Fiddler, Do you ever make Tom Yum soup? I just got the recipe.....lots of ingredients but I love it. Obi, I hope that girl finds her way to IE.

Hey guys...me again stopping in :) I dont come to 3fc very often...part of the whole IE thing....DONT OBSESS....quit counting, quit worrying, eat when you are hungry and one more thing....STOP THINKING OF YOURSELF AS FAT....I have found that that one thing has helped more than anything.


I was reading a post by Glory (I think) about her weight loss adventure...basically eating healthier foods and paying more attention to actual nutrition and one thing she said at the end really struck me...because its happened to me....she said

" I started losing weight in July 2004. I weighed around 195 lbs. The weight came off very steadily, 1-2 lbs a week (with a few weeks of no loss here and there). In February 2005, I began to plateau at 140 lbs. This was very frustrating - my goal weight was 135 and I had a huge desire to see the scale say something UNDER 140 lbs. Just 1-3-something.

I tried eating less, working out more. I weighed myself everyday. I was pretty miserable. But, I never gave up.

Around May, I realized something pretty cool. The weight may not be going down, but it wasn't going up either. I was maintaining, something I had never been able to do before. I decided to quit being miserable and start enjoying all my hard work. I did look fabulous! I bought a bunch of cute clothes in size 10 and really enjoyed that summer.

I increased my calories very slowly to 1800-2000. Imagine my surprise when the scale said 138! I wasn't even trying to lose weight! In October 2005, I went on a 4 week business trip to Asia. I tried to make healthy choices and did a ton of walking, my pants were loose when I got home and I found out I weighed 135 (my goal weight!). I'm still not sure what happened, I think my body just started to feel like there was plenty of food coming in, no reason to hang on to fat reserves. In December - January, I lost 7 more lbs. I have been fairly stable at 126-130 since January 2006. My body seems to be very happy at this weight and so am I " Sounds like IE to me....

Well...I quit smoking and the eating went wonky for a bit, but after the initial binging to get over the nicotine cravings, i went right back to IE...Im below goal....I am a size 2 now and look and feel great. I eat whatever I want, whenever I want and my only rule is "dont eat anything bigger than your fist". I am glad I decided to go this route and just cut out all the fussing with calories and fats etc....just eat foods that I like....believe it or not, most foods that I really like are pretty nutritious. Now that the "junk" food is back on the menu and I have permission to have it or not...most times I choose not. I have struggled with keeping my weight at a managable level for years...started out in the 160's...plateaued around 148 for a few years...dieted, regained....dieted, regained... Im really glad its over with and I have found something that I can really live with.

Yes, I make it about once a week. I love it and it has practically no calories. Basically healthy too except for the sodium, but even that is probably no worse than a lot of other foods.

Do you make yours with shrimp or chicken?

I think I posted my recipe somewhere on the site a long time ago. I don't remember which forum.

I just saw someone mention this group in another post and I'm so happy to have found you guys! Finally a group that has similar ideas as I do.

I tried the calorie counting and restricting and have found that although it was important to learn that so that I could understand what food choices will mean for my diet, I'm not into the time and energy spent on that. I think I needed to find my hunger intuition but I finally feel like I'm back on track. I had definitely lost it for a while and still struggle with bingeing sometimes but it's not that I'm not aware of it any more.

I look forward to continuing to chat with you!

Welcome! We're happy to have you here. :)

OK, I realize I can be a little stubborn at times (here is where you all say ...Obie stubborn? Never...)but I think I have figured out what the general problem people have with IE.

Some people have a theory that if you eat whatever you want you'll eventually get to a "natural weight". For me that is in the 350s since I was there for a long time. Eventually I probably would have hit 400, but it would have taken a while and I might not have. I was essentially "maintaining" in the 350s. IE isn't eating whatever you want...it is eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're not.

Mean while the boyfriend called last night and apologized for being a poopie head and putting me though ****. Really didn't see it coming. Maybe it was because I stopped calling him a poopie and he had time to think. We'll see

IE and Sick it wacky. I don't seem to build up to very hungry I seem to be ravenous when the hunger finally hits and I have been wanting salad and ramen noodles. Nothing else just salad and ramen noodles. 2 things I wasn't the least bit interested in before I got sick.

OT-so I haven't had internet access from home all week. Cable guy is supposed to come out today...I turn on the computer...guess what I can get only. I doubt it will stay like this.

