If you’re thin, what does the voice in your head say?

[SunshineAndFizz]

If you’re offered a biscuit, or need to make a selection in a restaurant, what does the voice in your head say to help you make a healthy choice?

Kate Moss famously said ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’. And my aunt used to say ‘oh I don’t like to feel full’.

If you’re thin, do you have a healthy phrase you tell yourself to help keep on the right track?

Will I feel better or worse after eating this? If it’s something I’m looking forward to/genuinely love, I’ll feel better. If it’s more of an impulse/FOMO I know I’ll regret it.

This is really interesting to hear from the other side!!

I battle my inner food voice every minute i am awake. I'm never not hungry and i've never had the full feeling trigger.

I try to have a default setting of "no thank you" when it comes to sweets, treats, biscuits etc because these are my undoing. I find it easiest to have a inner rules that it's no Mon - Thurs and in moderation Fri-Sun. That mostly works for me.

Ok, I’m not healthy, I’m in treatment for an eating disorder so feel free to ignore me. I used to be addicted to chocolate, I’d eat a share bag every day instead of lunch. I gave up cold turkey 2 years ago and now I never even think about chocolate. If I do have some, it tastes disappointing. Basically, your body craves what it’s used to. I think it’s meant to take about 30 days for the cravings to go away. Just don’t take it too far like me!

I don't have a "food voice"
It's quite binary, hungry / not hungry.
I have never counted calories, never had to, I have been very lucky with that.

I don't deny myself but I do have smaller portions of unhealthy stuff. I will get a cake to share for example or get a coffee with 'mini' dessert. I have a square of chocolate not a whole bar etc etc

I don’t really have a voice? I don’t eat out often enough for it to influence my weight so I’d just order what I like.
If a biscuit is going round in the office I’ll have one if it’s one I really like but would turn down what I didn’t.

I'm def an overeater. What helps me is that I'm very picky with my food. I like a special brand of chocolate, some biscuits and some pudding. If it's not what I like I won't have any.

Also I don't eat btw meals generally. So I save my treats for after meals when I'm full and when my blood sugar gets less affected..

Food indecision helps when I’m out because by time I figure it out I get fed up and just go home since my cut off time for eating is not past 9pm and often there will be one day a week where I stop eating after 6pm or 7 pm because I’m not hungry. Intermittent fasting has helped a lot since I don’t eat breakfast and find that I’m not properly hungry till near lunch time. I have a repertoire of simple meals from scratch I can make that helps with my indecision and different fruits around to nibble on.

Treat-wise, I may have some sweet treats if I crave them but I will usually make them (use whole meal bread flour for my baked goods, just require higher liquid ingredients and I use maple syrup as my sweetener not sugar). If I buy them, they have to be on sale, and there are very few that I like that are worth it to me. I enjoy Haagen Daas because it is delicious, and the only ice cream I found that has basic ingredients and I can have a few spoonfuls and be satisfied. I find most sweets too sweet and salty snacks too salty but also hate food waste so I don’t try too many things because it’s cheaper to get more than trying to get just one to see if you like it or not.

If I do have them, it’s not in the late evenings unless I plan on walking later. I have a set number of steps I have to hit daily and will go out and do them. I pretty much listen to music and play Pokémon Go around my area.

I love fruits and vegetables and I don’t limit my carbs, but stick to the healthy ones.

I’ve learned to make quick breads out of Greek yogurt and flour (sub for wholemeal and adding sodium bicarbonate). I make my own sauces because the store-bought stuff don’t taste worth the calories or the stuff that is in them and I don’t like being disappointed especially after I’ve spent money on it.

Tbh, thinking about food for me is exhausting so it isn’t something constantly on my mind but when I do have to think about it, I weigh up the calories and the ingredients and how they will likely make me feel when eating out but at home, I already know so it is easier for me to eat at home.

It says either "that looks good, I'll have some" or "no, I'm not fussed" Because my weight isn't managed by what I do on meals out or my response to unexpected offers of food, but by what I do on the daily. Which is walk loads and only eat the calories I burn the rest of the time. If I had the dessert or the biscuit I'd probably lose something else that day like my late night snack.

@SunshineAndFizz do I need it or do I want it? If it is only a want leave it an hour or two. If I still want it, then I'll have it. Otherwise I've forgotten about it.

If you are craving sweet, eat a handful of almonds and wait. Can pretty much guarantee you'll forget about the sweet craving really quickly.

There's a lot wrong with me, but my weight is not one of them.

I think I have a fast metabolism. And when I'm full, I'm full. I don't diet, don't really watch what I eat, and have been the same (slimish) weight for 30 years. Just the way I'm put together I think.

"I don't eat that"

^^applies to anything that tastes disappointing.

No takeaway can really taste good compared to actual, homecooked and properly spiced food. I make better curry than I buy.

Chips are OK a few times a year but generally bland compared to properly flavoured food.

