Hi everybody, I am trying the IE approach, because all the other 'rules' made me obsessive and lead me to binges!
Hi everyone, I will be visiting often

Welcome, Carol. My name is Carol, too. Good to have you here.

Obi - thank goodness I've found a Frances Kuffel non-fan too! She's practically GOD over in Maintainers, but I just think she's really not got her head on right at all. I kinda feel sorry for her that she hasn't got her head sorted, and I just feel sad that the OA thing probably won't work the 2nd time round either. JMHO. I read the article and thought, "Yeah. So?" Lots of people over there were really empathising with her and crying over the post... I just can't identify with her at all.

Welcome newbie carol!

Sooooo I had a non-hungry day yesterday. Which is a shame since I'd made a special dinner, but I just wasn't hungry. However I DID eat it because I'd spent loads of time making it and DH had helped and I really did need some food, but it was probably a little bit of head stress making me not want to eat. I only ate a small piece of dinner, so I'm not too worried at all. However DH really liked what we made and had 2 big servings! Then he's lying in bed groaning about how much he ate And I'm lying there feeling all smug, and I said, "Don't worry, we all overeat sometimes..." In my best I'm-not-patronising-you voice

Anyway, so I've got leftovers for lunch! YAY!

Hello Carol. I am trying to stop dieting and change my whole mentality when it comes to food. Eat more balanced but also balance my life....

Hi everyone!
The calorie counting is going well. I'm giving myself a much bigger range, so it seems a little less insane than when I was doing it before. I'm continuing to listen to my hunger to decide when to eat and when to stop. I went kind of crazy at Mc D's yesterday though... I don't know if it's because I'm dieting now or if it was an emotional episode. I think I'm going to read the Karen Koenig book that Rock Chalk recommended. She also has a workbook with exercises about emotional eating that I want to pick up.

I remember reading in Inuitive Eating that there are a few times when you should eat even though you aren't hungry. One of those times is breakfast (other times were while sick or if you won't have time later to eat). I was wondering, do you all eat breakfast even if you aren't hungry? How much do you eat?

I hope you're all well!

Theresa

Oh! I'm down two pounds as of this morning. It might have something to do with drinking 3 liters of water yesterday. I'm far from dehydrated.

I am not expert but I guess, you should eat when hungry

Congratulations, Theresa, on the weight loss. I've been really hungry today but usually when that happens I am not hungry at night. So it all evens out. I sometimes think I wait to long to eat in the morning only because I have some breathing exercises that I do on an empty stomach. I have a chronic lung disease and they just seem to make me feel better. Carol, I think you should eat when hungry, too. 2frus, I had never heard of that lady you were writing about and I have read a lot of diet books.

Today I was reading a thread about "your most unusual weight loss tip" and found this one interesting.

Two things for me:

1) If I think I'm hungry, I ask myself what exactly am I hungry for?
-activity, something to chew on, veggies, solid protein, just a little fat, water, something liquid but not water, something sweet, real chocolate? These are all valid answers, with healthy solutions. Typical solutions (in order):
-playing piano, chewing gum, huge salad, leftover roast, 3 almonds, water, chai raspberry-leaf tea, apple, (70% cocoa solids) chocolate square.

I allow myself the one item. If I'm not satisfied afterward, then I need to do better analysis next time, and not eat something else (-unless it's meal/ snack time). This way, I try to learn my real needs.

2) I know that pretty much all animals testable seem to live 50% longer than normal, and don't seem to get the typical diseases of aging, if they eat about 30% less than they would normally feed themselves. Lately a large-sample, well-rated study came out which confirms this for humans, too!

So now I'm trying to move toward "what will be just enough?" to replace "what makes me feel comfortably well fed?" My grandparents used to say, "Push away from the table, BEFORE you feel done!" They lived long, very healthy lives.... Now, I understand!

Today I felt really good when I ate and I also saw some 'forbidden' food in the kitchen and it did not appeal to me at all, I guess because I know I can have it if I want to

I eat when I'm hungry and I don't always eat "typical" breakfast foods. I am rarely hungry first thing in the morning so I usually don't eat until almost noon. I wait till I feel hungry then I eat. I'm not ravenous or anything. With IE I have kinda of gotten out of the time to eat mentality.

