Intuitive Eating.....eat when you're hungry. stop when satisfied
 

Since we are a week into Dec. I thought I'd go back to a general thread.

I used to number the IE threads but I don't know where we left off. I notice every month people are posting in last months threads so maybe a monthly thread isn't the best.

We used to go to five hundred posts and start a new one because that's what this site requires.

Sounds good to me.

I'm going to jump back in here on the Dec thread. I've been researching info on diabetes because I wasn't doing any good. I just don't think I can follow an actual diet. I like to eat more of a low carb way of eating, but not strict. But I just can't follow diet rules of eat ever so many hours because sometime when it is time to eat, I'm not hungry. I know that Intuitive eating is how I ate as a child growing up and got out of that routine when I gained weight in college and everyone started pushing me to eat 3 meals a day. What came with the 3 meals a day came hunger that led to binges and then yo-yo dieting.

I realized today that DH used to eat just when he was hungry until he married me and now he has problems. We have doctor's appts tomorrow and then we have 3 mos before our next appt. Now I'm trying to teach my hubby and myself to eat Intuitively again. I kind of use a combo of IF and IE because that is actually the way I ate growing up. Plus I just read that they are finding that eating with an 8 hr window not only helps with weight loss and reversing/preventing diabetes. The research has been with mice for now and they think it is going to help humans too and hope to do some research testing to find out.

The main thing I have learned from all my reading on different ways to treat diabetes is that however you can do it for yourself will work including IE. So now I'm going to work at getting rid of the "diet" mentality this next year and learn to eat like I did as a child.

Funny thing is I called my 92 yr old Daddy today and asked him "Daddy, remember how you and I used to eat? We didn't eat breakfast and we ate later in the day when we got hungry?" And then I shared with him what I've been learning. I had the key to living thin most of my life, but I've been trying to fit all those "diet" healthy rules into my lifestyle which caused me to fight a weight problem for about 50 yrs and I'm tired of it.

I love how this thread has become so active and I would love to join y'all.

Trish I feel the same way. Until I was a senior, my mom tried everthing to get me to eat breakfast. Finally she let me have nonbreakfast foods like soup or tuna gravy and I ate. But we always had our supper meal at five thirty and didn't eat after that. Dh always ate before bed. His dad was a farmer. At haying season, they had an afternoon meal and a later one. His poor mom was always very heavy. But she joined WW and Tops and tried everything.

Had my doctor's appt. Didn't talk to him about IE, but I did talk to him about IF. Carolr I don't consider IF or IE as diets. I guess because that was just "normal" eating for me. I had printed two articles about IF and gave him a copy of them for him to read. I shared with him about this being the way that I ate when I was growing up and every time I was thin over the years.

I talked to the doctor about this because I can't take the Metformin any more because of the horrible side effects of diarrhea. I told him I was not going to take it any more because I couldn't function or go any where. I'm so thankful for a sweet hubby who once worked in a hospital and had to deal with doctors and knows how to communicate with them and he understood the medical jargon of the medical report on one of the papers I gave the doctor so that the doctor finally agreed to let me spend the next 3 months try IF and see how it affects the diabetes etc. Of course, I am also doing this with IE.

I had a great IE/IF day. We went out to eat and I was free to eat what I wanted. We went for DH favorite meal at Long John Silvers. This a rare meal out because it is so far away from us. We get one meal and we half it. I think DH and I both fest so free. We usually buy one fish meal plus one fish fillet. He asked me if I wanted to do that this time and did I think we could eat 1 1/2 fillets. I told him, "we always get the extra one and then wish we hadn't". So we decided not to get the extra fillet. It was so nice because we ate exactly what we wanted and ate only as much as we wanted and we both were satisfied. Strange how that little bit of freedom helped us to make a good decision that we might not have made before. I love how IE sets you free.

