IE used to come so easy as a child. It's when we all started dieting that our relationships with food became so messed up. Some of us may have started dieting in high school or college, others later in life. It all goes to heck in a hand basket after that.
If we only knew then what we know now that dieting is for the birds. I don't think they like it either. Poor little things in the wintertime. Dieting, scales, constant measuring and counting for a lifetime. That can still mean a disaster in the end for the lifer. Right back where you started at square one.
I talked to my doctor and he told me about the dopamine center of the brain.
When someone has lived a life filled with binge eating, the dopamine center develops a tolerance for larger and larger amounts of food to feel satisfied.
After dieting, the dopamine center wants a course correction and demands truckloads of food. You can't hit that dopamine center with enough food until it's satisfied and the brain quits screaming at you to eat, eat, eaaaaatttt until you're ready to blow a fuse or gasket.
The way to avoid this is to never start dieting in the first place. Children who are left to their own devices and ability to read the cues without being stuffed with refined foods grow up to maintain their setpoint weights over an entire lifetime.
It's rare but they're out there. Returning back to the childhood cues may take years and years and years. The out-of-control dopamine center does not want to be denied. It wants hit after hit after hit of enough food until it's stuffed to the busting point.
That's what I'm working on. Returning to the childhood days before dieting ever became a part of my life. It will take overriding that dominant dopamine inner voice that will not be denied. It's one heckuva fight but I believe it's worth fighting for.
owlsteazombies Thank you for sharing your story. It helps to understand where you are coming from and I can definitely understand why the phrases being good or what ever would not work for you because it reminds you of the strict diet regiment you had gone through.
To me when I say I did good, I just mean that I followed my body signals rather than following a diet plan. I am 72 yrs old and have been on some kind of diet for 50 yrs. The only time I ever was thin was when I was growing up and the few times I was on my own and pretty much ate Intuitively although no one had a name for IE back then. Now any day of not thinking about following a diet is a "good, successful day" for me.
Mossy You are absolutely right about children naturally eating intuitively. I've watched my own grandchildren when younger. They would get something to eat and take a few bites leave it and go play and then come back take another bite and sometimes not even want any more of it. Children left to themselves eat healthier and they do not over eat.
I ate this way when I was growing up, Never even thought of dieting until I quit college and went to live with an aunt when I was in my 20s. I too have the same goal you do. I want to be able to go back to eating like I did growing up.
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The first time I lost weight I was like a child. I didn't know anything about dieting, I just ate less at each meal. I always knew the next meal was coming eventually and didn't have to eat as thought I didn't know when my next meal was coming. Once I started reading diet books I screwed myself up. Sometimes I would start the day on Atkins, and end up counting calories by the end of the day. The first time I did WW my points were used up by 11 AM, and yes, I've done it more than once.
Although I have had to cut back on carbs because of my diabetes, I don't want to eliminate any foods, and I can still eat carbs if I keep the portions small. I like IE, but I'm still a work in progress. I did well on Thanksgiving, but blew it all binging on leftovers yesterday. Nobody's perfect.
My husband does not like to eat around other people. He loves eating at restaurants because the other people are not at our table. He loves having company at our house, but practically refused to go to eat at someone else's house. And occasions like weddings are iffy. Unfortunately, I have no problem eating anywhere! LOL Stopping is my biggest problem.
Grazing is OK, but I would eat 3 full meals then graze between them. I was never hungry at mealtime. Now I'm learning to feel the hunger.
A diet is something you stop when you reach a weight loss goal. Behavior modification changes your habits from this day forward.
Last edited by Wannabehealthy; 11-28-2015 at 10:26 AM.
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owlsteazombies, I googled EDNOS to better understand where you're coming from and I will also look up Isabel Foxen Duke. You can never learn too much. Well, unless you are like me and try to combine them all together.
I noticed that your stats showed a huge weight loss and that made me wonder, but now I see. You did a great job of losing weight, but maybe not in the healthiest way if it screwed with your head. I think time and baby steps is the way to heal yourself. What you're saying does make sense, because everyone's circumstances are different. Many people do this to themselves by being an "A" personality where everything has to be perfect, and yours is a more extreme story. I get it, really I do. If I'm honest, there's a part of me that wishes I could be as strict as you were and lose all the weight I need. But I see where it started a new problem.
