Good to see some other new people here. =) Welcome.
It's probably been about a month since I heard of intuitive eating. Progress so far? Not much. I put a little less food on my plate for meals and find that rather than wanting more, I'm satisfied. Often when I'm reaching for a snack, I realize I'm not hungry. I usually eat it anyway, but I think and realize. I'm not a weigher. Guessing, I don't think I've lost any weight. But I don't think I've gained any, either.
Since the direct "eat when you're hungry; stop when you're satisfied" method isn't working on its own yet, I'm adding in some indirect stuff. An attempt to reduce the stress eating by reducing the stress. I've ordered a few am/pm workouts - stretch, yoga, tai chi, and qi gong. I received the first couple on Tuesday, and I plan to use one each night (along with hot baths) to help me sleep better. I've ordered a few meditation videos, which should arrive soon. Doing the "Beautiful You" and "Classical Stretch" daily makes me realize how much my body actually can do, and become more appreciative of it.
I don't know how quickly I'll start to lose weight, but if nothing else, I'm starting to make strides in accepting myself as I am now.
It's probably been about a month since I heard of intuitive eating. Progress so far? Not much. I put a little less food on my plate for meals and find that rather than wanting more, I'm satisfied. Often when I'm reaching for a snack, I realize I'm not hungry. I usually eat it anyway, but I think and realize. I'm not a weigher. Guessing, I don't think I've lost any weight. But I don't think I've gained any, either.
Mel, you've made more progress than you realize, I think. Not gaining is great! I don't know if you're like me, but in recent years every time I tried to diet I'd only last a couple of days and then BAM! I'd start overeating and gaining. I am really concentrating on my hunger/fullness signals again and I can already tell that my clothes are fitting just the tiniest bit better. So kudos to you for stabilizing.
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Since the direct "eat when you're hungry; stop when you're satisfied" method isn't working on its own yet, I'm adding in some indirect stuff.
It appears that you understand this whole IE thing is a process, something that I didn't understand at first. It's wonderful that you also recognize that a lot of your eating is stress eating & are taking steps to reduce that stress.
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I don't know how quickly I'll start to lose weight, but if nothing else, I'm starting to make strides in accepting myself as I am now.
Accepting yourself "as is" is very important. I see a lot of people try to practice IE but what they REALLY want to do is lose weight - and NOW. While weight loss often is a by-product, it shouldn't be the goal. My belief is that if you really practice the tenets of IE and work hard to recognize your hunger/fullness cues, you WILL lose weight if your weight gain is the result of eating for ANY OTHER REASON than hunger.
Weight lose with IE is inevitably very, very slow - almost imperceptible, generally. But the chances of it coming back on are much less than if you lose a lot of weight from dieting - and of course the quicker you lose it the quicker you gain it back. And more.
roman....There are other things besides the scale...On how your clothes feeling, enegry,measurements..Not gaining is also a good sign..You holding up well. Keep it up..
IE sure takes patience..Today was a busy day and usually I do not eat in the mornings, giving my tummy a break..but ate when I was stuffed and did not stay focused. Patience is the key on allowing ourselves to stay hungry for awhile.
Over the last few days I've been so busy I have ended up only eating one full meal a day. If I eat before 5:00 pm it's only a banana or a cup of yogurt. I get a bit hungry but am usually so busy that I don't stop what I'm doing and then it goes away. Pretty hungry by the time I eat the big meal, however.
Musing - last year, when I was on Weight Watchers, I was literally taking a 2 lb bag of baby carrots to work every day. Finished it more days than not just because I could have all the carrots I wanted for 0 points.
I'm doing okay today, Maven. =) Today I'm being grateful to IE that I don't have to eat 2 lbs of baby carrots anymore. (Now I just chew gum.)
