Intuitive Eating #5
 

Eat when Your hungry, stop when your satisfied.

How are things going for you, Obi? Looks like the scale is treating you well. Summer is finally here and maybe time to put the air conditioner in the window. Today it is watering garden and flowers all day since no rain is in sight. Thanks for starting this Obi.

Stephen Hawks is supposed to be releasing a book soon on IE. Here is an article about him.

PROVO, Utah (MedPage Today) -- Steven Hawks, a professor of health science at Brigham Young University here, says phooey to dieting.

Eat what you want, when you want, says Hawks. Just use common sense.

For most of us it sounds like a formula for obesity. Not so for Hawks. He was on the borderline of obesity when he gave up dieting. Now, living with his new credo, Hawks is 50 pounds lighter.

His secret, he claims, is "intuitive eating."

Clearly out of the mainstream in the conservative world of nutrition, Hawks proselytizes what he calls a common-sense, hunger-based approach to eating. Nothing in intuitive eating, he says, is taboo.

While intuitive eating doesn't involve measuring cups or calculators, it does entail a high degree of self-awareness. The individual must be constantly in sync with the body's satiety signals.

This doesn't mean that when the stomach starts grumbling, Hawks reaches for a candy bar.

"I'm not advocating nutritional ignorance," he said. "If a fruit or vegetable will solve that hunger instead of something from Cinnabon, then I'm going to be intelligent about it and choose the fruit or vegetable."

Nothing in Hawks' background, except 20 years of teaching and research, would seem to qualify him as a scientific guru in nutrition. His has an education doctorate in community health, an MBA in international business, a master's in international studies, and a bachelor's in East Asian studies, all from BYU.

But he teaches, among other courses, body image, self-esteem, and weight control.

And the 46-year-old Hawks practices what he preaches. He keeps a three-foot-tall refrigerator in his office stocked with everything from fruit to ice cream.

Intuitive eating isn't a license to eat badly, he says. Instead, it's a holistic approach that involves being highly attuned to hunger signals, sensible eating, and not denying the body treats like ice cream.

Now a lean 165 pounds at 5-foot-9, Hawks' intuitive eating style is getting increasing attention, most recently a prominent mention in a feature on the failure of dieting in U.S. News and World Report.

Chubby childhood
Hawks says he used to feel like a hypocrite, teaching nutrition while struggling with his own weight, a battle that had followed him since childhood.

"Third grade kids called me 'fatty,' " he said. This pivotal point was followed by years of dieting, short-lived weight loss, regained weight, and a constant undercurrent of failure, Hawks said.

Even though Hawks had jogged regularly since high school, the weight problems never went away. Junk food was banned from the house much to his six kids' dismay. He tried multiple diets, but nothing worked.

"Before I started intuitive eating, I would skip breakfast and then I would have a light lunch, like a tuna sandwich or an apple and a handful of carrot sticks."

By the time he left work at dinner time, Hawks was ravenous. He would lose control "and binge on whatever I could find, so that it was a constant struggle of restrict, restrain, feel hunger."

Epiphany in Thailand
Hawks' moment on the mountaintop came during a seven-week, work-related trip to Chiang Mei, Thailand, in the summer of 2001. He was working with his students at leper colonies and in poverty programs. During his almost two months in Thailand, he observed how the Thai people didn't obsess about their bodies or what they ate. They just simply enjoyed their food.

"Being in Thailand opened my eyes to seeing how people relate differently to food," Hawks said. The locals didn't have the kinds of anxieties about food that Americans experienced, he said.

He had an epiphany when he patronized a McDonald's in Thailand. "The portion size was about a third to what you get in the United States," he said. "My first reaction was 'What a rip off,' but then I started to see, 'Well, that was enough to be satisfied.' "

That got Hawks thinking. Perhaps the key wasn't so much about what he ate and when, but how he felt about what he was eating, he said.

By the time Hawks flew halfway around the world to return home, he was a changed man. He decided to change his relationship with food for good. His wife, who also wanted to lose weight, joined him in his quest. Within one year they each lost between 40 and 50 pounds following "intuitive eating." Five years later, they're still the same weight.