Exercise does not have to be formal exercise. Our ancestors did not go to the gym, but the life they had to live kept them moving and working and that was their exercise.
When I was in my 20s I had a mild case of bulimia. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I thought I invented it and found the secret to being able to eat things like ice cream and then purge it. I did it for a short time, maybe a year or so, and then I met and married my husband and I was afraid he would hear me in the bathroom so I stopped, but the desire to binge didn't, I just stopped purging. I tended to follow his eating habits. He can eat and eat and not gain anything, and always wants me to eat with him. That's when I started to gain, and it wasn't until my health got bad that I woke up. It now seems like it's too late to do anything abut it, but I won't stop trying.
I can relate so much to how you feel about that apple. In the past couple years I started to LOVE vegetables. When I eat them, I'm thinking about all the vitamins, phytoneutrients, and good fiber I'm getting from them, things that my body needs for health and my body is saying "Thank you!" When I look at things like donuts, cake, cookies, I see empty calories that contain no nutrients and are just going to fill my body up with garbage. When I do that, I think I can feel my body getting sluggish, clogged with crap. It tends to make me preachy about the evils of eating junk food, and I have to reel myself in, realizing that some people can treat themselves with these things occasionally without any harm.
I think this thread can be very helpful if we can continue the discussions the way they were the past few days, and more people will be willing to join in if it doesn't look at though we're arguing.
I agree with Owl. There are some new posters in this thread who don't understand the difference between dieting and IE.
We have worked hard to have this IE thread be a beautiful, supporting place free of the diet mentality and food restrictions.
If you weigh yourself daily, you aren't following IE. If you restrict certain foods to control blood sugar, you aren't following IE.
Weigh Down has nothing to do with IE. It is a diet book for Christians.
This doesn't mean these things are bad, they just aren't IE. That's fine. Different things work for different folks. But, those of us who do follow IE can get triggered by these types of dieting behaviors and this thread is about IE, not dieting.
If you want to learn IE, read IE books like:
The Diet Survivors Handbook 60 Lessons in eating, acceptance, and self-care
And, then there's the original Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch. Now in it's 3rd edition, it founded the IE concepts (of which there are 10) in 1995.
If these concepts don't fit you, that's fine. It just means IE isn't your thing. Or at least classic IE which is what we focus on in this thread.
I respectfully request that everyone get this thread back to it's subject: Intuitive Eating. Discussions of other books, diets, and theories are best suited for other threads.
After Thanksgiving week I wonder if I'll ever be hungry again.
I was thinking the same thing. Although I did not go nuts, I did eat past full. But it is so hard not too when hubby is such a good cook!! I think in my head, it's a holiday so what the heck, but I still need to realize that I can have it all, just in smaller portions. So the gumbo is almost gone, the oyster dressing is almost gone and the candied yams are almost gone, and of course my least favorite the turkey is almost gone. I have done somewhat better with the left overs. Another thing is I need for my hubby not to serve me, he puts too much food. Yesterday I ditched the turkey, cause it's not my favorite and I just ate the dressing and the candied yams, but I overate on these BUT I was not hungry till supper and I did not eat until then and just ate a bowl of gumbo. So all in all not too bad, but I do see where I could have done better. Have a blessed day all.
If you weigh yourself daily, you aren't following IE. If you restrict certain foods to control blood sugar, you aren't following IE.
I respectfully request that everyone get this thread back to it's subject: Intuitive Eating. Discussions of other books, diets, and theories are best suited for other threads.
Sending wishes of well being to all.
I had a doctor's appointment and my doctor told me why my triglycerides are so high. He didn't say don't eat certain foods, but if I continue eating them I run the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
I won't be posting here any more, but I do have this to say and I know And, then there's the original Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch would never say go against doctor's advice and warnings. Plus I don't think believe that 3fc condones that advice either.
I just hope you and no one else on this thread ever have diabetes, a heart condition or anything else that you have to be careful with certain foods.
As I said before, this is not the thread it was created to be in the beginning.
