To myself to think I'll never be able to eat normally?

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

I would love to be a normal eater but it's all or nothing with me.I either stick to 1200 calories for several week which I lose weight on or I binge eat,there doesn't seem to be anything inbetween.
I just want a normal relationship with food.

1 slice of pizza or quiche is ridiculous on its own as a meal, but fine if you are having plenty of other things too

Imo overeating isn't greed, it's filling a void or stuffing horrible feelings down your throat with food, I think you are completely right @StormTreader I over eat to silence bad thoughts and my anxiety with life in general. I used to be quite care free but now I feel like I have so much to worry about. The strange thing is though when my rating is under control I feel like other aspects of my life are also easier.
Just to add interest to the topic, I grew up in a house with a super slim sister how was always dieting and a normal sized mother (slim to today's standards) who was also always dieting. Now I don't feel right unless I'm dieting! It's really sad, my relationship with food could've been so much better if I didn't grow up witnessing the women in my family never feeling they were good enough!

this was my life for a long time.. having a baby really snapped me out of it! not helpful if that's not your bag obviously... but i can honestly say i have felt at times that i would never be able to be 'normal' about food... and now i do! i suppose i grew out of it, in my own way. but truly i never thought i'd see the days without some kind of therapy/intervention and here i am!

I need to reset myself somehow.Its worse if I have a drink on a weekend as I snack with the alchohol then eat crap the next day Of course I could not drink but I just want to learn to be moderate with things and not deprive myself

This needs therapy it’s not something you can solve alone.

A whole pizza or restricting yourself to one slice is a more unhealthy relationship.

what a ridiculous comment - where did you read that I am restricting myself? You cannot comprehend that some of us are simply used not to overeat and are not just that hungry, especially in the evening?

That sort of attitude, if you don't feel like pigging you must be starving yourself is so unhealthy and exactly what is wrong with our obesity crisis.

The worst point about the stupid comment above, is that you do not know anything about me: you do not know how tall I am, how active I am -but you immediately jump on the fact that a healthy portion is half a pizza.

I am much more happy knowing that I can eat whatever I like whenever I like really than having to count calories and feel I will not eat "normally" for the rest of my life. My only worry is that my 2 girls start listen to the pile of nonsense that is sprouted everywhere, hopefully they won't.

A lot of people overeat these days, our society pretty much encourages it. I think a lot of people don't even realise what a portion should be anymore. I find it helps to eat less often so I don't think about food all day so I do 16:8 (eat in an 8 hr window) which basically means I eat 2 meals a day plus one snack in the afternoon as that's my low point (times obv vary for every person).

I think we all (but especially women) are divorced quite young from what it means to respond to our bodies' natural cues re when, what and how much to eat. I barely remember a time before I'd internalised that foods were either 'good' or 'bad' and that you were either thin (good) or fat (bad) with no consideration to different body types. There's a fetishising of unachievable female bodies that are unhealthy and then bloody photoshopped, alongside a relentless pushing of shit food marketed as 'treats' or 'diet food.' So we get into a cycle of associating shit food with comfort and healthy food with punishment and restriction rather than just eating the fucking cake but stopping at one piece and maybe having some roast veg for tea.

My sister goes to OA and swears by it; I got quite a lot out of 'fat is a feminist issue.' But you're far from alone op xxx

I'm exactly the same! I have no self control what so ever, I eat decent meals, I cook from scratch, mostly healthy albeit big portions but i still end up back in the kitchen snacking, I'll happily eat a share bar of chocolate or bag of crisps or even two, going out is a nightmare, I'll take healthy food with me, and eat it but still end up in Gregg's or McDonalds after. I love baking too but can never just have one or two biscuits, or one slice of cake, I take it to the extreme and eat half of it.
Especially this last year, I've noticed it's emotional eating too, I had a terrible time the beginning of the year and I've put on 2 stone from comfort eating, thinking I'll get a cake/chips/chocolate to cheer myself up.
I think about food alot, I'm obsessive with it, either thinking of what I want to eat next, what food shop is near where I'm going or thinking about what I should not be eating if I'm on a diet, I recently did slimming world but I felt anxious all the time and couldn't think of anything but food, which either made me starve myself or binge on anything I could.
I just want to eat normally, and I don't want to teach my children my shitty relationship with food, all I can think of next is trying to detox from sugar, as a lot of what I crave is sweet, and get some counselling.

You'd actually be unusual if you were able to eat normally.

No you really wouldn't.

Perhaps on Mumsnet as it seems to attract quite a high number of posters with disordered eating but generally speaking, being able to eat normally isn't unusual.

Very angry response from someone with a completely healthy attitude towards food there Anyone. One slice of pizza is not a meal or worth getting your knickers in a twist about.

An adult female needs roughly 1800 calories a day, depending on build, activity levels, age etc. One slice of pizza is (and I know this because I just looked at the large Pizza Express pizza in my fridge), 112 calories if cut into eight slices or 140 if cut into six. Neither of which constitutes a meal for an adult woman unless she's about 3 feet tall and indolent.

Your use of the word pigging is also very telling.

My relationship with food is entirely healthy, I love cooking and eating, it's one of the most important things in my life, good food and sharing it with others is a huge pleasure, I feel no guilt or strange emotions towards food and I stop eating when I've had enough (I don't think I ever even get to a point of 'fullness', I stop before then) and I eat an exceptionally healthy diet, not through any desire to be healthy but just because there are so many delicious foods, the majority of them healthy if eaten with as part of a very varied diet, that my diet is naturally 'healthy'.

I'm the least likely person to be 'part of the obesity crisis', (about which you seem alarmed). So I suggest you really do examine your own feelings about food, weight and all that goes with it before you jump on my very innocuous comment.

I have a pretty good relationship with food and have never dieted. I'm a size 10. I do snack but less as I've got older. I've also started eating slightly smaller portions but I don't restrict any type of food. My DH has a much less healthy relationship with food and drink and he literally cannot understand how I can just stop after a few crisps or a couple of gins. It's weird.

Hypnotherapy changed this for me. The only thing that's worked in a lifetime of yoyo dieting. I needed to address my own self hatred rather than my eating, and it has been life changing. Only had one session too.

I have friends who talk about weight, dieting, slimming world and I'm sure they eat less than I do. I don't think they're very overweight but they want to be slimmer and work hard at it.

I'm fairly slim (8-10 and 5 9) and if I mention eating pizza or cake they are surprised I'm eating things like that. I see them as part of normal eating and don't resolve to avoid them.

I definitely believe everyone processes food differently as I don't put on weight easily even though I eat 'normally'-whatever that means. I don't take any credit for keeping slim.

I think the way society wants to make money out of everything all the time has totally screwed up the perfectly normal process of eating. Advertising of food and weight loss, ideal bodies, models so that we eat more, worry more and spend more trying to be slim.

I don't know Whim, my sisters and I all have completely normal attitudes towards food, as do many of my friends, I do have friends from all sides of the eating spectrum who either over/under-eat or who are constantly indulging in strange faddish diets (both female and male, including my mother) , all of whom I think have emotional problems that are manifested through food.

I do think they're in the minority though (from my personal study of a couple of hundred people).

I found giving up sugar totally normalised my eating, which had been out of control for several years since the menopause, with the result that was overweight. Now I no longer crave food; I just eat enough to maintain my now normal weight. I think eating sugar makes you crave more food (especially more sugar).