Hi TamTam--- Yes re: IE baby steps. I am new to the IE WOE and have started watching Josie Spinardi on youtube . Taking in some good info with those videos...

This is very common. People read about IE and they think that it's what they ultimately want to end up doing, but scramble to lose a few pounds first. They think that if they lose weight first that they can use IE to maintain. For whatever reason I never did that, I read about IE and it made sense to me and I jumped in with both feet. I was at a point where I was totally done with dieting. I was so sick of failing faiiling failing failing. I could not start over another monday ever again. I was tired of the negative self talk.

Taking on IE is sort of like becoming a new person. There's no half way about it. It changes your mindset entirely. Even if you do diet and lose a few pounds you may gain them back initially when you go to IE. Ultimately dieting conflicts with IE and you'll be back at square one whether you decided to do it now or with a few diets first.

Gosh I guess that's not really a warm welcome to IE. Please believe me when I tell you that IE has helped so many of us accept and love ourselves and has helped heal our relationship with food.

I would never, ever go back to the way I was before I started intuitive eating. That said, you have to fight your fear of gaining weight (or remaining at the same weight). For many people this is just not fathomable because in our culture thin = happy. To give up on being thin is (in our minds) to give up on happiness. IE will give you peace and happiness with your body. No, it's not all sunshine and rainbows from here on out. It's a long process where you will fight some of the most fundamental issues of your life. You will have bad days but you will notice that over time your attitude towards food will change and the weight will start coming off slowly and effortlessly. You *have to* give up your fear of being fat though. You cannot work IE like a hunger/fullness diet.

Well said Locke!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

Tamtam and pinkhippie did you lose your weight with IE or something else?

I lost all my weight with IE. I could lose weight by cutting out food groups or calorie counting but I could never maintain it. The way I lost weight and kept it off was IE. And the way I am maintaining is IE too. Im still working on slower more mindful eating but now I usually don't eat unless Im hungry and I stop when Im full. I can't eat past fullness anymore, it feels awful and I realized the other day that I hadn't done it in a long time. I also threw all the nutrition diet info stuff out the window. I just listen to my body and I don't try to fool myself that I am craving a salad or fruit when Im not. I eat a lot of carbs now. ( last week I ate donuts every day) I also realized that now when I think of a food I don't feel COMPELLED to eat it if Im truly not hungry. I am secure and I know that I can eat whatever I want whenever I want and there is no rush. That is a big difference for me. It used to be that I would think of a food and even if I wasn't hungry I would HAVE to eat it. I couldn't stop thinking about it. That doesn't happen anymore but it took quite a while to get there. Like I made these little ice cream ritz sandwiches last night. I had a few last night and I was planning to have a few after lunch today. I ate about half a cookie after lunch and was still planning to eat the ice cream sandwiches but Im not really hungry so I think I will wait. It feels ok to wait. Not agonizing or intense, and if I wasn't typing about it I probably would have forgotten about it. I feel like Im still moving through the process but I have reached a good place.

When I first started IE I felt like it was a constant battle between my body and my mind and now I feel like they are mostly aligned and in harmony most of the time.

@Pinkhippie

Thanks for sharing. I needed to hear that today. I was upset about an interaction with a friend last night so I skipped dinner. I ate a teeny tiny breakfast this morning that wasn't filling and I planned on skipping dinner tonight, too. I just get angry and I don't want to eat anything.

I just started IE Monday. I've been reading through the September thread. I wanted to thank you all for the wonderful information and inspiration that you are sharing through this forum. A big thank you to you all!

Welcome and good luck!

As I read through Intuitive Eating, it's making me feel a lot better. All my fears are being addressed in the book. It's like the authors can read my mind! I look forward to sharing my IE journey with you all
all.

Amen. Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to reside more permanently in that state.

That's wonderful. I felt like that too. It clicked. Here is a thread we started on other resources for IE. http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/chic...resources.html

Thanks Pinkhippie. Do you exercise?

I haven't checked in in quite awhile and I thought I would do so and say hello to you ladies! Hello!

IE has been good to me over the past few weeks. I've maintained within a few lbs give or take.

Nothing else to report except that on my birthday I had not one but two cupcakes. And no regrets. They were delicious.

That's good to hear owls, thanks for checking in.

So I saw my NT and she thinks my derailment came from work stress. I've started to feel like I'm back at square one only I feel worse about it because now I should know better and do better. She said something that made sense to me which was that I have not lost the skill set I've built, but that I am suddenly in a vulnerable position where I don't feel safe enough. She also said that I am at this weight because it serves a purpose in my life, perhaps is protecting me from my own success.

So one of the things I have done is to banish the scale. I started a thread in chicks in control about breaking up with the scale and went full out and wrote a break up letter to the scale. I've stashed it somewhere in my basement and ore importantly I've put away my weight log which has been out in plain sight in my closet to see every day. This is very difficult for me but ultimately I think it will take me out of the number-on-a-scale mentality that has gripped me over the past month and get me paying attention to how my body feels instead. I have not yet decided when I will weigh myself again but I know that I want to at some point. Does anyone have any suggestions about this?

Exercise is making my body feel good in many ways. I feel stronger and firmer. I rotate between various types of exercise (walking, yoga, tennis, biking, chi gong, tonique) so I continuously feel a little achy. Not enough to feel hindered or in pain but enough so that I'm constantly aware of my muscles and my body in general.

Something important that I have come to realize is that my work stress corollates directly to my body image. Any kind of stress actually affects my body image. I displace all my worries on my body. If I get in an argument with someone I suddenly feel like my pants are too tight or my belly is bulging. My job keeps me really exposed, physically. I have to constantly be in the public eye, I cannot hide in a cubicle and remain anonymous. The more successful I become the more exposed I become. This also means that I come more and more under scrutiny and I am in constant competition and comparison with fellow colleagues.

Sorry for the blabbering, just trying to find my footing again. I've gained back about 3 of the 9lbs I lost while on vacation this summer. This is a difficult time to put the scale away but I feel confident that it will result to something better.