[LuckyLadyBug]

Lose weight without dieting? HOW?!?!
By getting to the root of why you overeat in the first place! "Why Weight," written by Geneen Roth, is a non-diet book that contains exercises designed to help compulsive eaters learn how to stop using food as a substitute for handling difficult emotions or situations. You'll also learn how to enjoy eating and still lose weight naturally. This program offers reassuring guidelines on:

-- kicking the scale-watching habit forever
-- learning to say no
-- discovering other pleasures besides food
-- learning the difference between physical and emotional hunger
-- listening to and trusting your body's hunger and fullness signals

Each week at least one exercise will be posted; participants will be encouraged to share their answers, thoughts, etc. pertaining to the particular exercise. Snippets from Geneen's other books may be posted from time to time as well. She's a great writer and I encourage you to look into her books (and burn all your other "diet" books in the bathtub.

Join us in Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating!

[LuckyLadyBug]

Here we go Exercise 18

If you were to decide that you were already absolutely fine the way your are, if you were to begin living as if you deserved love, satisfaction, success, and respect, what would you do? How would you live?

Examples:
I would not feel such a tremendous need to prove myself in everything I did.

I would tell people what I think in the moment instead of censoring every thought I have.

I would give myself time off every single day to do something I love to do.

Complete the sentence: If I were to begin living as if I deserved love and satisfaction and all good things, I would:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8


*One thing on this list I will do this week is:

________________________________________________

[Amarantha2]

Thanks, LLB! This is a poser. Sometimes I DON'T live as though I deserved all those things. I think everything I've done in the past two weeks has been because I DON'T believe I deserve them ... but I never sat down and actually realized that's why I was doing them. This includes eating too much. So ...

If I were to begin living as if I deserved love and satisfaction and all good things, I would:

1) Get my nutrition and fitness back in line. My health and weight management are a base for my well-being.

2) Stop trying to figure out why certain people don't like me and how I can make them like me. Stop caring if they like me.

3) Not base my entire sense of self on career and stop thinking about suicide if I don't get to be a journalist anymore!

4) Stop trying to medicate myself with food. It doesn't work.

5) Quit my humiliating market research job.

6) Stop apologizing to a bunch of people for being who and what I am. I like what I am and if they don't, it's their problem.

7) Be more regular with Pilates and ballet, which help my back and spirit (and thighs!).

8) Stop examining my saggy face (but be more regular with the facial exercises, which increase my sense of well-being and relax my face in the bargain!)

*One thing on this list I will do this week is: All of them! (Except quit the job!)

[LuckyLadyBug]

Crone WOW you are so quick and good at this. I tend to ponder & ponder. Probably because I haven't put much thought into this over eating thing, I just assumed it was because I was weak.

Have a good Thursday.

[waterbaby]

Hi all!

I sat today and read every last post you all have sent on this subject. Yes, EVERY ONE....

May I join in? I have seen Geneen's books for years and would never open one because "I don't need THIS to lose weight!!" I've had a rather sad journey in the weight-loss arena (not unlike some of you) and reading all your posts (and they were many!) has given me an insight I never had before.

I feel like I know everyone, and would like to start with this lesson, if I may and catch up the previous 17! I had a little trouble navigating where HollyGirl fell off the thread, but kept reading and absorbing -- feeling your pain and celebrating your triumphs and thinking "they and I have so much in common."

LuckyLadyBug, thank you for picking up where HollyGirl left off. You all are doing very important work here and I really would like to be a part of it.

I'll be back....

Claire

281/281/119 Little bones, lotta fat!

[LuckyLadyBug]

Claire

You are welcome to join in. Please post your thoughts and of course your answers to the exercise.

I usually post the next lesson on Tuesday night. I don't know why accept that's when HollyGirl did it. By the way, if you are out there lurking around, HollyGirl, let us know you are okay.

I do think this is the route to go to permanent weight loss, even though I seem to be stalling.

Hope you all are having a fun filled Friday night.

[waterbaby]

Hi all

Gee, I picked a toughie! Like some of you, I go with my first impressions and find they are most accurate...

If I were to begin living as if I deserved love and satisfaction and all good things, I would:

1) Replace my clothes when they got faded and worn.
2) Ask for that raise that is long overdue; or
3) Follow my bliss and work in a more creative job
4) Be much less inclined to defend or justify everything
5) Be less of a "drama queen" about some things
6) Feel more a part of life and not like I'm dancing around the edge.
7) Extend the benefits of this program to everyone who would listen
8) Not feel guilty when I get my nails done. DH doesn't mind, but it always makes me feel like I wasted money we could've used for something else. Oh, I'll wear clothes that don't flatter me and are worn out, but those nails have to be done


*One thing on this list I will do this week is:

Set a timeframe and goals to reach out and get into a more creative job. I'm a trained singer and voiceover actor; I also am told I write pretty well; I just don't have the courage or the self-esteem to do it...yet....

