Full Disclosure: Eat Me

I have always been a gal who has loved food - I watch the Food Network all the time, Anthony Bourdain is one of my personal heroes, I love to try new recipes, new foods, new restaurants. I'll try any new food at least once. Second to fashion, I think about food all the time.

I am definitely a bored eater and a compulsive snacker. If you're eating, I want to eat too. If I am bored, I want to eat. If it is meal time, I want to eat, regardless of whether or not I am hungry. My body doesn't listen to the "feeling full" signals, it listens to the "am I satisfied" signals - and I am rarely satisfied when it comes to food.

 

I guess I've always had a hang-up about food but I hadn't started noticing it until a few years ago. I've always loved to eat and except for a period during junior high where I was quite a bit overweight, I've always been able to consume what I want and mostly "absorb" it. And through high school and college, I've dabbled with eating disorders but have never been a very "successful" at it - I loved food too much to deny myself.

As I am getting older, I am noticing that this eating what I want business is catching up with me. My diet is mostly unhealthy and it is getting out of control. I need to take charge of what I put in my own body. This is stuff I realized on Sunday night, after mentally recapping my day's indulgences ...

... which included:

• Breakfast: turkey & salami sandwich on sourdough baguette
• Snack: small movie popcorn & cherry frosty
• Lunch: turkey sandwich on sourdough baguette, handful of Jelly Bellies
• Snack: slice of apple pie, handful of green bean chips
• Dinner: NY strip steak with waffle fries, salad
• Dessert: slice of apple pie
• After-Dinner Dinner: leftover steak fried rice
• After-Dinner Dessert: apple Toaster Strudel

 

I think there's enough negativity about our body image in the world that I don't want to add to it, so please don't think I am being unecessarily vain and just whining about feeling fat because I know I'm not (though certain times of the month, I feel like the size of a zeppelin). But I was shocked at the amount and poor quality of food I consumed and I realized that I need to learn to eat healthier and be more conscious about what I am putting into my body.

However, I am also a realist and don't think I can turn myself into one of those "I eat local organic non-gluten vegan-only" chicks because I refuse to give up the dirty carbs which includes pizza, pasta, ooey chewey white bread, amongst other things. Plus I still think about food and trying food all the time, and live with a man who thinks of vegetables as a nasty four-letter word.

So what do I think will turn me around from decades of poor eating habits and a compulsion with food? I'm not really sure yet, I haven't done the research. But I am starting a food journal so I can keep track of what I am consuming, and I've bought a ton of gum so I can chew that when I am bored instead of stuffing Cheetos into my gullet.

For you healthy eaters out there, what started you gals on your healthier eating path? And for everyone, can you please offer me some advice or tips so I can stay on the "straight and narrow" of food, while not feeling like I am denying myself?

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Sweater: Anthropologie Moth jewelers choice (check stores - similar in red here or ish in green here)
Skirt: H&M silky floral (worn here before - similar here or here)
Shoes: Nine West temani patent wedges (worn here before - similar here or here)