Shop bough cake just tastes disappointing if you really taste it. Same with tub ice cream, it's just flavoured sugar.

And if its not good, I put it down.
If I start a bar of chocolate and have even a passing thought of "meh" or "it's too chewy" or anything negative, I wrap it up and save it for another time. Sometimes that means I eat 2 bars, other times, ill take one bite and be like "no, that isn't actually what I wanted". So I don't finish it.

One unhealthy meal isn't going to "make you fat". In general, I prefer mainly healthy options on a menu. Excessively fatty or fried foods wouldn't be my first choice, and I'm not a dessert person either.
If going out to eat, I would always choose whatever I fancied, but I only eat until I'm full. Everything in moderation.

Could that be because you don't have a better alternative? Once i learnt to cook really nice food, I had no interest in ordering takeaway (nor does hubby).

I like crafting so having a drink means not crafting because I can't be accurate. What do you like doing that isn't food and drink? Could something else motivate you? Like booking and paying for an early class or planning a day out that you have to get up for?

I've never really had a "voice" in my head, just the sense of crippling anxiety and overall pessimism.

I was a fat kid in school, but decided to lose weight after secondary school. Just stopped eating as much shite, trying some better options a bit at a time, and becoming more active.

Eventually, my tastes changed and I tend to enjoy "healthy" food. I've never had the experience of trying to force it down.

Ironically, I started developing more and more health problems since I lost the weight, and my life has totally gone to shit. Now after learning how to manage with the bulk of them, I developed a rare autoimmune condition which is killing me. Horrifically underweight but can't gain any because of it. I need an operation to overcome it, but I can't have it because I'm too underweight. I'd be able to regain weight AFTER the operation, but that's meaningless because they still won't approve it.

"I don't eat that" made it really easy to eliminate the annoying back and forth I used to have with myself about stuff I was tempted by.

I'd waste hours trying not to eat a chocolate bar after dinner and using willpower before caving.

But once I'd decided as a choice earlier in the day that I wasn't going to eat one that evening, it was easier because I didn't have a choice to make or need to resist iyswim. I'd think about the chocolate and just think, "I'm not eating that, let's gp somewhere else or think about something else" rather than justifying and whining myself into it "well, I could have half, or just have it now and not buy any more tomorrow, then it's out of the house, and I was so good earlier, I only had a small dinner, I skipped lunch, I'm probably under my calories" etc etc. I got fed up wasting my evenings with the whiny toddler in my head that couldn't take no for an answer.

I’ve lost 5 stone over 18 months….another biscuit? Sorry, not for me, I can’t afford to buy any more clothes!

I don't focus on weight. I focus on health. So often actively choose the healthiest option I can find.

I have a bag of snacks at the top of the fridge for the DGC. It’s got chocolate, sweets and things they like. I have no interest in eating anything in that bag. I have another bag in the pantry with crisps and biscuits. Same applies. The voice in my head though, is that I do envy people who enjoy eating them and I wish I could, but I haven’t snacked for so long, I just don’t. And as controversial as the Kate Moss line is, I do sometimes use it.

Don’t listen to Kate Moss! Diet culture of the 90s and 2000s was dangerous.
You aren’t wrong or broken for having “food noise” it’s totally normal and is what has kept humans alive for so long.

Just stop dieting, ignore all the dieting and healthy eating advice and listen to your body, treat it well in terms of sleep, exercise and reducing stress. You should find that once you allow yourself whatever you want at any time you aren’t as bothered and can take or leave things.

My food voice whispers and knows when to shut up. I totally understand that’s not the case for so many people unless they gag theirs with Mounjaro.

I never had weight issues.

The voice in my head (which voice?) says as follows:

Enjoy your life while you can, because sometimes at around 42 you realised you were not immortal.

Maybe to add - I'm slim possibly due to being extremely picky with food and having general anxiety since childhood.
Who cares why.

I don't have a voice in my head regarding food. The only thing I think is whether it will be delicious or not.

I focus on health, not weight - never owned scales, never counted a calorie - and I find exercise is much better for my mind and body than self-denial about food. I avoid processed food for the most part but I refuse to have any hang-ups about it - if I want cake or chips or cheese or booze or a 10-course tasting menu I'll have it. Food is one of life's joys and it's really sad that it's wrapped up in guilt for so many people.

I've always been skinny. It's down to genetics, exercise and not having children. It's nothing to do with watching what I eat or counting calories.

This is an interesting thread. I’m not particularly thin by mumsnet standards, but I don’t really have a food voice and do tend to stay around the same weight - I just eat whatever I want when I am hungry and stop when I am full - I find it impossible to overeat, even if I am really enjoying something. I think that the only time a food voice pops up is if I need something nutritionally - I might really fancy salmon or beef, for example. I never talk to myself when selecting from a menu or feel guilty about eating anything. I would also never eat or drink something if I didn’t like it - I love wine, but would never drink any old plonk for the sake of it.