I totally agree with this. That is what I have discovered too. Just like with food, I can't say I will never eat from mouth hunger or I SHOULDN'T do it again, or that will make me want to do it more. The above that I bolded has been very freeing to realize.

I have the exact same thing going on. My lunch is usually in 2 or 3 parts these days. It's the only meal like that. I don't know why. I really don't like eating until my stomach feels heavy though, so I do end up eating every 2 or 3 hours usually. Often times I end up eating only half my lunch and eating the rest later. I think for me, the important thing with IE has been to eat when I am hungry and not make myself wait til an assigned time on a regular basis to eat. When my body is hungry, I feed it. For me, that usually seems to be every 2 or 3 hours. Maybe its a blood sugar thing? I had a lot going on yesterday, was very emotional in a way that I didn't want to eat/couldn't eat and about 5 hours after I had last eaten I felt like I was going to pass out, literally. Listen to your body.

Ive been working on my preconceived notion that I can't eat after dinner too. If Im hungry after dinner, I can eat. But, I have really gotten into herbal teas before bedtime. Not because Im trying not to eat though, i used to do that all the time. Just because it seems like a self soothing, self caring, calming thing to do before bed. If Im truly not stomach hungry I have gotten to where I quite enjoy it and I used to hate herbal tea.

I would say be careful about tricking yourself with other activities. These are all distractions which is fine, but if you continuously distract yourself from eating when you really want to eat it can backfire into a binge. The hardest part about IE is actually allowing yourself to eat from mouth hunger every time you feel the need to. We are taught to say no to ourselves more than to allow ourselves but this defeats the purpose of tuning into our bodies.

Brushing your teeth, and other distractions are classic dieting tricks, so be mindful of that. Furthermore, if you're finding yourself continuously wanting to eat at night it may mean you're not eating enough earlier in the day. This was a constant problem with me before - I used to control my breakfast by not eating as much as I wanted to because I wanted to save calories for later, and because I thought a bigger breakfast would make me hungrier later (classic diet mentality). Since I've begun eating a big breakfast I no longer face hunger issues that catch up with me at the end of the day.

In the beginning yes. This is because most of us try to be very perceptive of our hunger signals and so we eat at the slightest onset of hunger and eat only until we are physically satisfied. This was excruciatingly hard for me because it caused me to reach for food very often and I hated that. I find that waiting until I'm truly hungry (not slightly hungry) and eating until I'm truly full (not slightly full) helps with that. But you have to find your own comfort level and if you need to eat more often for a while then do it. It's a great way to learn about your needs. Eat as often as you like! I remember when I first started I had snacks with me all the time. I still do but I don't reach for them very often anymore.

Thanks everyone - your posts are extremely helpful about the hunger scale and how you determine it. I know it is so unique to everyone but it's still nice to hear from others.

I am using the hunger scale from intuitive eating book and from a coach I'm using to help me through this (but we meet every 2 weeks, and sometimes I need more people time to talk this through - I'm so glad I found this board!).

To be honest, when I read the comment about feeling food in your belly on the various hunger scales, I was like, 'what in the heck? how does that feel unless I'm way up at the top?' so that has been a huge learning curve for me. And that's ok. No judgment - I'm really working hard on that one. Honoring what I want to eat and eating it. and for the first time in my life figuring all these hunger/fullness cues out. I really thought I had lost them forever and I didn't think they existed in me anymore - how wrong I was!! :)

One thing I do have to say about IE is that I feel so free. I obsess less about food and that pang I had every afternoon for candy suddenly went away which is amazing since I for sure thought that it was apart of my DNA!!! But honestly when it gets down to it, I can always have it the next time I'm hungry, if I want it! yay!

YES! I have found that I'm eating sometimes 5-7 times a day! I've also heard/read that moon cycles can affect our eating, but really? I'm not so sure about that. I've also read/heard that our menstrual cycles and ovulating can also contribute to this (obviously in women only). With that said, the more I'm catching on to IE, I'm finding that I'm eating smaller portions or snacks more often then a huge meal say 3 times a day, which is super odd for me and not my normal eating cycle previous to IE, but I'm going with it!

But again, I think this is different for everyone, so the number one concept in IE for me is - No judgment! It is what it is and move on.

Very true. Although after my initial phase of constant eating I mellowed out and fell comfortably into a 3 square meals per day ritual and no snacking. I love snacking, but I'm never hungry between meals. It's weeeeird but I just go with it.

That is so funny because when I started, I was eating 3 meals a day but I think I was going towards an 8 at every meal so then I wasn't hungry much. I find if I get to a 6 then I'm eating smaller meals more frequently. This just goes to show how different this is for everyone (and I'm really new to this journey so wth do I know?)! what works for one, will not work for the other and that's ok! no judgment!

How do you guys feel about exercise? :D

I seem to be the same way and Ive been doing this for about a year. I also have old food journals from years ago when I first started recovery work from my ED doing Intuitive eating and I ate small amounts every few hours. I guess that is just how I am more comfortable for now.

