What are your "Food Rules" for living?

Apple’s post encouraging folks to chime in prompted me to start a thread. Let’s see if we can’t get some people to share their thoughts and philosophies on this topic. It’s one that’s pretty prominent in my life right now. So here goes:

What is working for you in the way of “food rules”? We all have them. Some work really well for us, and others don’t.

I will start.

My food rules have been so terribly restrictive (even post VSG) that I have rebelled and since VSG become a mild binger. This food life was no longer working for me. So I have been working with a nutritional therapist and one of the things I have had to do is allow ALL foods back into my eating plan. Strangely enough after having a bit of a food party for several weeks because NOTHING was off limits, I am losing weight now without really trying. I am eating what I want, which for the most part is healthy foods, but I’m still allowing myself to eat “treats” during this time and the weight is still coming off. I am working closely with a nutritionist and a therapist, so I wouldn’t advise doing this free for all without supervision, but I will say it has given me a new outlook and I can feel the beginnings of a new eating lifestyle emerging. A lifestyle that will keep me healthy and trim and at peace with food.

Your turn!

Kairk, thanks for starting this thread and sharing!  I would like to get to a place you're at, but at this point I'm not ready to forge ahead.  I think I mentioned before that I'd read a lot of books, and attended a weekend retreat with Geneen Roth.  She got to the same place you're describing, after many years of dieting and not losing weight.  She worked on the emotional reasons for her attachment to food, as she worked on learning to listen to her body.  She said she went through a time when she binged on certain foods, but eventually got to a place of peace with food and the ability to trust herself.  This philosophy makes so much sense, but fear of returning to old behaviors has kept me from forging ahead.  I hope to get there at some point, but for now, I do have certain rules that seem to work for me.  I stay away from sugar for the most part.  I do eat sugar free ice cream and make sugar free desserts for holidays.  However, those things call my name so I need to not have them in the house regularly.  I also still limit carbs, but generally don't find that to be a burden.  I use low carb wraps for sandwiches/burgers/fajitas, etc.  I tend to get hungrier when I eat too many carbs.  I love veggies, so it's not difficult for me to do a veggie instead of a carb when I'm out to eat.  For now, I'm comfortable in this place.  Lots going on/coming up for me over the next few months - recital, our annual 4th of July shindig, and then knee replacement surgery, so, for now I don't have the psychic energy to start therapy and work on the food issues, but hope to down the road.  It's all a process.

Food Rules.  Interesting word play if you think of it as Food RULES!  So I guess one rule is that food does not rule me.  I consciously decide what I eat.

I guess my main rule is the old standby "protein first".  I even made some little plates that say this.   If I feel hungry I ask myself "does a few ounces of chicken or tuna sound appealing?"  if the answer is no, its head hunger and time to find something else to do or think about or get coffee or water.  If the answer is yes, then I get some protein of some sort.

My other rule is "seek vegetables".  I have to work on this to keep good ones around and include them in meals.

The third thing is to pass most of the grain based carbs or really keep them low.   I maintain on 1300 to 1400 calories per day and while I don't track them anymore, if I follow these rules I usually end up in the right place.

Karik I saw a therapist for food issues maybe 20 years ago and the approach was similar to what you describe. I learned a lot from that even though I didn't lose much weight.  Needed the sleeve, but those lessons have helped me.    So glad you are exploring this and sharing. 

And my dogs pups are so cute I cant stand it.  They are off to new homes in the bay area.   diane

I have a couple that I have adopted and seem to work well for me.

First is - no food at work.  I mean the food that other people bring in and have lying around in the kitchen at work.  I will either bring my own food for lunches and snacks, or go buy myself lunch, but I don't eat food other people bring in.  This keeps me in control of my diet during most weekdays, which is the bulk of my eating time.  Most people at work have me pegged as "she has weird dietary habits" and have stopped offering me stuff.  It works for me!

The second one is asking myself "would this be a good habit to start?"  If the answer is no, then I don't go there.   If I'm on vacation and there is a delicacy I can only get in France or something, then I feel better about sampling it.  But if the Starbucks or bakery near my office has something new and tasty and I'd be inclined to go there again and again, I try not to open that can of worms.  I am pretty habit driven, and it's easy for me to fall off the wagon and get into bad habits, so I try not to go down paths I can see myself having trouble getting off of later on.  I just say to myself "that's not something I do" and move on.

I love this thread and hope to hear more folks chime in as well!