I shared with him today how I always ate my first meal whenever my lunch time was at school and then Mama always had supper ready for us to eat at 5:30 when Daddy got home from work. I seldom ate anything after supper. I would have a cold drink when I went out on a date, but never ate. Back then I would never have eaten "Just because someone was eating or because the clock said it was time". I only ate if I was hungry. All that changed when I went to college and of course the weight came on and then the "diets" merry-go-round started that I've been on off and on for 50 yrs.
Well, I am totally off of that now.

I told DH today that I think his weight problem etc is my fault. I've taught him to eat "healthy" just like I was doing and you know what? It didn't work. So I told him that I think he needs to start eating like he ate before we married because I'm thoroughly convinced that the way he ate when he was thin was the way that worked for him. It Instinctively or Intuitively worked for him. If we both learn to eat that way again, I believe we will see a big change in our health.

I love IE.

Trish, sounds like a plan.

I've been having a hard time lately with the "rules" of IE. Is it so wrong that sometimes even if I'm satisfied I have a cookie? Why? I wanted the cookie.

Is it so wrong that sometimes I like to wait until I'm past whatever number they decide to put on hunger because I love delayed gratification? Why?

Why put rules on food at all? It stresses me out thinking about eating while I'm eating. Why can't I just not think about it?

So..with that..Why is food and how I feel even a thing? Isn't that the point? For it to not even be an issue?

End rant.

"Is it so wrong that sometimes even if I'm satisfied I have a cookie? Why? I wanted the cookie." - No, it's not wrong. I've learned to forgive myself for eating when I'm not hungry. But when I do this excessively then I become very unhappy. Firstly because whatever reason I'm eating for it's not working - cookies, as it turns out,, do not make me happy after all! Not only that but when I continuously eat for reasons other than hunger I gain weight, which makes me feel uncomfortable in my clothing, is a burden to my joints, and results in heartburn. So as much as I'd like to "not think about it" I have to. So is it wrong to have a cookie just cause you want it? Nope. Is it wrong to have a lot of cookies every day just cause I want them without checking in on that behavior? The answer is yes (for me).

"Is it so wrong that sometimes I like to wait until I'm past whatever number they decide to put on hunger because I love delayed gratification? Why?" No it's not wrong... unless doing this causes you to make poor food choices and overeat. As long as you're ok with that then of course that's fine.

"Why put rules on food at all? It stresses me out thinking about eating while I'm eating. Why can't I just not think about it?" If you're referring to rules like "eat slowly" and "pay attention to your level of fullness" then those are not rules at all. They're mindful eating. And if it feels stressful maybe it's time to examine where that stress if coming from. I admit this does feel uncomfortable at first because it puts you out of that comfortable zoning out that eating used to represent. But mindful eating becomes second nature after a while, and it's well worth it imo.

"So..with that..Why is food and how I feel even a thing? Isn't that the point? For it to not even be an issue?" I can only answer this for myself - the point of IE is not so that food is not an issue. On the contrary those who practice IE get a lot of enjoyment out of eating, more so than we ever did when we were full time bingers. The whole point of IE is to learn how to not use food to deal with stress, frustration, anger, anxiety, etc which ultimately does not work and causes weight gain. In order to do that we have to learn a set of skills on how to enjoy food like a normal human while learning how to deal with our emotions in a constructive and effective way.

I'll be the first to admit that the beginning of IE with its hunger scale, focus on mindful eating and constant assessment of our body and hunger level is an explosion of confusion for the mind and a complete overload! But so is anything that requires learning a new skill. After you've messed around with the hunger scale for a while you'll find that you don't need it anymore. IE just becomes who you are, not a set of rules. I'm ok with learning a few rules, I've regained my sanity with them.

I agree. The less you think about it the better.

I used to be on other IE board and I quit them because noone ever disagreed. It helps to get everyones ideas.