Intuitive eating not for wimps
Eating intuitively sounds misleadingly easy, but it's probably far more challenging than most fad diets. It involves round-the-clock conscientiousness about what you eat and why.

Hawks said there are three main types of unhealthy consumption intuitive eaters need to be hyper-aware of: environmental eating, such as snacking on chips in front of the TV; emotional eating, like nose-diving into Ben & Jerry's after an argument; and social eating, dipping the fingers into the plate of cookies a co-worker brought to the office. All three are unconscious ways of eating that quickly pack on pounds.

However, restriction just leads to lowered self-esteem and sets people up for binging, Hawks said, so he doesn't deny himself any food, including shrimp, his favorite, whether it's fried shrimp or a shrimp taco.

In his quest to lose weight, Hawks not only dramatically changed his eating habits, he also ate more food. While this may sound counter-intuitive to weight loss, Hawks said variety is critical to maintaining any sort of lifestyle change.

No eating solution would work without exercise, Hawks said. He jogs an average of 25 to 30 miles per week. Exercise enhances intuitive eating, he explained, because it strengthens the connection between mind and body.

Science supports intuition
Hawks published a small study a few months ago in the American Journal of Health Education on intuitive eating's potential. Carried out with more than two dozen female BYU students, it showed that intuitive eating reduced body mass index, lowered triglyceride levels, increased high-density lipoprotein levels, and also improved the students 'overall risk for cardiovascular disease.

Fad diets may, says Hawks, offer short-term weight loss, "but at one level or another they are not in harmony with what your body is telling you, which means you have to work against biological urgings and ultimately you're going to fail. It's not sustainable because it's not natural."

How is everyone doing? I've been feeling pretty good lately, maybe because I've been sticking to the eliptical about 40min a day. I need to stay out of the sun so outdoor exercise is out even though I love to walk. I do garden but try to do it at sunrise or sunset (usually sunset as I'm not really fond of getting up early. ha!) I'll see if I can get some of the kids to do the tilling. I was always amazed that even when the kids were little and I didn't keep the weeds out very well, we had amazingly good produce.

Hi Pals -
Carol, that was a great article you posted by Hawks; I especially liked the last paragraph, and the last sentence: "it's not sustainable because it's not natural."
and I like the idea about being conscientious rather than anxious about eating. it just makes SENSE!

Hi, Jo, I've run into a small snag with IE as I have recently had to up my prednisone does. Am I really hungrier or is the med just making me think I am? I haven't gained back any weight yet so for that I am thankful.

That should have been prednisone dose! ha!

I wonder how it is that prednisone has that effect. I recently found out that my friend's dog wants to eat everything in sight when she (the dog) is on prednisone for her skin problems. They try not to let her eat as much as she wants but it is hard because she keeps begging!

What's the old saying.......misery loves company........even if it's a dog!!!!

hey everyone, seems like we lost a few people. I am not as pressed about losing x lbs in Z time. I know it will come off. I think it helps that I am finally seeing noticeable changes in my body and can shop in a smaller size. TOM came along and while I haven't don't as bad as previous months not happy, but it happens. Also I think one of the best things I did was start the weigh training. I think that has been responsible for the bulk of the changes I can now see. Ex and I are on solid footing, family is making my head hurt, but nothing too terrible. Other than that nothing to report. Monday will be a new effort to focus on only eating when hungry.

Obi, What kind of exercises do you do for weight training........free weights, machines, resistance bands.......and how long do you spend doing it? I've always disliked that kind of exercise. Anyway to make it fun?

Hello all. I just started eating when hungry, stopping when satisfied. I find that I'm hungry every 5 hours. I could wait 6 but then I'd be too ravenous.

What I'm doing is I'm eating from the food pyramid and eating one portion (two portions usually if it's veggies).

I'm going to put in some exercise when my sleep is corrected.

