BBR 3/23 Week 4 Day 23

ladymajky  good observation of thin people eating. I've noticed thin people at restaurants and it appears that food is a secondary reason they are there. The social interaction with others holds more interest for them than the food. While a thin person might eat some fries, they easily leave most of the food on the plate. That is a goal I'm trying. Cutting my burger in half and waiting to see if I want the other half. If I stop for a minute after the first half, I usually leave the rest on my plate.

Hi all, I'm sorry for the absence. I have had really bad Wi-Fi connection since I've been away but I'm sitting in the Joburg airport catching up with all your threads and hopefully on the 17 hour plane ride back to the states I can catch up on my reading the Beck book and be back in sync with you all by Friday evening when I return home. But I wanted to say 2 things about watching other people eat:

1. This woman plopped down 2 feet from me in the lounge. She's got to be at least 350 lbs. And I have been observing her eating because, well, she is too close to me and it's in my face. What I have observed is a mindless, almost robotic motion of shoving food into her mouth Like she is starving. I think she is on her 3rd or 4th parfait now. Anyway, I feel really disturbed by this.I want to slap the food away from her and yell "Look what you are doing to yourself!"

I find myself wondering if in the past anyone has looked at me and though this...I was never that heavy but still, did I eat like this when I was at my heaviest? Did I look like this? This has made me reflect on my own eating habits.I am trying to do better and Beck is part of that. BUT..I have made a decision that..

2. When the dinner service starts on my flight, I will exercise my "no thank you" muscle and take a pass.If I am feeling hungry I can ask for some fruit. I have eaten a late lunch when I arrived in the lounge a few hours ago, so.it won't kill me to pass up one airplane meal service, right? I do not want to be like this lady. I have eaten enough today, I am full right now. It will be a good exercise to pass on the meal service. It won't kill me. Nobody ever died from NOT eating an airplane meal!

I know I probably sound bitchy talking about this woman but it's really been a wake up call and I wanted to share my insights with you all in the moment. See you ladies on the other side...

I agree with what people have already said. I have been watching others eat. Sometimes it's very large people consuming what I feel is too much food, sometimes it's a thin person who picks at about 1/4 of what would otherwise be a high point meal. What I have to do is pay attention to what I'm consuming. That's all that matters.

I was thin until I had children. When I got asked out for a date, I definitely wanted to know if we were going out to dinner, because if we were, then I was going to starve myself for 3 days, and then when we got to the restaurant, I was going to eat whatever I wanted! Of course, back then I ate a lot more than I do now and struggle less. My nephews 10 & 12 regularly eat 2 or 3 slices of pizza plus breadsticks. They are not overweight.

There are many possibilities for the skinny women and their hamburger & fries:
1) bulimia
2) skipping meals
3) eating only a little of the meal and leaving a lot on the plate
4) younger with a great metabolism
5) breast feeding
6) smoking (burns lots of calories)
7) lots of exercise
8) limiting the number of splurge meals/week
...
What works for them is really of no consequence if it doesn't work for you. And for goodness sake, if it's unhealthy like smoking or an eating disorder, please don't aspire to it.

And you don't have to eat an entire burger to enjoy the taste of it. I think I enjoy it more when I know that I only get a small amount. I take my time and make the most of it.

Tammy  Tammy, thank you for the encouragement and the kick in the rear! I'm not giving up, not by a long shot. I am trying really hard this month to accurately measure and track all of my food. I have started a Body Pump class 2 x a week this month. (it's a weight lifting class at my gym. I can definitely "feel" my muscles after taking the class!) I like your idea of eating more veggies which I will start.

I'm really surprised that my weight has held this month without dropping but there could be many reasons for that (including sore muscles) My doctor recommended the strength training to rev up my metabolism. That will take awhile to see results. I am determined (my DH would say stubborn) and I'm prepared to pay if I have to. 

Thanks again! This group rocks! 

So, checking back in to say that I did pass on the dinner service on my 17 hour flight, and I was just fine! Actually, I drank more water than I normally do, only because I hate getting up to pee all the time on a flight. But I drank a lot of Pellegrino to settle my stomach. About 12 hours into the flight I asked for a sandwich but it had a lot of curry paste on it and I didn't want that so I took one small bite and passed on that. So on my 17 hour flight I had one small half bag of cheddar crackers (I know, not the best choice but I didn't want anything else at that point), and I had some of the omelet breakfast just before landing, so at hour 16. On the 5 hour flight home after that, I also passed on the meal service and had one small bag of pretzels. That's it. I lived to tell...I can do this on planes now. It feels good to know I can control eating on a long haul flight, it's no big deal...