Have a grand evening!!

Claire
281/281/119 Little bones, lotta fat!!

[waterbaby]

Hi all!

Today I did reasonably well. I got indigestion about 11 am and took baking soda in water for it. It calmed down, then came back a little later....

Silly me finally realized that I hadn't eaten all day and I was actually HUNGRY...not the growly sort, but the sour stomach, too much acid in expectation of food sort.

I felt pretty dumb, but at least know that my hunger can be more than one variety.

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

Blessings!
Claire
281/281/119 "Little bones, lotta fat!"

[Amarantha2]

Waterbaby: You struck a chord with your "indigestion" post!

Throughout my weight loss I gradually became aware that I often overeat in response to an upset stomach or indigestion. I think it goes back several decades before the true (bacterial) cause of ulcers was known and I thought that stress produced acid was what was eating away at my stomach and that frequent (and bland) eating was one component of stopping the pain ... not to mention large glasses of milk at the first twinge.

So I learned to medicate any and all stomach pain with food ... and if indigestion resulted from too much food, well ...

This vicious little circle persists in my thinking to this day and goes beyond stomach pain. Though I know better, I often try to medicate any and all physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ills with excess calories. I combat this by thinking each time I grab for food, stop at a convenience store or open the refrigerator: "Am I really hungry or is something else bothering me?" If I'm really hungry, I need to eat, but if something else is bothering me, I need to deal with that some other way than gaining weight.

It doesn't always work, but sometimes it stops a binge.

[LuckyLadyBug]

Complete the sentence: If I were to begin living as if I deserved love and satisfaction and all good things, I would:

1 Stop avoiding old friends - ones that haven't seen me since I gained weight.

2 Hug more.

3 Express love openly - not be so reserved.

4 Stop feeling inferior.

[LuckyLadyBug]

Crone & Claire

How do you get your own avatar.....I have tried and tried but it always tells me the size is wrong. Did I miss a step or something?

[waterbaby]

Hey Lucky!~

My avatars are all 4 kilobyte .GIF files.

I have more 40's pinups and will share if anyone wants them.

Thanks for the photo of George Clooney (sigh...)

[waterbaby]

Hi all!

Thanks, Crone for your post on indigestion.

I have the same problem you mentioned and it has plagued me for years.

I notice that when I'm eating for reasons other than hunger, I eat faster, as though I'm afraid of being caught. I also don't chew my food enough and that adds to the problem of heartburn.

I've promised myself that I will stay with this thread and learn something and begin to heal years and years of damage, because doing it "my way" hasn't worked.

I'm also using "Perfect Weight" by Deepak Chopra for what to eat that will balance me. If I'm not craving sugar and junk, the emotions are MUCH easier to deal with!

Blessings!

[LuckyLadyBug]

Claire

Okay next dumb question - do you have to just search for that size or can I change the size and still have it work? As you can tell I only semi-know what I can do on a computer.

I have been reading about the Zone this morning. I have fibromyalgia - hate it's limitations - and it is recommended to follow the Zone style of eating. I have fought doing this for years but am sick and tired of being sick and tired so I may give it a go!!! I have noticed there isn't a thread here for it so that worries me. WHY????? Anyway I think my health is worth a 5 day attempt so after getting organized and shopping I will let you know how it goes.

I sure hope is helps stop this chocolate craving I have had for the last six days. I have NEVER had such a problem before. Usually one day before that TOM but that is over and chocolate is all I think about.

I forgot to include what I will do this week as far as the exercise goes. I pick #3 - express my feelings.

Claire I know, isn't Mr. Clooney worth sighing over?

[Amarantha2]

LLB: I just used the new winter avators 3FC's nice administrators provided! (I'm not smart enough to put in my own!)

My weight is up on the scale today, but I'm not concerned as I know it's just temporary. I probably shouldn't be on this thread because I DO use the scale, but mostly as a kind of barometer. I DO have a goal to lose a certain amount by New Year's but won't reach it now because of this week's stress bingeing. But I'm back in control and eating more naturally than ever before, even allowing myself to eat meat for the first time in many years. Not sure how that experiment will go. But the two meat meals I had last week seem to have killed off all my cravings for everything ... including sweets. I just need to get the calories down ... and there's no way I can do that the "natural" way of not counting them up in a journal. But I feel the "click" is in and balance is now returning to my eating, hopefully to my life.

I have personal reservations about the Zone or any plan such as this, LLB, but we are all different so wish you well. I empathize with your need for a structured program to help regain balance. I've thought of Weight Watchers now that I'm eating some meat, but would only do it online as I'm not a meeting person.

Waterbaby: Your post made me think again about why I eat so quickly and love to just down a quick can of slimfast. For me it's not so much fear of getting caught as fear of appearing to like or care about food ... as if having been obese somehow cancelled my license to enjoy food so I can't let anyone know I do. Now isn't that silly!?

I STILL can't see George!