I've been really happy about how I feel. I don't feel like I'm a diet and this is really the only thing that works for me because it's so common sense. When I'm faced with challenges like friend's house and restaurants I'm always going to choose the healthier thing and common sense it. I don't plan to bring home leftovers.

On the 7th I was 253. Today, the 15th, I', 247.5. I think that's awesome cause I'm gonna power past 242 where I haven't been able to push past.

I love these new habits!

Welcome, Gamerchick. Recently I've noticed that the hunger comes at different intervals on different days, maybe depending on how much activity one does Some days I really get the muchies and others I'm not too hungry most of the day. It all seems to even out. I do know if I am starving that I tend to over eat so try to eat before it gets to that. Let us know how you are doing as often as you can.

Has anyone been reading the nondieting thread? I find it very interesting that it has so many posts pro and con. Eating has been slow for me with the really hot weather we've been having. I did eat last night at a party and I wasn't very hungry but eating was very minimal so I was thankful for that.

A quick question. Does anyone find their appetite diminishing with hot weather? Maybe I should make that a general question but I wouldn't no where to put it. Anyone have any reasons why the hot weather should affect one's appetite?

Just for fun I googled the words appetite and hot weather and found someone discussing it. Here's the link. http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/33681.html

There's a storm coming through so I think we're in for a little relief from the heat. Short lived, though. We will be going to Alaska in July and my son who lives there says it is cooler......highs in the 60's. I felt really fat yesterday but this morning I was down a lb. What's with that fat feeling anyway? Is it water. Could be the meds. So tired lately.

Yes, I don't have much of a desire to heat in hot weather. I just got back from a music festival where it was very hot in the daytime and the last thing I wanted to do was to eat. Unfortunately, I did not feel the same way about cold beer. But what a mischevious little joke for nature to have all these wonderful fruits and vegetables come ripe at the same time when people's appetites are squelched. We need a conference call with Mom Nature.

Hi, Jo. I was able to get in 45min on the eliptical yesterday and last night I felt a lot better. So this morning I'm going to do it first thing to see if it helps with the tiredness. How was the music at the festival? Have you seen Fiddler lately?

It has been a while since I've seen Fiddler; we've both been busy -
Oh I envy those of you who can get into exercise. I did it before but it is not happening now.
My big thing now is my big huge bag of CSA vegetables to use up. This may be a weight loss strategy - INADVERTENTLY though. At first I was using all these vegetables IN things and on things, which is a great first step but I cannot possibly make so much pizza, casseroles, things-over-rice and "what-not" with all these vegetables and have it not go bad. I am very satisfied with about 1/5 of the volume of food I can create using these vegetables with other added ingredients in other dishes. So now my plan is to just use the vegetables with a minimum of other ingredients. It really breaks my heart to have these lovingly grown local vegetables thrown out. It doesn't break my heart to throw out "ordinary" food, but to me these are not "ordinary" foodstuffs. So now I am thinking - forget the rice, the noodles, the bun, or whatever else may be cutting my precious bounty. I just made a bunch of sauteed vegetables, with just a little seasoning and some almonds for protein. We don't need no stinkin' rice. It's not about being low carb but I just want to waste as little as possible of my blessed produce and to do so means to cut out as much as possible of the other stuff. Which to me would be carbs since I don't care about meat.
I'd like to make the casseroles and stuff and freeze it for the winter but I have not have any luck with frozen things retaining their initial quality. Even with the vacuum sealer. :(
I'm thinking about all kinds of ways to use up my vegetables; "pizza" using a pressed vegetable crust, "crab cakes" using about 20 % crab and the rest finely chopped vegetables, and a bunch of other seemingly silly ideas. I'll let you all know how it goes.

jo

It's hard for me to throw away produce, too, Jo. The pizza and crab cakes sound good. I do can tomatoes and beans and freeze corn and strawberries. The strawberries aren't too bad if you use them in slushes or don't let them thaw completely before you use them. Corn is nearly unchanged by freezing. I'm growing snow peas this year so we'll see how they freeze. Winter squash and onions last nearly all year in our cold room in the basement. I was amazed at the onions as I just used up the last from last year. Let us know any good recipes you come up with.

