Getting Over Overeating Challenge: Intro., Chapters 1 & 2
Hi Everyone!
I’ve been using an app that I find helpful. It’s called Insight Timer. You can get the app for both Apple & Android. I use it for meditation & they have some good audio courses you can participate in. I started listening to a course on, “Getting Over Overeating”, by Andrea Wachter. It’s designed to be a 30-day course, but I’ve been taking it slower. She gives some assignments for most segments & prompts you to think about your eating. Here is a quote from her, & and an overview of what she touches upon:
Whether you struggle with overeating or binge eating, you can use all the tools in this course to feel better. . Imagine you are building a table with four legs. To be stable, you will need to make sure that all four legs are sturdy and secure. In order to heal from overeating, we will need to address four different areas, or table legs so to speak
1. Physical aspects
2. Emotional parts of healing from overeating
3. Mental aspects of healing
4. Spiritual aspects of life
I've been transcribing the audio from the lessons, as it seems to sink in better for me. Once I started transcribing, I felt it could be more valuable for me to have a way to discuss the assignments with others, and perhaps it would be valuable for them as well.
I plan to make a thread, for each segment that has an assignment & things for you to think about. I hope you join in. There is no specific timeline for this. One way to approach it, is a segment a week, but feel free to do what works best for you, as your time permits.
You don’t have to have/use the app to participate in the assignment threads, but you might want to check out the app. I find it to be the best mindfulness/meditation app out there. There is a premium subscription, but there is plenty to use for free.
CHAPTER 2 – DIET, RIOT OR BE FREE
This lesson is about three distinct internal voices. We all have different internal voices inside of us. Even if it’s as simple as one part of you may want to go out for a walk and another part may want to stay on the couch and relax. When someone struggles with overeating, they generally go back between two internal voices, when it comes to food
See if you can relate. One voice is an internal diet voice, that is filled with all kinds of food rules - that's good, bad, right and wrong. The second part is what I call the inner overeater. This voice wants to riot and rebel and eat everything the diet voice deems bad. Your third internal voice is one you may or may not be familiar with, but if I have my way, you will be intimately connected to this voice by the time you finish this course. This internal voice is an innate, wise, loving voice that knows exactly when, what and how much to eat.
Most people who struggle with overeating are quite familiar with the Dieter and the Rioter. Even if you don’t actually consider yourself a Dieter, if you think you should be dieting, or you've viewed foods in terms of good or bad, it can still set you up to riot and rebel. Whether you're dieting in reality or mentality, by restricting your foods and actual behaviors or simply in your mind, that internal rioter is very likely pawing at the ground preparing to eat everything you think you shouldn’t eat
I started my first diet as a teenager in the 70s. My family members had already been dieting for years. by that point, and I simply joined the club. Little did I know where this seemingly innocent action would lead me. I had unknowingly stepped onto what I call The Diet Riot Roller Coaster, and it would be many years before I would learn to step off. On the outside I look like a student, a daughter, a friend, a partner or an employee. On the inside, I was either calorie counting, and restricting eating, or I was rebelling and eating out of control. I had no clue that underneath my daily food and weight obsessions and behaviors, was a wealth of important issues that needed to be addressed
All the issues we will be addressing in this course, by the way, not the least of which being that dieting leads to rioting. Even now, decades later, the word seems to be out more that diets really don't work. Much more information is available about the dangers and inefficacy of diets, and yet so many people are still seduced by them and get their diet rules from some popular book or magazine, or from a doctor or friend, the bottom line is that strict restricting leads to rebellion and obsession. Despite what the Instagram and glossy magazine pics will show us, if we consistently deprive ourselves of delicious nutritious foods, we are going to end up either malnourished and obsessed, or overeating and depressed.
Diets are not natural. Children know exactly how and how much to eat. If they are fed when they are hungry, they generally push the food away or stop eating when they're full. It's a simple natural mechanism, until we meet the culture, that is, and the media and all the people around us who have already met the culture and the media.
Most of us have been fed a bunch of food rules that make it very confusing to know what, when and how much to eat. We are all surrounded by mixed messages about clean eating and good and bad foods and what a healthy portion really is. There are people who take healthy eating so far, that it actually becomes unhealthy.