This weekend, I'm going to take a bit of the advice you gave a page or so ago. For the past month, I've been thinking I need to get some nicer clothes. Usually I've been getting the super-cheap shirts at KMart, telling myself as long as my body's covered it's good enough because I'm not going to like what I look like anyway. I can't afford to replace my whole wardrobe right now, but I definitely am worth a few new tops that I actually enjoy!
Time to go shoppin'...
~mel
Last edited by mlroman; 01-17-2014 at 09:45 PM.
Reason: Edited to add "~mel", since I don't get a sig yet. =)
I'm doing well. I can't believe how satisfied and happy I am doing intuitive eating. I serve myself small (ie. human-sized) portions of food when I'm hungry. I stop when I'm satisfied.
I find myself repeating the mantra "you can eat more if you are still hungry". This stops me from cooking up huge batches of food and eating until I'm stuffed to the gills. Somehow my mind has been operating like someone who is threatened by starvation. I am slowly retraining my brain to enjoy sensible servings and not pile on for a famine that will never come.
Speaking of enjoyment- holy cow! I have never really enjoyed eating like I do now. If I don't like something I toss it. I savor each bite. For a treat this morning I stopped at a bagel shop and got one with cream cheese and a diet coke. I like diet coke better than regular- I'm not big into sweets. I usually would have ordered two and horked them down as fast as possible. I slowly chewed and really enjoyed it for the treat it was.
So to answer your question- I'm doing freakin awesome.
Also, when you truly eat from physical hunger, you're not as likely to require a specific food to satisfy you (when you're really hungry, anything will do), in the same way that a craving does. With a craving, you just have to have that candy bar or else...
This says it perfectly. I still would prefer to know what I'm hungry for, tho (like sometimes I crave a salad), as long as I'm not craving sugar.
I've done some research on 3FC and see that you started the first of these IE threads in July of 2006. Is that when you first started practicing IE, and if so, do you date your 40 lb weight loss (which you have mentioned previously) to that time?
I ask because I know truly practicing IE often results in a very, very slow - but PERMANENT - weight loss. I am curious as to whether or not this weight loss has been very steady over that period of time, or if it was more initially with a slowing down, or less initially with a speeding up of weight loss.
I know Susanna Dee said that her weight loss INCREASED over time. I found that interesting...I suppose part of that could be due to one getting better at practicing IE as they go along.
I think it's an interesting statement about denial. Might help people who still don't realize that there is an emotional component to overeating.
Excellent article. I've also denied the emotional component to my eating in the past. It's definitely a big factor in why I overeat, and actually when you finally accept this fact it becomes easier to deal with. You can't correct a problem you don't think you have.
On another note, I have made a conscious decision to add something very specific to my daily intake - more water! I'm going to shoot for 80 oz a day, although I won't obsess about it if I don't. I'll probably have to work up to it, as I am not a big water drinker. Besides water and black coffee, I've pretty much eliminated any other liquids, with the exception of half sweet, half unsweet iced tea which I sometimes drink when eating out.
I love, love, LOVE wine...but try as I might, I simply cannot drink it in the evenings without eating something along with it. I don't drink that much (rarely over 2 5 oz glasses) but inevitably I'll find myself munching on something else - mostly salty nuts or chips. So I've eliminated it for now, and when I do reintroduce it to my diet it will primarily be at social functions only. It, more than anything else, stimulates my appetite. This is why it is so often recommended for people trying to put on weight.
For the first time in a very long time, my body actually WANTS to exercise. So I have begun walking at the Y again, and I am hopeful that I will be able to get back to the five miles a day I once walked. I felt great when I was doing that, but I injured my knee (like an idiot, I tried to follow the C25K program & that's how I did it) and couldn't walk for quite some time. Finally I started walking again the summer of 2012 and then managed to break my right foot in November (2012). Being 62 years old, bones don't heal real quickly, so that really put a damper on my walking. I could not walk much at all for about six months after that, and so once I got out of the habit it's been very difficult to get back into it. But I am...and trying not to break any more bones!
So kudos to you for stabilizing.