Hey ladies, I took a break for a week or so from everything related to weight loss. I won't say I feel off the wagon because I kind of felt I needed a break. I didn't over eat, but didn't exercise. Anyway I'm back at it woo hoo. Nice thing I have been trying on close in a 24 and they are ok. Also enjoying having more options to shop at. Looking forward to hitting my goal of an 18 by the end of the year.

I see things have slowed down here, but nice to see you guys....

Great to see you, Obie. I pmd 2frus because I miss her great posts. Hope she comes back.

After losing around 15lb this year today my clothes felt looser than they had in a long time. Still sticking with IE because I think it's the only thing that I will be able to stick to long term. We are getting lots of rain here and what a blessing.........I won't have to water all the flowers and garden!

Thank you for having posted the Stephen Hawks article. One of the things which caught my eye was his observation that the serving size at the Thai MacDonalds were approximately one-third the size of the ones here in America. I think it was back in the late '70's or early 80's that I began to notice restaurants were serving larger portions. This seems especially true with the franchise restaurants: not just McD's, but Bennigan's, TGIFs, all of them. That was because their corporate managements determined that for maximum profitability, they had to make each person who came in spend a certain dollar amount. However, in order to make that larger dollar amount not feel like a rip-off, they served more food per portion.
I remember thinking to myself way back then (in my late 20's & early 30's--I'm in my mid-50's now) that people were going to gain weight because of this. Believe me when I tell you it was much harder to eat relatively healthy at fast food places back then. At least now they've got salads and other healthier choices.

Fattofit, I'm in my 50's, too, and wonder sometimes how I spent years without a thought to what I ate. Was it intuitive eating? I never was much of an athlete and wish I could get back to that kind of eating. I have a DIL who is the same way.......so thin until she started to have kids and then struggling ever since. The Overfed Head is a good book that explains some of the reasoning behind that and I guess I better reread it as I haven't read it in quite awhile.

Hey everyone, well something interesting happened. I mentioned I took "break" from all things weight loss related, no excercise and no calroie counting, but I did kind of stick to my IE. It was more unconscious than anything. SO I decided to weight myself so how much I had gained and I lost 6 lbs in about a week. I feel almost like a science experiment. I honestly think is was a combination of IE and the weights I had been doing. Anyway, trip to Jamaica is in less than a month and I start buying clothes next weekend. Glad to see Everything is working out for you Carol.:hug:

Great experiment, Obie! I, too, have had an interesting experience. We quite often have company on Sun. which includes a large meal and even dessert. It seems now that after that I can't eat the rest of the day. It's like there is a tape playing in my head saying, "Don't eat that. It won't taste good because you're not hungry." Kind of flabbergasts me.

Obie, Is that 6lb below your ticker? That's quite a bit for one week!

My smart HS pal's idea about "boring" food...
 

carolr3639, my own experience half my life ago was that I did use IE. That's what made me gravitate to this thread, because it sounded familiar. I did keep half an eye on what I was eating. If there was a birthday, meaning someone provided cake, sure, I enjoyed it--but I also would eat less for the next day or so, meaning I kept a semi-conscious awareness of calories consumed. Mind you, I never have wanted to, nor been able to be a conscious calorie-counter. To me, that starts becoming compulsive behavior. As Hawks observed, truly normal, naturally-tuned-into-their-honest-appetite people don't DO that! They simply pay honest attention to their hunger--or lack of it.

Now here's an interesting insight from one of the smartest people I know: She's a doctor, of Japanese descent (so she & her family eat healthily in the first place) & was the valedictorian of our HS class. Our 40th HS reunion was this weekend, so she was in town. (By the way, she's a healthy weight, not fat, not skinny, not compulsive in any way.) We were discussing food. I don't remember what food was mentioned, but I opined I couldn't eat much of it, since I would find it boring. She said, "I've found that I like 'boring' food; I find I just eat till I'm not hungry anymore; it's easier to stop, since my tastebuds aren't clamoring, "More!More!"