All this confusion can cause people to forget the wise intuition they were born with. So, back to our three modes of thinking: Diet, Riot or Be Free. Most overeaters tend to hangout in the first two modes when it comes to food - diet or riot. But what about door #3. What does freedom with food even look like? Being free means learning how to let go of strict food rules and learning how to stop rebelling against them. Being free is about learning to make your food choices from a deeper, wiser, more intuitive part inside of you. You were born with that voice and you likely listened to it at one time in your life and you can get it back.
It might be buried under a lot of restriction and rebellion, but it is in there and this course will help you reunite with it. Some people need outside help to find this wise, loving, intuitive voice. This help could come from a non-diet dietitian, a nutritionist, a counselor or one of the many resources that teach intuitive eating. If you do decide to seek extra support, it's really important to make sure that it's from someone who understands that's strict dieting and extreme food rules are not going to help you get over overeating. They are likely part of what caused you to start overeating in the first place. Additionally, there are often stages in the intuitive eating process. Usually someone is trying to ditch diet, so the first stage is about truly eating whatever you want, and over time, once your internal overeater has settled down and really starts to trust that you're no longer going to eat tasteless food or starve yourself, you can then begin to get a sense of what your body really needs, in addition to what it really wants. In many of the upcoming lessons, I will be teaching you very specific tools that will help you get to know and grow the wise, loving, honest, intuitive eater inside of you
I want to guide you through a few exercises that will help you learn more about the origins of the Dieter and the Rioter in you and help you meet and greet your intuitive eater self.
1. What is your earliest memory of dieting or thinking you should go on a diet?
2. What is your earliest memory of trying to make painful feelings go away?
3. What was your parents or caregivers relationship with food
Good, so now you can set down your pen and paper and take a moment to go inside for a little visualization. Make sure that your body is as comfortable as possible, and if you like, you can close your eyes and take a few conscious breaths and allow your body to settle into the surface beneath you.
1. First, I'd like you to see if you can remember a time when you ate naturally, a time when you didn’t know about diets and you didn't overeat. See if you can allow a memory to come up and watch it like a movie. See if you can remember a time when you ate naturally?
2. Now I’d like you to imagine that you woke up tomorrow and you had no desire to deprive yourself of food and no desire to overeat. You are free. Imagine how that would feel. Imagine how your day would look & how you would deal with painful feelings and breaks in the day. You can watch it like a movie: You woke up tomorrow and you no longer thought of foods as good or bad and you no longer overeat.
We will come back to this topic in greater detail in future lessons. For now, see if you can practice tuning into each part as you are preparing to eat. See what it would be like to let your wise intuitive voice make some of the decisions. Even if you simply practice distinguishing and hearing from each part that's a great start, no matter which voice gets the final say. I look very forward to speaking to you in lesson 3 where we will be talking about how to deal and heal with what you feel
CHAPTER 2 – DIET, RIOT OR BE FREE
This lesson is about three distinct internal voices. We all have different internal voices inside of us. Even if it’s as simple as one part of you may want to go out for a walk and another part may want to stay on the couch and relax. When someone struggles with overeating, they generally go back between two internal voices, when it comes to food
See if you can relate. One voice is an internal diet voice, that is filled with all kinds of food rules - that's good, bad, right and wrong. The second part is what I call the inner overeater. This voice wants to riot and rebel and eat everything the diet voice deems bad. Your third internal voice is one you may or may not be familiar with, but if I have my way, you will be intimately connected to this voice by the time you finish this course. This internal voice is an innate, wise, loving voice that knows exactly when, what and how much to eat.
