Kelly...Thanks for the welcome! Bravo on your 28 Lbs loss!! YOU are doing great...Good work!!

I had read Overcoming Overeating and its similar to this method. I had lost the book, and also had the original IE book, but do know the concept. I had 2 past dieticatians on working this method and finally listen to my tummy and not the clock to tell me to eat.

Friday will be better..Each day is a new beginning.

So I went back into my calorie counting.... only for a few days to curb the binge eating (which is working so far I feel a lot less bloated) I got the 3rd edition of intuitive eating in the mail yesterday and I'm excited on reading it. I have some questions for you gals...

Snacking: what good is snacking in IE? Say you have been really wanting a bar of chocolate, but thats not a food is it? So you can't technically have it as a meal or you won't be satisfied. You want to snack on it, but that goes against feeding yourself when hungry... so what place do snack foods have in IE?

Portions: I find that while one boiled egg will keep the hunger pains away for a couple hours, it's not particularly satisfying. Or a palm sized chicken breast for dinner with a side of broccoli. What WOULD be satisfying is two chicken breasts with broccoli and corn... but the portions are big.

I struggle with the fine line of full and satisfied. I find if I'm satisfied I'm less likely to snack or want more for hours after but It's like I;'m not satisfied eating baby portions.

I've told myself that when my Bf comes home from out of state on the weekends I'll drop my calories and try IE (since he makes such fat yummy steaks and things I can't possibly count) and I'm a little nervous. I ust don't want to binge again. Last night I did well and then had fistfulls of krave chocolate cereal (I wasnt hungry but damn I wanted some chocolate)

Xi....Hello...Good luck with your efforts..

Hello all,....

I had a good sleep and did not have breakfast yet, drinking iced coffee while taking my vitamins and morning meds. My tummy feels satisfied and not hungry yet. I did my morning food shopping as well.

Have a great day all...((((((((((((((Hugs)))))))

So I'm stopping by for some advice but I'll give some background first. I finished reading "Health at Every Size" a few weeks ago and I feel that is the book that was missing in my life. The fact that naturally people will be various sizes from super skinny to a bit plump makes sense. At my smallest adult size, I was wearing a size 12/14 and I wasn't happy with my body because my weight still said I was obese. I think if I had chilled out and not stressed, I'd still be that size rather than trying everything under the sun to restrict myself with that restriction backfiring.

Fast forward a few years and I've been struggling, a lot with food and exercise. The idea of exercising for health makes sense to me. The idea of eating for health makes sense to me. If I happen to eat a cookie or ice cream because it is what I craved, so be it but I'm eating tons of vegetables, moderate amount of fruit, whole grains, legumes, oils and such. So since I finished reading the book, I've been exercising every day without a struggle. I strapped on a pedometer and for the past week or so, I've set a goal and I'm meeting that goal every day. I'm also cooking more and eating better than I have in a long time. I'm not worried about calories, not even worried about weight loss or gain. I know I've lost weight because my clothes already fit looser and I did slip on the scale because I wanted to see that I met a milestone which I did (a weight I haven't seen for 6 months or so).

Anyway, here is my dilemma. I follow my body signals to eat and listen to my body on what I want to eat. I eat until satisfied, sometimes even leaving the plate with a little left on it but only after I evaluate if I am done. I generally eat dinner sometime between 6pm and 8pm, sometimes 8:30. I go to bed around 11pm, not hungry in the least. Nearly every night I wake up at 3am/4am absolutely starving. I've never been a nighttime eater and I'm not about to start. Has anyone had this happen to them? Has anything you've read covered this?

The only thing I can think of is that I am somehow not eating enough during the day but I feel satisfied. I usually try my best to go to sleep, then evaluate in the morning between 6am to 8am. On the days I wake up starving, I do generally eat breakfast a little earlier as I find I'm still hungry when I wake up. I'd prefer not to wake up in the middle of the night starving though so any advice is appreciated.

Nelie...Don't have the answer about the night times eating, maybe someone else has a better ..Just wanted to say Bravo on your clothes being loosen, that is a true indicator! Nothing like clothing size drop being a success. Keep up the wonderful work!

I've had this and don't know why. Lately, it hasn't been happening.

Hello all... Happy weekend!