The interesting part (besides this concept) is that she eats most different kinds of food. Our friendship goes back 44 years, so I'm friends with her family. When we all eat together, they serve a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, some meat with all the fat trimmed off--and dessert! They even have a whipped cream charger, to use with after-dinner coffee and cake--BUT everybody just has one piece &/or one cup of coffee with the whipped cream. So they do all eat healthy, even pig out on the healthy stuff--they just don't go overboard with dessert.

Fattofit, Isn't that interesting. My 40th hs reunion was this year but we went to my DH's 35th veterinary school reunion instead. He graduated from Kansas State and we are originally from NE but we now live in WI. Your friends experience was very interesting. I've often heard the question put, "Why aren't we watching how thin people eat to learn how to stay thin?"

I was just re-reading my posts to add to my blog when I saw this, sorry for the really late response. I do free weights since I so a DVD. I think if you can do weights you should even if it is only 15 min and you modify to make it work for you. Between my regular cardio and the weight my little aches and pains seem to go away when when i do it consistently. I love it because there isn't alot of bouncing around and I can do it slow and concentrate. I started out with 3lbs and now I have a set ranging from 5-12. Even just standing for a while has gotten easier. If you're not into the weights you might want to try yoga or pilates. If you're into DVDs I would recommend the prevention fitness since they always have a beginner modification which was good for me since I was clueless when I was starting out.

LOL, there is alot of grumbling and talking about at the screen, but it makes it worth it when I don't have any knee or back pain. And being completely shallow I can finally shop at more than 3 stores. I am a little overwhelmed that this might be going on for the rest of my life, but I can live with this versus where i was.

That is great, Obi -
My big problem (and this goes for work, personal, home, etc.) is that I keep feeling the need to do only 3 things a day instead of 167 like I am "supposed to." So I don't get exercise in.

I've been looking at a book called Beyond Chocolate from the UK and so far can't get it here in the US. The shipping from there is pretty high. Anyway, they have a website and you can get a free monthly newsletter about IE if you google those words.

Here is an excerpt from the free Beyond Chocolate newsletter.

When was the last time you had a craving for chocolate but settled for a 'healthy' low calorie 'yoghurt dessert' concoction instead?

Well we have some fabulous news for you! According to recent research carried out by the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany, the effects of eating cocoa for two weeks on patients with high blood pressure are comparable to those achieved with blood pressure-lowering medications. The study concluded, "it appears reasonable to substitute phenol-rich cocoa products, such as dark chocolate, for other desserts or dairy products and is as part of dietary approaches to lower hypertension risk".

So next time you fancy a piece of chocolate make sure you grab a piece of the quality, dark stuff and enjoy!

Well that figures. Just my luck. I have high blood pressure and I don't even like chocolate. Oh, I don't absolutely hate it, but I don't get all excited about it. It's better than a couple of things I really do hate (strawberries and watermelon.) I could make myself eat it, like I do with flax seeds.

OK Carol - I got some fancy dark "zinfandel" chocolate today from a winery. It comes in a tin and is in little discs, so i can eat a couple of them every day and not have to unwrap a whole bar. It's not bad. I don't usually like sweet things and it's not that sweet.

Oh, Jo, those sound good. I wonder where else you can buy something like that. No winerys around here. ha! Had a great day yesterday. We went swimming with the kids and some friends and the pool even had a water slide. Ever since I went on the first water slide about 20 yr. ago I thought they were fun. I even took my granddaughter down who is just about 2. She loved it and wanted to go again and again. I slipped and went under once so then her dad took over. I was getting tired anyway. It was so hot and the water felt so good.

Carol - I just checked and these chocolates are sold online - search for Wine Lover's Chocolate. They are made by San Francisco Chocolate Factory.
Water slides are fun! I wish they had adult only hours. Unfortunately, unlike you, I don't like children. (I didn't even like them when I was one!)