Welcome iixi! And no your muscle gain should be fine :) have you read any of the books? The overfed head is free, or check out how to have your cake and skinny jeans too :)

spryng: Oh be careful of the iphone 5, did you hear about the airline stewardess in china that answered her iphone5 while on charge and she died from it. Just forwarning!!!

Does anyone know where to get a book not a download of how to have your cake and skinny jeans too ? I don't have a kindle.

I've have yet to find a hard book only the kindle.

I'm reading overfed head right now! Its very good.

Do yall think that keeping a journal to record hunger and food intake would be counterproductive? On one hand its interesting to see when hunger pains start and what you gravitate towards but on the other would it feel too much like obsessing over what you eat?

Thanks for this thread. This is pretty much what my husband and I are going to do...no plan, no strict rules, just trying to eat clean, healthy food, eating when hungry, and stopping when satisfied. And going to the gym.

For some people, this is a good plan, but I know myself and I know that if I do this, I start obsessing and all it does is make me feel hopeless. So if you think it would help, do it, but if you think you will obsess about it, don't. I hope I helped!

No I didn't hear that! wow, scary! I'll have to tell my husband about it since he's the one with the iphone 5.
I can only find it for kindle or nook, not seeing a paperback or hardback version... hmmmmm..
Yes I think it would be counterproductive like you said.. I know one of the biggest rules in the IE book is to stop all diet mentality, and if you are tracking etc that will still fall under that categorey. I think the best thing is just to listen to your body, you can definitely keep track of how you feel during the day if you like to do things like that, how after you ate it made you feel, did you feel satisfied? stuffed? still hungry? But for me I'm trying not to track, count etc. I still have a habit of picking something up and instantly turning the box/package over to see the calories in it.. it will cause me to place it back on the shelf if it's high and I need to just stop doing that. I have gotten better. but the other day I bought some gluten free chocolate chip cookies, I wanted one before dinner as I was starving and I saw they were 100 calories each! these were smallish cookies... I did not think 100 calories was worth it even if they were good so I put them back in the fridge... then I got to thinking about it, if I wouldn't have looked at the label I would be enjoying a cookie right now, guilt free.. I made myself get up and get one or I would have thought about it all night! I ate it, enjoyed it and it helped take the edge off my hunger for dinner then at dinner I was able to eat even less since I wasn't ravenous anymore. Its all baby steps for sure, little habits that are part of the diet mentality we just don't even think about, it's auto pilot for us, but we can break them eventually :)
Fitmama84, definitely keep us update! My husband has joined me too, he's losing about 3 lbs a week just by listening to his body. Lucky men and their awesome metabolisms lol

Also what do you do at work? Say you get hungry and want something specific that you didnt bring with you for lunch?

I work at home so I don't have that issue but there are times I'm wanting something that is not here but I'm not leaving that day to grab anything so I just find a replacement to tie me over until I can get what I want. So maybe take a goody bag with you, take your lunch and a couple snacks, something sweet maybe, something salty/crunchy.. then when you are hungry for that snack you can think, is what I'm wanting a snicker bar? well I don't have one, is what I want really the snickers or just the sweetness of the chocolate or the crunch of the nuts? if its the crunch pull out what you brought that is crunchy, maybe a bag of chips, if it's sweet pull out the chocolate chip granola bar you brought (or maybe you did pack a snickers lol ) but sometimes we think we are craving something very specific, like a cold mocha frappe, but when you break it down and think, am I wanting that frappe or am I just needing something really cold with some caffeine, maybe a diet pepsi will work instead :) But take you a variety of things you enjoy with you to work, it's your emergency kit :) then when your hunger hits and you want something specific see if what is in your emergency kit has it or an alternative of it and remember, it's not always about getting what you want every time, there are times you have to have a plan B but know when you get off work you can have that other item, you may not get it "right now" but you can have it later so you don't go into "last supper" mode :)

Makes sense! I work in a nursing home so theres always food running around. My downfall was binging on free cookies. When my ED was in full swing i felt like wrestling myself against the cookies! But now i just have 1 or 2 and be satisfied. I think of what happens if i neglect them until im hungry. I might not even want them for a while!