There is life beyond IE! IE is not my final destination, it's just the first leg of the trip. Letting go and not caring completely is a nice idea but where will it get me? I've sort a lifetime eating carelessly and not caring. Fr this first time I'm paying attention to my body's real physical needs and learning how to communicate with it. Eventually I hope that eating will be no big deal and it's already working! I have to ask myself "am I hungry?" less and less.

You have to pay attention to what you want to change. And once it becomes second nature you can get on with your life.

I've been finding a do a lot better with myself and with choices when I don't think about it.

I lost weight. I know how to eat. I know what foods make me feel good, and what foods make me feel icky.

But the whole hunger scale and "am I satisfied" is enough to send me into a spiral of restriction I guess? I would rather just eat, enjoy my food and not wonder about "how I feel" and worry that I overate constantly.

Isabel Foxen Duke I'm discovering is more my speed than the IE route, though I still practice IE for the most part.

Hi, ladies...Thank you for your message, Carol. It's nice to see you too.

I poke my head in here off and on to keep up with the IE threads, but don't post often.

I'm another one who believes it's better for me the less I think about food, weight, and all that stuff.

I can identify with what Trish talks about regarding how we ate when we were growing up. I grew up on a farm, so we always had our own fruits, veggies, meat, milk, eggs, and butter. My mother was an excellent cook and made many delicious meals, but eating wasn't an all day thing.

We ate our meals then went out to school, to play, or to do farm chores. I don't recall us snacking between meals, and there wasn't a dessert every night.

A huge treat for us would be the once-in-awhile night when my mother would make homemade chocolate fudge from scratch for us. Another treat would be a bag of chips and a block of cream cheese made into dip, then we'd all take very small portions and eat it while we watched a family tv program like Ed Sullivan or something like that. Snacking between meals wasn't a habit for anybody.

When I was in school, stores would take coupons and give you the money value on ANY item, not just the item pictured on the coupon, so my girlfriends and I would get together for a sleepover, go through a bunch of magazines tearing out the coupons, then we'd go to the corner store and buy a bag of candy with it. This was when you could still buy penny candy, and chocolate bars were five cents for a decent-sized one, if I remember right.

We were all thin then. That's just the way it was. I think we had one overweight boy in our elementary school class, and he wasn't even way overweight, just a few pounds bigger than the rest of us.

I started dieting back in the late 70s, when Atkins was "the" thing to do. I felt so rotten on the diet, that I then switched to another one, then another one, then another one...I lived on the diet merry-go-round for over 35 years, but feel like I'm pretty much off it now.

Once in awhile, I still get the urge to visit a low carb board, or I'll read the posts on this site, or on Spark People, but that's about it. I know I can't stick to diets, and I know now that I do much better doing my own thing, which is not having rules or tips or suggestions from anybody else on how or what I should eat.

I tried doing IE rigidly when I first discovered it, and turned it into the "stomach hunger" diet, which so many people do without even realizing it. I've even seen it happen on earlier versions of this thread.

I don't follow IE now. I do my own thing (I also like Isabel Foxen Duke), and there isn't even a name for it. I just eat and live.

I've lost 20lbs so far. It took a little over a year to do it, so it goes extremely slowly, but I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and see if I can continue to get lighter.

As I've said before here, the hardest time for me is when one or more of my sisters starts a new weight loss plan. One sister gets especially gung-ho when she starts, and I feel competitive, so that makes me wonder if I'd lose faster if I'd get on a specific plan too, so that she doesn't get way ahead of me, but I know better. They don't work for me--and they actually don't work for my sister either, but she keeps trying.

Right now she's dieting and going to a personal trainer, and is losing some weight, but I don't think it's sustainable for her.

I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I notice that it's been more of a challenge the last few weeks though, because the days have gotten shorter and darker, and I find myself craving "comfort foods" all the time--not to mention we got a foot or so of snow this past week, so I can't really do much walking outdoors at the moment either.

For right now, until after the holidays are over, and the days start getting lighter and longer again, I'm just going to work on maintaining so that I don't end up with a lot of pounds to re-lose later.