[Dawn415]

Struggling already.

I have been doing this for a week. It actually feels GOOD to have my tummy growl. I try to go to bed somewhat hungry.

But there has been no weight lost. Then I remembered that I didn't lose on Weigh Down either. I love the concept and it make sense cognitively, but the truth is that I don't eat all that much and never have. I am 4'11" and can eat half of a restaurant meal and feel stuffed. I have always been like that.

However, I am still 50 pounds overweight!

If I look at my dieting history, the diets that did not work were the ones that left me with NO weight loss the first week or two. The ones that worked had weight loss of some sort from the beginning.

I still love the idea of this and want to finish the book, but I am already discouraged and thinking I need to up my exercise and look at some more food restrictive diets for the short term.

Dawn

[Heidi Bylsma]

Hi, Dawn.

I know that my suggestions may not be popular. But the first one would be to get rid of your scale. I believe that the scale is rarely our friend.

I assume since you are using the Eden Diet that you may be a Christian? Although Dr. Rita doesn't go into it in depth (she will, I believe in her next book), there is a HUGE work going on inside your heart and mind. With normal diets we focus on the scale, food, our weight and that is the change that matters the most.

But if we really want never to be on another diet again, we have to allow the time it takes to change our mind, our thinking...or else we will just lose weight and be back at it again, needing yet another diet.

My situation was that I knew about hunger fullness eating in 1999 but never really strung together too many days of consistently eating that way. In 2006-2007, enough heart stuff and thinking stuff had happened that I was able to finally really consistently do this. I lost 100 pounds, but it wasn't like the typical diet (I had lost 100 pounds with dieting before). Because my thinking and my heart had changed over the previous years, this time, the change wasn't just external. It was made from the heart outward.

I don't know if that makes sense, but suffice to say, I would encourage you...maybe this is about something more than your weight and will impact your weight if you can see it through? I would love to encourage you to hang in there...Give it 3 months.

Hope you will hang in there.

[carolr3639]

Heidi, that was a great post. You might check out this thread where a lot of us IE people post.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/gene...ng-12-a-4.html

[carolr3639]

I see now that you have posted there before. Sorry.

[Justwant2Bhealthy]

HEIDI ~ I think your post is great too; and I think you have to try something for at least a few months to see if it will work for you. I read the first chapter and at first, she just wants you to learn to eat "regular" servings of everything (until your full). Then later, she wants you to cut what you eat by small increments until you are eating only half a serving.

I agree that too many of us aren't willing to stay at the same weight long enuff for us to make lasting changes in our way of thinking about food and weight issues. I had no choice, as I kept stalling, but I kept at it and now I am seeing some loss again. I haven't weighed since the end of last August until Monday of this week (so that's 7+ months), but that helped me a lot.

I knew I was losing something as my clothes felt much looser and that gave me a lot of encouragment in itself. So I was losing sizes, while also learning to find ways to deal with my emotions other than with food. Too often we want the weight to come off, and come off like yesterday, but that doesn't work for most people and they just end up gaining it all back.

I now think that we all need to get more activity into each day: so, I spread my housechores from M-F mornings to help me burn energy each day; plus I walk as much as I can in short spurts but it all adds up; plus each AM, upon waking I do 30+ minutes of toning exercises; and just this week, I have added 8 minutes of weight training and other exercises by Jorge Cruise (who I think is a Christian too).


DAWN ~ I hope that you can give her methods a good try and that may take some time; and if needs be, you might want to combine them with something that you can live with for the rest of your life ...

[MomtoThree]

I am just starting the workbook for the eden diet. I bought the book and workbook back in January but I was not ready for it so I started calorie counting. Now, I am ready for the eden diet I am tired of focusing on everything I put in my mouth. I know it works I was in Weigh Down for several years and lost weight but I did not keep it off. I just stopped paying attention and let myself go back to my old eating habits.

Is anyone else already using the workbook? How are you doing? Where are you struggling?

[acorbit]

I want to say thank you to all of you on this thread. I have read everything and I just ordered the book and workbook. I downloaded the first chapter from her site and am eager to take the book to my bible study group that focuses on weight loss. I think this will be great for us. Thank you again.

Angela

[jennygirl531]

Thanks for posting about this. I just recently ran across the book online and thought...not another one! I also read through Weigh Down several years ago, and have done another online study with the same principles, but I ended up feeling quite condemned in both cases. This sounds very promising. I'm actually kind of following this way of eating at the moment anyway and doing my own Bible studies and I love the freedom that comes with it, I feel much less obsessed w/ everything I put in my mouth or the number on the scale b/c I'm trying to focus more on honoring God with how I treat my body (including how I eat) and I can still enjoy good food instead of feeling deprived!

Anyway, I look forward to hearing everyone's experience and will definitely have to add this book to my "wish list"

Blessings!

[spiritpath]

I followed Weigh Down about 11 years ago, before the Trinity hoopla and the pulling of the program from churches. So...what is the difference between Weigh Down and Eden Diet? If anyone can sum it up, I would be most appreciative.