I’ve read that the ideal in Japanese culture is to eat until you’re about 80% satiated, but never to 100%. Maybe that’s why they have some of the longest life expectancy rates in the world.

I have been feeling a little more hungry these days, so I added a BP & all-fruit spread whole wheat English muffin to my goodie bag for the day at work. I had half this morning with my usual ½ banana snack (I eat the other half with my cereal in the am) and I’ll have the other half with my apple this afternoon. Hopefully this will keep me from feeling like I’m starving by the time I get home.

Re: eating breakfast when you’re not hungry. I think some people’s bodies don’t really “wake up” and activate the hunger signal until something has already been eaten. I would think it might be better for you to still eat a little something, even if it’s just a slice of toast and a piece of fruit. I’m usually not hungry till I’ve been up for a couple hours, so I just wait till I’m at work to eat breakfast, but it might not be a good idea to skip breakfast altogether, regardless of hunger.

Owwww... why did I eat like that?

I got bogged down in work this morning, frantically working from about 8 'til 12:30 trying to catch up with the clock (doing timed work - would just finish the task that starts at 10 am when I needed to have already started the task to begin at 11, etc). I got hungry, then shaky. I already know my hypoglycemic trends, and I was getting to the danger point. I finally broke away during a 5 minute incubation to cram a granola bar down my throat. Not exactly "mindful" but I knew I needed it and didn't have any time. Followed with an oatmeal square about 10 minutes later, when I'd come back up to "very hungry" from "ready to pass out." Doing fine up to this point, other than allowing myself to get too far down.

So, it's 12:40 and have time reserved on a machine at 1, and I'm still hungry. I popped over to the cafe and couldn't find anything that looked terribly good, so I opted for one of their overpriced grilled sandwiches. It comes with chips, so I nibbled on the chips and drank a half-pint of chocolate milk (one of my best hypo fixes) while waiting for it to come up. I didn't really check in well with my hunger because I was so impatient to get back to the lab - in retrospect, the chips satisfied my hunger and I was done eating before even starting the sandwich. But, unfortunately, I was more thinking "I just bought this, I shouldn't waste it" than anything else - I ate the sandwich quickly even though it was dry and tasteless and is now making me incredibly queasy!

I'm not really beating myself up over this, but I'm actually starting to realize that I can retrain myself over time - it wasn't the wisest choice to eat the sandwich, but instead of blaming the "bad" sandwich for making me feel stuffed, I'm realizing I could have stopped eating after a bite or just thrown the thing away! It's wasted whether it's in the trash or on my butt - I'm slowly starting to think this BEFORE I overeat.

Just thought I'd share my frustration for the day. After the frantic morning I now have nothing to do for the next 90 minutes, and I'm considering popping out for a walk or some other way to get myself a little less bloated.

Add-on...

After reading through my last post, I realized I really wanted to ask what others do when you can't/don't have time to eat? I know the standard IE response is that you have to make time, that it's important to make the time to sit down and mindfully, slowly eat and check in regularly to not overeat.

But, that's just plain not possible some days - the nature of my work doesn't really allow it all the time. And I'm sure there are others who are in the same boat - do you have any methods to cope? I keep a stash of bars and such (the granola and oatmeal bars I ate earlier are essential when I get hypo), but we can't keep food or drink in the lab itself and it's not always possible to dart down to my office in the next building when I'm in the middle of a sensitive process.

I suppose it's a question of whether to have a "preventative" snack when I know I'm going to be swamped, even if I'm not hungry? Or set a time limit when I finally do get to eat, so that I can wolf something down, wait a set time, and then decide whether I'm still hungry? Or something else? (These are the two options I've considered - I'm sure there are others!)

None of the options I can think of quite fall under "proper" IE methods, but that's mainly because in a situation like this I'm already breaking the "eat when hungry" aspect. Anybody have any suggestions?

I'm with Ulapie. Preventive Eating isn't technically IE, but who cares. Make it work for you. During the week I have to eat lunch at a certain time and there a few days when I hit the ground running and don't have time to eat. I try and eat something that will hold me till the busy period is over. I also think it is hard to work when your hungry. I stop focusing on whatever the task is and start thinking when am I going to eat.

So I say eat something that will get you past the busy time, and keep your snacks handy. I think the fact that you recognized why you were eating the sandwich is pretty good and you can look at the whole situation and see where the problems are is pretty cool.