced it like this before, it's a weird feeling. I was always the one who could out-eat everyone.

It's like nirvana

Yes, I'm going through the same thing. For the first time in my life, I'm actually considering whether I may become thinner than I wish if I don't increase my eating.

As an aside, I think I can understand anorexia nervosa better now. I believe your body can get programmed into a low appetite food-averse state when you put it into serious weight loss mode for a while. I lost this over three intense but wonderful months. Of course, I don't have the body image disturbance that comes with anorexia. Just saying I get it more now.

It really depends on what I have done that day or the day before. If I wourk out hard, or walk my 6 miles with friends, that day, I crave fat. I want to eat more than usual. I have three days like this a week, usually.

If I am on a day that I am "resting" then I am not really hungry. I could get by on one meal and a few snacks. I have done that when I am alone and especially when I am doing a VLCHF day or days to lose a bit of overage.

It seems I am still losing a bit, too.

Mio, If you are eating enough to keep you healthy then maybe your are not at your body's desired goal, just your mind's.

I have never lost my desire to eat- and rarely miss a meal- but I have gone through periods of boredom when just nothing is appealing. I tell myself it's just fuel and eat something.
I am not 'tempted' by the carbage that is out all the time- feeling good and looking good is much more important to me than eating that.

Congrats on your success!!!!

Hmmm...I would have to say no. I love food. I love cooking. I love the imagination that is needed to keep it fresh. I practice my own natural cycle of IF--some days I'm not hungry other days I am.

It seems like the longer I'm committed, I find that the desire to eat randomly or emotionally has may not completely disappeared, but I have much more control over it and recognize it for what it is.

Like Eno, I sometimes do get bored with the choices or even I don't know what to prepare eventhough I have a full frige when that happens I usually just have a scrambled egg.

Progress not perfection.

Lisa

no...love eating

That's what's so odd. I LOVE eating too. But it's partly turned off, or maybe turned down. I'm sure it's healthier, but less...epicurian.

I have a theory about this.

I think that this mindset, where eating is a background activity we engage in to sustain life, is the state we are MEANT to be in. I think that before this, when we were eating not because our body needed energy but because an irresistible impulse to prevent our blood glucose from dipping too low and KILLING us had kicked in, a survival mechanism we had no power to control had taken over, I think we're not meant to live like that. Kind of like breathing. We don't think about breathing, but if we try to hold our breath forever, we can't. We can't kill ourselves simply by holding our breath, and even if we succeed in holding it long enough until we lose consciousness (a truly difficult feat to accomplish), our body begins to breathe on it's own, and we eventually wake up. A survival mechanism kicks in. A person who is on the carbohydrate/blood sugar/insulin rollercoaster thinks about food a great deal. A person who is drowning thinks about being able to breathe a great deal. We don't think about having water to drink too much, unless we have been deprived of it for a long time. Even those on calorie restricted diets, they have a preoccupation with food. I read somewhere about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, about how, even though it didn't go on for a very long time, several of the participants had become so preoccupied with food over the course of the experiment that they actually became chefs.

I would say at least for myself that it's become MORE epicurian. Instead of just grabbing something fast and easy to stuff in my face I find I take even greater pleasure in choosing the ingredients and then preparing them. I have always loved to cook but it's taken on a more special role--the pleasure of taking whole foods and preparing it into something that not only is delicious but also healthful and moving me even that much closer to maintaining excellent health. Its taken on bigger meaning. I don't know if that makes any sense....

Instead of being slave to the highs and lows of glucose instability and the prisoner of psychological eating, I can now really enjoy food for what it is and its not food as medication anymore.

I can see that Lisa. A very viable and lovely way to approach it.

But the thought that goes through my mind repeatedly is "I've deemphasized food." And i feel comfortable with that. Things are more streamlined now, and I resist planning and seeking great pleasure in food. I get pleasure in not needing to focus on it a great deal. And I get pleasure in the simple taste of a nut or piece of cheese.

As the years of my being in the kitchen have increased (I've grown older) I have grown to looking for my old comfy, easy to fix, more than one meal foods. I thought they were gone with this WOE but I have found recipes and ways that I can make them healthy. We love my meatloaf, for instance, with smashed cauliflower. I actually am having fun cooking again, as well as planning ahead. I may not be as adventurous as others but we sure are eating well, finally. On other diets, I would think about food all day long, wondering when and what I would get to eat. Now, Ihavecoconut oil and cream in my coffee for breakfast, scrambled eggs for lunch and a well balanced dinner for DH and I. I love the taste of food again, however if he is traveling, I will do an easy meal for me, PB or cream cheese w/celery or nuts and be very happy. It used to be a big bowl of cereal and toast.

As you know, I'm in the love food and love to eat camp. I don't necessarily love to cook, but I do enjoy eating high quality, delicious foods. And trying new foods and recipes is high on my list of what I consider fun. I'm with Arlene, though. I prefer simple recipes. It it gets too involved then I won't likely even try it once.

Grocery shopping (something I used to dread) has even become a fun experience.