:bravo: Button_Ewe. Glad it is working for you :cp:
:welcome2: Bikini Dreader. Hope you stay a while.

Here's an interesting article.

Healthy Eating - Food is Food!
The written word cannot express how vehemently I believe that food must be seen as nothing more than food - not a self-righteous choice, not good or bad, not fattening or slimming, not a political statement, just food!

And no one's opinions about food makes me crazier than the self-righteous, self-appointed food finger pointer, Morgan Spurlock, who was the creator and "star" of "Super Size Me." The movie's premise was to watch Spurlock force food into his smug mug for thirty days, and watch what happened. Okay, spoiler coming up - he gains weight. He choose to overeat exclusively at McDonald's and to stop exercising. What the point of that was still escapes me, other than to show that OVEREATING (regardless of who made the food) and NOT EXERCISING has a deleterious effect upon the human body. He believes it shows that McDonald's is bad for you. Never let facts get in the way of a movie that grossed $28 million worldwide, and has led to Mr. Spurlock's personal success, and that of his girlfriend after she "de-toxed" him. He's now the "go-to" guy about nutrition.

And I'm not the only one that finds the premise of this movie half-baked.

In the Netherlands, Wim Meij, a reporter with the Algemeen Dagblad (a Dutch newspaper), performed another experiment. He also limited himself to eating at McDonald's, but instead of choosing just any meal from the menu, he chose carefully, with an emphasis on salads. He came out at least as healthy as he was before he started his 30-day experiment and lost 6.5 kg (14 lb) in the process.

In New Jersey documentary filmmaker Scott Caswell also performed a similar experiment. The results of his diet can be seen in his movie, which is titled Bowling for Morgan. It can be seen for free at BowlingForMorgan.com. Like Spurlock, Caswell consumed only McDonald's food, but generally opted for the healthier choices and did not gorge himself—a fact that Caswell oftens compares to the overeating done by Spurlock, who was often seen forcing himself to eat when he was not hungry. Over the course of the experiment, he lost 19 pounds and his cholesterol fell sharply.

Soso Whaley, of Kensington, New Hampshire, made her own film about dieting at McDonald's, called Me and Mickey D. The film follows Whaley as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, eating 2,000 kilocalories a day at McDonald's. The film was funded by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (Whaley holds a C.E.I. fellowship).

Raleigh, North Carolina resident Merab Morgan went on a 90-day diet in which she ate at McDonald's exclusively, but she limited her intake to 1,400 kilocalories (5,900 kilojoules) per day. She lost 37 pounds in the process.

San Antonio, Texas resident Deshan Woods went on a 90-day diet in which he lost nearly 14 pounds. He documented the entire experiment on his website LiquidCalories.com. His overall health improved while sticking to a diet mainly in burgers and fries. He stayed away from sugary drinks and stuck to non-caloric beverages instead. His average caloric intake was 2,500 kilocalories a day, which included 130 grams of fat. His cholesterol dropped from 204 to around 160.

By way of comparison, the Starvation Study conducted at the University of Minnesota in 1944-45 used a starvation diet of approximately 1570 kilocalories a day on conscientious objectors for six months, causing an average 25% loss in body weight, simulating the loss of residents of the Warsaw Ghetto. The starvation study found for purposes of weight loss—and subsequent weight gain—it really did not matter what food one ate: what mattered was how many calories one ate. Of course, the focus of that study was not on blood chemistry, cholesterol, or liver function. We use this study at Green Mountain at Fox Run to demonstrate effects of semi-starvation, aka dieting: pre-occupation with food, rapid weight regain plus more once normal caloric intake restored, depression, short tempers, food hording, etc.

Professor James Painter, chair of Eastern Illinois University’s School of Family and Consumer Sciences, made the documentary Portion Size Me. The film follows two graduate students, one a 254-pound male and the other a 108-pound female, as they ate a fast-food diet for a month but in portions appropriate for their size. Both students lost weight and their cholesterol improved by the end of the experiment.[4]

It's easy to point a finger, Mr. Spurlock, until you realize that 3 fingers are pointing back at you.

Women's Health , McDonald's , SuperSize Me , Healthy Eating .

That article was from a site called A Weight Lifted. I don't know much about it and this is the only thing I've read. I think I'll look into it a bit more.

Fiddler, I use shrimp. I thought it was a seafood soup. Didn't know about the chicken. We first had it at a restaraunt in Beaverton, OR (Portland) and they also use crab with the shrimp. The place was called Thai Angel.