Most people who struggle with overeating are quite familiar with the Dieter and the Rioter. Even if you don’t actually consider yourself a Dieter, if you think you should be dieting, or you've viewed foods in terms of good or bad, it can still set you up to riot and rebel. Whether you're dieting in reality or mentality, by restricting your foods and actual behaviors or simply in your mind, that internal rioter is very likely pawing at the ground preparing to eat everything you think you shouldn’t eat
I started my first diet as a teenager in the 70s. My family members had already been dieting for years. by that point, and I simply joined the club. Little did I know where this seemingly innocent action would lead me. I had unknowingly stepped onto what I call The Diet Riot Roller Coaster, and it would be many years before I would learn to step off. On the outside I look like a student, a daughter, a friend, a partner or an employee. On the inside, I was either calorie counting, and restricting eating, or I was rebelling and eating out of control. I had no clue that underneath my daily food and weight obsessions and behaviors, was a wealth of important issues that needed to be addressed
All the issues we will be addressing in this course, by the way, not the least of which being that dieting leads to rioting. Even now, decades later, the word seems to be out more that diets really don't work. Much more information is available about the dangers and inefficacy of diets, and yet so many people are still seduced by them and get their diet rules from some popular book or magazine, or from a doctor or friend, the bottom line is that strict restricting leads to rebellion and obsession. Despite what the Instagram and glossy magazine pics will show us, if we consistently deprive ourselves of delicious nutritious foods, we are going to end up either malnourished and obsessed, or overeating and depressed.
Diets are not natural. Children know exactly how and how much to eat. If they are fed when they are hungry, they generally push the food away or stop eating when they're full. It's a simple natural mechanism, until we meet the culture, that is, and the media and all the people around us who have already met the culture and the media.
Most of us have been fed a bunch of food rules that make it very confusing to know what, when and how much to eat. We are all surrounded by mixed messages about clean eating and good and bad foods and what a healthy portion really is. There are people who take healthy eating so far, that it actually becomes unhealthy.
All this confusion can cause people to forget the wise intuition they were born with. So, back to our three modes of thinking: Diet, Riot or Be Free. Most overeaters tend to hangout in the first two modes when it comes to food - diet or riot. But what about door #3. What does freedom with food even look like? Being free means learning how to let go of strict food rules and learning how to stop rebelling against them. Being free is about learning to make your food choices from a deeper, wiser, more intuitive part inside of you. You were born with that voice and you likely listened to it at one time in your life and you can get it back.
It might be buried under a lot of restriction and rebellion, but it is in there and this course will help you reunite with it. Some people need outside help to find this wise, loving, intuitive voice. This help could come from a non-diet dietitian, a nutritionist, a counselor or one of the many resources that teach intuitive eating. If you do decide to seek extra support, it's really important to make sure that it's from someone who understands that's strict dieting and extreme food rules are not going to help you get over overeating. They are likely part of what caused you to start overeating in the first place. Additionally, there are often stages in the intuitive eating process. Usually someone is trying to ditch diet, so the first stage is about truly eating whatever you want, and over time, once your internal overeater has settled down and really starts to trust that you're no longer going to eat tasteless food or starve yourself, you can then begin to get a sense of what your body really needs, in addition to what it really wants. In many of the upcoming lessons, I will be teaching you very specific tools that will help you get to know and grow the wise, loving, honest, intuitive eater inside of you
I want to guide you through a few exercises that will help you learn more about the origins of the Dieter and the Rioter in you and help you meet and greet your intuitive eater self.
1. What is your earliest memory of dieting or thinking you should go on a diet?
2. What is your earliest memory of trying to make painful feelings go away?
3. What was your parents or caregivers relationship with food
Good, so now you can set down your pen and paper and take a moment to go inside for a little visualization. Make sure that your body is as comfortable as possible, and if you like, you can close your eyes and take a few conscious breaths and allow your body to settle into the surface beneath you.
1. First, I'd like you to see if you can remember a time when you ate naturally, a time when you didn’t know about diets and you didn't overeat. See if you can allow a memory to come up and watch it like a movie. See if you can remember a time when you ate naturally?
2. Now I’d like you to imagine that you woke up tomorrow and you had no desire to deprive yourself of food and no desire to overeat. You are free. Imagine how that would feel. Imagine how your day would look & how you would deal with painful feelings and breaks in the day. You can watch it like a movie: You woke up tomorrow and you no longer thought of foods as good or bad and you no longer overeat.
We will come back to this topic in greater detail in future lessons. For now, see if you can practice tuning into each part as you are preparing to eat. See what it would be like to let your wise intuitive voice make some of the decisions. Even if you simply practice distinguishing and hearing from each part that's a great start, no matter which voice gets the final say. I look very forward to speaking to you in lesson 3 where we will be talking about how to deal and heal with what you feel
This is me to a T,dieter,rioter,binge eater,thank you
Getting Over Overeating Challenge: Intro., Chapters 1 & 2