Now im wondering about fitness. You know the typical meal plans of oats, chicken breast, etc. i figured eating an hour or so before a work out is important but i can organize my sessions around my hunger. But one thing i wonder is after lifting i have a protein drink for my muscles. Now 99% of the time im not hungry right after lifting. But i know getting protein straight after is ideal. The drink itself is only 130-160 cal (depends on which i use or might be a lot more if i make a shake)

Its not going to be counterproductive is it?
I suppose its like how some people just gotta get up and have coffee, even if they arent hungry for one at that moment.

You can do one of two things, you can get the protein in and as long as you aren't gaining or whatever then fine or you can continue to listen to your body, if you aren't hungry don't eat, if you feel hungry get that protein in. You will have to do what is right for YOUR body, I know the books will say to not eat after or before a workout unless you are actually hungry, I don't eat after I strength train but I'm a novice exerciser and just want to tone etc, not put on muscle etc really so I don't worry about all those rules, so you can try it both ways and see what works for ya :)

My first intuitive meal. It was about 10:30. I was feeling hungry but not sure what I wanted. I suppose I wanted something with fruit but filling so I decided on oatmeal with a cut up banana.

I was wondering as I ate when enough is enough. I didn't feel satisfied. BUT all of a sudden I felt a kind of sensation in my belly. It wasn't being full. It was being... dare I say satisfied?

SO with 3/4 of the banana and half the oatmeal down I chucked the rest in the bin and that was that.

Hi all,
I have been gone from this thread for awhile because I have decided that Intuitive Eating is just not working for me in this phase of my weight loss. While I have learned a lot about my hunger signals and have adopted a lot of good habits through my time with IE I am craving more structure.

When I first started an intuitive eating approach counting calories made me obsess and the feeling of restriction caused me to binge. Taking some time off from dieting to get more intune with my body has really been the catalyst for a lot of positive changes. I haven't binged in almost 2 years now and I am eating only when I am truly hungry. I credit intuitive eating with slowly losing 40 pounds. But lately I have just been getting increasingly frustrated with not being able to lose more. I have been thinking about it way to much, analyzing if I am hungry enough to eat or did I stop eating at the correct amount of fullness. I have decided to go back to good old calorie counting. For the first time ever I have been relaxed and not feeling deprived. I guess this is what I need right now. And I have finally broken my plateau :-)

So I wish you all continued success on your intuitive eating journeys, but I am going down a different path. Thank you for the responses to my previous posts.

That is awesome iixi!!! Its still hard for me sometimes to know when I'm satisfied as well, especially when it takes our bodies 20 min to register full when we are eating so I try to take a few bites less to see how everything feels when it hits bottom and if I'm still hungry I know I can have a snack etc later but that is still a learning process for me too :)
You definitely got to find the plan that works for you, I hope you have continued success with counting calories and the nice thing is once you hit goal you will know how to maintain with ease with the IE way of eating so you wont have to count calories for life :)

Well, we decided we are gonna head out of town and start our vacation tonight, around 3pm or so, we will have 3 days of LONG driving just to get to california but the kids love long road trips so they are all super excited :) I went ahead and weighed in a day early, I'm down .6 lbs this week, I'm thrilled with that. I'm a very slow loser on any plan, even low carb etc and I'm getting so close to goal that I lose even slower so if I maintain or lose just a few ounces each week, I'm just thrilled lol So I'm 127.4 now.. and just a little background on me. Right now I'm in new territory. When I got married I was 102 lbs then between the lifestyle change/birth control etc I shot up to 140 within 6 months! so I blew right past the 110's and 120's etc, then of course babies came and I just went up and up and up and have been battling my weight ever since. The lowest I ever got before was 135 as for some reason that was my set point for years, so getting under 135 was a huge success, well now being in the 120's is weird to me lol I'm in sizes I can't even remember ever wearing and I'm feeling better than ever but as I lose I just don't know what to expect with my bodies and the changes because I was never here long enough to remember this phase. So its all exciting and scary to me at the same time :)
I will be taking my ipad with me on vacation so I'll still be checking in daily, so don't think I'll be MIA :) I may not be on as much but I'll be on at least once a day.