Exercise... I really feel good when I exercise but its too closely related to weight loss so I have to be very easy and only do it when I want to. I have to pick things that make me feel good in the moment so I will want to do them again. I love exercising but if I feel like I SHOULD especially for anything related to body image or weight loss, than I won't keep it up.

I get exercise every day walking to and from work, doing chores, etc. I also take my dog for walks on the weekend. Fresh air and sunshine (or fog) makes me and the pup feel good. I don't exercise for weight loss, though.

I love exercise, but I never plan it. Planning it is a disaster!! I wear a fitbit and average about 5miles a day broken up between formal walking, running errands and chores. I work out with weights and do body weight exercises nearly daily, I just love the little burn of muscles. I have been doing chi gong since December and it has been life changing in terms of dealing with my stress. I do it about 3-4 times per week.

So June 1st I decided I was going to do a Chi-Gong challenge. I promised myself I'd practice every day for a month. Uhm, that was a dumb thing to do because I immediately "don't wanna!!!" Chigong, something I look forward to doing most days suddenly became something I didn't want to do lol and wasn't enjoying anymore so I dropped that challenge pretty quick. Just the mindset of forcing myself to do exercise for a purpose other than just wanting to move sets me up to fail. It's just like food restriction in my opinion. I exercise so much more without having a plan, I just naturally say "oh I want to go for a walk now."

Hi folks, I've been on the strep-throat diet this past week lol, haven't been able to swallow anything for days and it sucks so much! Yesterday finally I was able to get a bit of food down so I made pancakes with butter and syrup and bacon. Didn't eat much of it but it was good! The strep throat diet is no fun but it did help me lose 4lbs this week, which is hillarious lol and I expect those little pounds to come back by the weekend but it was fun to see 195 on the scale this morning, even if it's just temporary.

There was a thread that was started today about emotional eating and while I was responding I came to a really really important realization. Knowing that I was an emotional eater was not enough, I had to do something about that. I have now come to realize that there is no way to deal with emotional eating if you're dieting! It's impossible to deal with one's emotions when all your energy is being put into calorie counting, restricting, eat this not that mentality etc. OMG it takes so much energy to avoid the food that you are craving, how is anyone supposed to be able to deal with their emotions if they're dieting? THIS is why I gained weight while dieting, it exacerbated my emotions by adding frustration and guilt!!

Oh man, that is so rough with the strep throat. I am glad you finally started feeling better! Sometimes I lose weight when Im sick and I don't gain it back so you never know.

I know exactly what you mean about not being able to focus on dealing with your emotions while restricting. In fact, restricting is a great way to avoid focusing on your emotions because you are focusing all your energy on something besides your emotions.

Honestly these past few days it has been hard to not feel the lure of dieting and I totally recognize that I just want to focus on something else besides me and what's going on with me. I have done tons of emotional work this week and it has been hard. very very very very hard.

@pinkhippie: I hear you. Exercising is diet mentality - or for me it was, I get to eat more if I exercise. I have found that it does help my overall mood, so even though I typically do not like to exercise, I'm going to keep at it for other health benefits and the mood lifting. I think I just need to find exactly what I like to do.. so the quest is on.

@wannabeskinny: I'm so glad that you've found some workout things that you truly love. That is awesome. I hear you when it turns into a competition, it makes it 'work', awful, and yucky. People keep telling me you have to see it as training (for something) rather than exercising but that just makes me want to do it less. Why should I sign up for 5k after 5k when I truly do not want to do that crap. I'm sorry to hear you've been ill. I used to relish being sick so the scale would drop dramatically. I hope you get better soon! oh and pssst... I have a fitbit too. I'm wondering though if I should get rid of it...even though I do not walk around my house trying to make it to the next level of steps but what if some day I do?

@Locke: I love your means of exercise!! That is so awesome. I telecommute from home so I have to really push myself to get out and walk. A dog would help and oh yea, not having several feet of snow for 6-9 months AND negative below zero temps, but I digress.... :)

I just realized that I never asked you all which hunger scales you were using. I saw a past thread about IE books and blogs to read and realized a few years ago I had bought several Geneen Roth books and her hunger scale is different that what I've been using. I've started using this workbook that I think will be super helpful through this....have any of you read or used her stuff?

I love Geneen Roth but I'm not familiar with her hunger scale. This is the one I go by which is my personal one:

0- Starving- shaky, irritable, can't think of anything but food
1- Pretty darn hungry- stomach rumbling, visions of food are streaking through my brain.
2- Hungry but still moderately comfortable.
3- Slightly hungry. I could eat a small snack.
4- Not hungry but not totally satisfied.
5- Satisfied. Feeling light and energetic.
6- Full. Mmmm, boy it's going to be a good 4-5 hours before I need to eat again.
7- Uh oh, too much. I'm not physically uncomfortable for long but I definitely overdid it.
8- Good lord I think I can skip lunch today. *Unbuckles belt*
9- This is the level I hit when I binge. Sweet jesus it hurts!

I like it!! Definitely adds more description to the hunger scale for me. Thanks so much!!! :)