You are very welcome to your thread as is and I will not be here ever again.
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This forum is called 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet. This thread is in a sub group called General Diet Plans and Questions. So maybe this whole thread doesn't belong here if you want to get technical. Wanting to be healthy is not a bad thing. No one did anything wrong except offer an opinion in an effort to help and support someone else.
It looks like I've missed quite a bit lately. Intuitive Eating as a practice means different things to different people. There are several books on the subject, and each of the authors have points of agreement and disagreement with each other. It's true that many people do utilize the IE method for weight loss, even though most IE experts would say that focusing on weight as a metric is not the best approach.
Intuitive eating is a long term method for weight management and mental health. Broadly speaking, people who eat intuitively focus on their own body's cues and signals rather than external cues like calorie counting, diet plans, and eating by the clock. Success in intuitive eating, therefore, is not measured by the scale but by how closely a person follows his or her own body's cues. Hunger and fullness are just one part of this.
I haven't been frequenting this thread because I've started eating on a meal plan as part of my program of eating disorder recovery. It makes me sad that people are fighting and leaving. It's absolutely possible to eat in a way that respects your body's ailments. The information you get from a blood sugar meter is just another signal from your body, and respecting your body's signals by eating to support health is certainly part of IE- that's why Tribole and Resch include nutrition information at the back of their book.
Everyone on this thread is coming from a different place in their life. There are some people like I am who are recovering from eating disorders. Others have health issues, or are sick of dieting. We are united by our willingness to listen to our bodies and not let poor judgment overcome our natural intuition and connection to ourselves. Let's celebrate our similarities and try to compassionately understand our differences.
It looks like I've missed quite a bit lately. Intuitive Eating as a practice means different things to different people. There are several books on the subject, and each of the authors have points of agreement and disagreement with each other. It's true that many people do utilize the IE method for weight loss, even though most IE experts would say that focusing on weight as a metric is not the best approach.
Intuitive eating is a long term method for weight management and mental health. Broadly speaking, people who eat intuitively focus on their own body's cues and signals rather than external cues like calorie counting, diet plans, and eating by the clock. Success in intuitive eating, therefore, is not measured by the scale but by how closely a person follows his or her own body's cues. Hunger and fullness are just one part of this.
I haven't been frequenting this thread because I've started eating on a meal plan as part of my program of eating disorder recovery. It makes me sad that people are fighting and leaving. It's absolutely possible to eat in a way that respects your body's ailments. The information you get from a blood sugar meter is just another signal from your body, and respecting your body's signals by eating to support health is certainly part of IE- that's why Tribole and Resch include nutrition information at the back of their book.
Everyone on this thread is coming from a different place in their life. There are some people like I am who are recovering from eating disorders. Others have health issues, or are sick of dieting. We are united by our willingness to listen to our bodies and not let poor judgment overcome our natural intuition and connection to ourselves. Let's celebrate our similarities and try to compassionately understand our differences.
Locke You explained things beautifully. Thanks
Speaking for myself, I appreciate the way Carol Sue and I were put in our place so to speak and pretty much told to leave.
So now I speak for myself.
No I don't follow IE the way many do here. I never criticized nor did I ever intend to put anyone down for how they do IE or try to get into this crazy discussion. But now that I it has become such an issue, I have some things to day.
I have no problem being pretty much told to leave, I see why so many say that IE does not work. And it was proven to me through all this that it obviously does not. Because if I follow IE by ignoring my doctors recommendations, I would cut my life short and experience either a stroke or a heart attack or even die.
So thank you beginme. Because I choose life. I want to live a long and healthy life and if that means I am really dieting then I choose the diet.
However I do want to say that it is really dangerous for you to tell someone who is diabetic, like me, who IS following IE according to Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch (as Locke points out they do give a guide in the back of their book) that
Quote:
If you restrict certain foods to control blood sugar, you aren't following IE.
. That comes close to getting into dangerous territory because you are advising someone against their doctors advice. I am quite sure that is against the rules of 3fc on a diet.