Yesterday I did good on eating when am truly hungry. I had packed all my dieting stuff in a box and now its in a storage. I need to learn on not fall back into the dieting land mindset. Also, ditching the scale, even when I see my medical doctor. I will explain my new lifestyle change plan on eating when am hungry.

I recall from reading Geena Roth books in the past is to give up the scale..the scale is part of the dieting efforts and my clothes will be my guide on shrinking a size in later time.

My 3 x pants is loosen on my waist. My goal is to get down to 1 x...Long term goal size Medium.

Have a great weekend all...

I have been struggling with IE. I can wait until I'm hungry before I eat on the front end of the day, but once I start eating, I can't seem to find satiety. It's a real struggle!

But this last week I found the Shangri-La Diet and using that seems to help me with the appetite issues that I've struggled with for so long. And because my appetite seems to have eased up (rather surprisingly quickly!), I don't seem so caught up with weighing myself or fussing so much over calories. I still track the calories, mostly because I don't trust myself yet, but I am not obsessed with them. I know it's only been a few days, but I'm seeing a difference in how I deal with appetite.

I'm like that, too.

Back in town. I've been traveling for the past 10 days and didn't realize I would have such limited online access.

I did pretty well with food on my trip, though I did learn that when I'm sleep deprived I can't focus on hunger and satiety signals. I figured that out after the fact when I was going over why and when I did overeat, and it was always when I was really tired, or when my sleep patterns had been disrupted. Good to know for the future.

It's good to be back, and I see there are a couple new people on the thread, Welcome!

Bookwoman: Glad to hear you figured out why you were over eating. I do so good thru the day waiting until im hungry but find it hard at dinner time when everyone else is eating and i'm not really hungry yet. This i'm trying to come to terms on.

That's one of my hardest times too: dinners, receptions, parties, etc. where there are lots of people and lots of food. Just have to keep working on my awareness.

Haven't been here in a while. Just had a difficult time getting it together again. I've really struggled to get back to where I was when IE was working for me before. However, I just spent the morning listening to a Dr. Michael Lara's Intermittent Fasting 101 on Youtube and writing down what he said. I've always leaned toward Intuitive Eating and as I have shared here before... when I was growing up, I only ate when I was hungry which worked out to be NO breakfast and usually 1 or 2 meals a day depending on my hunger. Due to dieting all these years I have had a difficult time getting IE to work for me again because I have not been able to recognize the difference in real hunger and craving signals. After really listening to Dr. Lara again, I realized that Intermittent Fasting (IF) will help me to learn to recognize those differences again. I believe this means for that IF is going to become a real asset to helping me do IE so I can get back to eating "my normal" way of eating again. IF seems to say that it isn't so much about what we eat as it is when we eat. Sounded a lot like IE to me.

I'll come back later to read and catch up with everyone. I think I see some newbies since I was here last. I look forward to getting to know y'all and to also be back with old friends here.

pattygirl: Welcome back, and yes i'm a newbie and i'm having problems getting to the IE way myself and letting go of the dieting mentality! I feel weird not eating three meals a day with a snack in between as I've always done during my dieting days. I never was hungry in the mornings but was always told if you don't eat breakfast your body goes into starvation mode! So i'm really trying.

Alright guys...I left the proana community, x-ed contact with triggering girls I met on there and deleted my calorie counter app. I've also hidden my scale.

Today I was really tuned in with my body and snacked less. I had a pre-work out cookie (:P) and then after about 12 minutes of yoga (I'm a wuss) I found hunger beginning. So I just had a boiled egg and coffee. I should have had more because 3 hours later I was so hungry that I couldn't even focus. So I went to olive garden and tried one of their diet dishes (Yeah I know but breadsticks AND I had a dessert and I felt satisfied. I never experienced pure satisfaction for a long time. Usually I'm thinking about my next meal but I was so content.

A few hours later I snacked on 2 el fudge cookies and at night some watermelon. Thats it. I could have done without the cookies and watermelon but it's ok.


I have a question about drinks. In my diet world you DO NOT drink your calories unless it's a protein shake. So I miss my whole milk, hot cocoa, creamy coffees, juice, etc. How do I get over the guilt of drinking a glass of caloric beverage?

i find at night I tend to binge on things looking to satisfy my sweet tooth. Before my ED and diets I'd just have a glass or two of juice and be done. I miss it, but I can't help but think "Oh god..I just drank like 100-200 calories" x_x diet police..