The First Step to Changing How I Think About Food

“You can put five people in a room with a cake, there will be one or two people who couldn’t care less about the cake, unless they’re really hungry. But at least a few of them will have a hard time thinking about anything but the cake,” says eating-disorders researcher Gayle Timmerman, Ph.D., R.N., of the University of Texas at Austin.

While I am a person who wants to lose weight, I've never thought of myself as one of the people obsessed with the cake. I'm not interested in fad diets, but curious about diets that change your relationship with food, like the potato diet and intermittent fasting. But will those diets actually work if I haven't admitted that I have a problem with my relationship with food?

In his book Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales, Pen Jillette has to admit he has an unhealthy relationship with food before he can commit to the potato diet and lose all of that extra weight. Part of that for him was due to his lifestyle change. In his past, he didn't get a lot of opportunities to eat out, especially not in fancy restaurants. As he became a celebrity that changed. He got to eat in fancy restaurants all the time, but in some part of his mind, he still looked at the menu as if he were getting a treat, rather than making a healthy choice.

That really resonated with me, not because I've become some sort of celebrity, but because the way I access food has changed and I still look at menus like I get to choose a treat. I always order the loaded vegan truffle fries at this one cafe near my house because I know they are the most delicious thing on the menu, not because they are good for me.

Like Jillette, I make excuses for my shape and size. "Obesity runs in my family, so it's a wonder I'm not fatter." "I'm getting older and a lot of people gain weight as they age." Well, you know what? There are a lot of people in my family who are not overweight and some of them are older than me.

I still don't think I am one of the three people who would be obsessed with the cake, but that might just be that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Leave me in a room with pizza or tacos and oh my God!

Thinking about this, my relationship with food and how it might be unhealthy is my goal for this week. I don't think I will be able to change how I feel about pizza or tacos because you can't choose what you love, can you?