Let me also add that I have made myself a guide sheet using the advice that Tribole and Resch put in the back of their IE book. So in actuality I am one of those who does IE by the book along with theirs and my doctors advice. I don't have to give up any foods, I just have to learn how to fit less of them and you might be surprised to know that their guide helps me do that without counting calories, carbs etc. Intuitively.
I wasn't going to say anything else on here. But I felt I had to share these things and I want to advise all of you of one thing.
Do not ever tell someone that they cannot follow IE and follow their doctors advice at the same time. You are not their doctor and you do not have the right to give them any kind of medical advice or do something to make them like they have no hope to get control of their way of eating.
You not only criticized me, told me to leave, but you gave me dangerous advice. That is why I will never be a part of this thread ever again. Angry NO. Hurt NO. I just have enough respect for myself to know I wasn't doing anything wrong and I deserve better.
Speaking for myself, I appreciate the way Carol Sue and I were put in our place so to speak and pretty much told to leave.
So now I speak for myself.
No I don't follow IE the way many do here. I never criticized nor did I ever intend to put anyone down for how they do IE or try to get into this crazy discussion. But now that I it has become such an issue, I have some things to day.
I have no problem being pretty much told to leave, I see why so many say that IE does not work. And it was proven to me through all this that it obviously does not. Because if I follow IE by ignoring my doctors recommendations, I would cut my life short and experience either a stroke or a heart attack or even die.
So thank you beginme. Because I choose life. I want to live a long and healthy life and if that means I am really dieting then I choose the diet.
However I do want to say that it is really dangerous for you to tell someone who is diabetic, like me, who IS following IE according to Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch (as Locke points out they do give a guide in the back of their book) that . That comes close to getting into dangerous territory because you are advising someone against their doctors advice. I am quite sure that is against the rules of 3fc on a diet.
Let me also add that I have made myself a guide sheet using the advice that Tribole and Resch put in the back of their IE book. So in actuality I am one of those who does IE by the book along with theirs and my doctors advice. I don't have to give up any foods, I just have to learn how to fit less of them and you might be surprised to know that their guide helps me do that without counting calories, carbs etc. Intuitively.
I wasn't going to say anything else on here. But I felt I had to share these things and I want to advise all of you of one thing.
Do not ever tell someone that they cannot follow IE and follow their doctors advice at the same time. You are not their doctor and you do not have the right to give them any kind of medical advice or do something to make them like they have no hope to get control of their way of eating.
You not only criticized me, told me to leave, but you gave me dangerous advice. That is why I will never be a part of this thread ever again. Angry NO. Hurt NO. I just have enough respect for myself to know I wasn't doing anything wrong and I deserve better.
I am so sorry to see you go. I am a diabetic and have to watch what I eat, but I still do my best to practice IE, I just have to do it with more restrictions. As a diabetic I cannot always eat what my body craves to an extent that if it craves sugar or high carbs I need to be careful due to blood sugar spikes. I hope you have all the success you are deserving of. May God bless you!
Last edited by TamTam; 12-02-2015 at 08:29 AM.
Reason: spelling
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Tam-Tam, I like your signature quote. It is very true.
Some people who don't have diabetes don't understand the necessity of restricting carbs. It can be compared to someone who is allergic to peanuts. They would have to eliminate PB from their diet no matter how much they liked it, as a medical necessity. But no one would tell them that it means they are not practicing IE because they eliminate that food.
I haven't posted in a while because, well, I don't feel that I have much to contribute these days.
Although I don't have diabetes, I do have an elevated A1C number (5.7) so I too need to be aware of what foods I need to limit in my diet. I know - based on past experience - that this number will go down simply with weight loss, regardless of what I eat. I've been down this road before.
But I've really been struggling with the diet mentality these days. Perhaps it's because I know for a fact that if I diet, three things will happen:
1) I WILL lose weight
2) I WILL feel much better physically
3) I WILL benefit from the effort in the form of lower blood pressure and a lower A1C number
BUT...
I also know that restricting will lead to overeating. It ALWAYS does.
Sometimes I find myself trying to justify dieting by promising myself that IF I lose the weight I need to lose, THEN I will practice IE.
Does anyone else find themselves doing that???
I'm really stuck these days, and I really don't know which way to turn.
