I was pointed to this thread... as a newbie here, I was waffling on in another thread, and someone suggested this thread might be a better home for my thoughts......... it seems to be, just not one of the ideas mentioned do a thing for me, tried them all and more, but the MORE effort into food I make, I am finding it counter-productive :-(
I have lost such interest in food, I eat only to satisfy appetite (and that's only partial, as I am ALWAYS hungry, even after eating) and now rarely put the effort into cooking as it has all become the "same" to me, and more importantly not worth the effort.
Being disabled and in constant pain, spending time cooking and preparing means MORE pain, but at one time, that was worthwhile as it meant at least the end result of decent food was pleasure, now it means JUST pain, and so I bother as little as possible, (and it's getting worse!) and the only food I genuinely crave is that I can't have! The pain appears to be effectively operating as some sort of avoidance therapy, it seems to be telling me (in a BIG way!) NOT to bother as the discomfort is just not worth the effort!
If I never saw meat again, I would not complain, apart from the fact I would have much LESS choice of what to eat and it would then be even MORE boring! eg. a piece of cheese is as "thrilling" to me as something I spent 2 hours cooking... ie. it's NOT!
Last week I went to a restaurant with friends for one of those rare special meals I only have a few times per year, (it was a full Indian (Bangladeshi) meal) and it was positively orgasmic.. so I haven't lost my interest, just I feel forced to eat what I don't like! I have even tried eating this sort of food without the obvious carbs, (it's already fairly high in carbs without the obvious ones of rice and breads!) and it then becomes just like eating that piece of plain meat or plain cheese - plain boring and unsatisfying, partially because I don't get as FULL without the carbs but it has to be more even than that? - so I simply don't bother and stay at home until I can justify a rare carb-fest when I use carb-blockers to help prevent me having a hypoglycaemic attack!
It may be psychological, (it is certainly very depressing) but 50 years of learned behaviour hasn't been "unlearned" in the best part of 18 months, and I only perceive carbs as being "satisfying!" A meal with no carbs is not a meal at all to me, and that is being positively reinforced in my brain too!
One thing for certain, a lifetime of high carb low meat working class diet, mixed in with a regime of low calorie-low fat diets add in ULTRA low calorie starvation type diets, and it has complete screwed-up how my my appetite works, as well as my metabolism! :-(
I never mentioned cost.... 5 or 6 times the cost for food is a conservative estimate... and I forever need to shop - low carb food isn't something that is dried and lives in a packet, it rots QUICKLY! So making the discomfort and pain worse as I spend hours shopping - so stimulating the dislike of food!
NOTHING in the UK is convenient for low carb eating... so every single item of food has to be prepared or cooked, and you simply have no idea of how I crave the long-lost concept of getting up, and eating a breakfast without any BOTHER... just opening a pack of cereal for example.
I don't lose weight any more on Low carb, I eat far too much, plain quantity - but I don't gain any weight at all either and because of that it's controlling my Hypoglycaemia perfectly, but I feel my quality of life is almost as bad as it was when I was passing out from Hypos, just in a different way!
If I was just using LC dieting to lose weight, (which it does, but not in the same league as low fat/low calorie diets do!) I would undoubtedly have dumped it long ago, and reached for the pizza - but I don't have a choice, it's a lifetime thing for me now, or worsening ill health from the Reactive Hypos, ending perhaps as full-on Type 2 diabetes (and the miserable death I watched my Grandmother suffer on a medically controlled carb laden diet!)
Does anyone relate closely to what I am saying, or, as I suspect is this because of a particular combination of circumstances?
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