That article about McD’s was interesting, thanks for sharing. Of course it’s all about calories in vs. calories out, and you can lose weight eating anything (including Big Macs) provided the ratio works out to more calories burned than consumed. These experiments seem to show that you can make healthier choices at McD’s and lose weight/improve your health, but I’d be more interested in finding out how many of your average McD’s consumers actually do that. I have no idea, but I’m guessing it’s not very many? I personally do not eat fast food at all (unless you count the occasional Subway sandwich) because I object to the way they do business all around and as a vegetarian that tries to stick to a whole foods and mostly vegan diet they have next to nothing I would want to eat, but I agree that it’s not really fair to point our fingers at them and blame the fast food chains for the obesity epidemic. People make the choice to eat there, personal accountability seems to have fallen by the wayside and I think that’s really problematic for society in general.

Our family is going on a ski trip to Colo. so it might be awhile before I can post again. Thanks.

Hello all - I'm new to these boards and finally stumbled onto the IE section!

I've been "interested" in IE for a couple years now, read every book on the subject I could get my hands on (was looking for anything other than the usual "lose weight - here's a structured diet" stuff!), but haven't really made a conscious effort to put things into play.

Over the last several weeks, I've been "trying" to lose weight the old way - restrict, rebel, indulge; repeat. It's not working for me. Over the last week I just tried to let go of all the rules and eat without obsessing over it (what a relief!) and yesterday I finally made the decision to eat mindfully and really assess my choices in an "IE" way. It felt amazing!

I packed my usual assortment of food (I already had the rule that I should eat something healthy when I felt hungry, and have food ready for that), and nibbled when I was hungry for my usual morning snack. I had an oatmeal bar and banana and went back to work... after about 15-20 minutes I realized I was still hungry. In the "diet" mentality, I would have told myself to shut up and deal with it - as it was, I sat for a minute and assessed whether I was really hungry, then grabbed a hardboiled egg and a yogurt, which brought me to satisfied. I wasn't too hungry for lunch when 1:00 rolled around, but I was fine with that - I didn't eat too much just because it was "lunchtime," and I felt pretty good through the rest of the day!

The biggest shock for me - my family was in town so we went out to dinner last night. I looked over the menu with the mentality that I could order whatever I wanted, whatever sounded good. In the past, I would have ordered either the grilled salmon as "diet food" or the fish-and-chips as "indulgence" without really considering what I actually wanted to eat. I weighed my options and decided the salmon sounded really good, better than the greasy fried fish (which tends to make me queasy) - and it was awesome! My brother ordered the fish-and-chips, and I would have been jealous through the meal if I was still thinking "diet" - but since I had the option to order it and decided against it, I didn't give it a second thought! I had a really delicious dinner, ate until I was satisfied, and left the place without feeling so stuffed that I needed to roll to my car!

I'm sure this is all old hat to most of you, but it's such a total relief and kind of a surprise that it's so easy! I fully realize I'll still have my ups and downs, and will still overeat on occasion - but I already feel better about eating healthy foods and leaving the rules behind! I think part of it is that I've been "practicing" for this for a couple years - reading and thinking about it, without actually putting it into action (because it would be "too hard"), so it's actually kind of shocking that it feels like a weight's been lifted instead of a new set of structure to follow. (And also surprising that I'm choosing wisely when giving myself free rein to eat whatever tempts me!)

Anyway, I realize this was kind of a long rambling post, but I wanted to share my minor victory with someone, and IE folks are the only ones who will really get it! I look forward to getting to know all of you!

Bri, (I saw your blog), That sounds terrific! Welcome to IE. Hurrying off to Colo. now but see you in a week, Lord willing. Maybe I can use my son's laptop later.

I'd have to agree with what you are saying here about eating the fast food. Morgan Spurlock ate irresponsibly and gained weight. But, I do think a lot of people eat irresponsibly.

Sure you can lose weight eating anything, if you are smart and sane about it.

So, can one "supersize" a salad meal at McDonalds? I haven't eaten there in ages. I think I had a snack wrap thing while on a road trip last year (ate while actually driving), but nothing like a whole meal. Well, I suppose I made the snack wrap thing a meal.

Taking a fatty meal and making it a bigger fatty meal because it is only a few cents more is a silly notion, but one that Americans certainly buy into!