Food Centric

I noticed last week that although my Mom and  I are very similar we approach food very differently.  I plan what and when I am going to eat way in advance and need to eat every 4 hours or so. I plan meals into my day like meeting. My Mom likes food, but her day doesn’t revolve around it. She eats when she can, but she can go most of the day without eating. I tried her approach, but it just didn’t work for me. Wednesday met to get our hair done at 11, so I hadn’t eaten lunch, and then we ended up being there until 4. At 3 I was about to pass out, and ended up with a soggy, tasteless wrap from the beauty school cafeteria.  Thursday we had delicious baked goods (half a bagel and half an almond horn) from Scratch, and then went shopping. By the time we bought my grill at 2:30 I was, again, starving and grumpy. My Mom wanted to go get a gas tank and test out the grill. I just wanted to eat something, anything, immediately. We ended up grilling, and at that point, I was so hungry that I felt like I’d never get full. So I ate, and ate, and ate.

 

I know I am probably a little obsessive and that this all goes back to my eating disorder days. On the other hand, planning and eating regular meals helps me to eat better because I am not overly hungry and have healthy options. I definitely live a food centric life. I live to eat instead of eating to live. I run to eat. I bike to eat. I feel a little sorry for people who don’t enjoy eating, because food is one of life’s great pleasures. On the other hand, I’m also pretty jealous of them because sometimes I feel like food controls me.

Is your life food centric? Or is eating something you do because you have to?