That sounds great, Patty, but I can be ravenous and still not know what I want. Do you ever notice if you wait too long that you overeat? Sometimes that happens to me. Yesterday was a fairly light day with a moderate supper. We had company so I fixed steak. Now this morning, I'm not as hungry. Off to take my Alaska son to visit his sister 4 hr. away.
Carol-- I definitely overeat sometimes if I wait too long. If I don't overeat it definitely takes me longer to feel satisfied. I've told my BF if I pick him up after work no stopping I am going home to eat. No ifs, ands or buts!
I don't know what it is, but when I go away I tend to eat for other reasons other than hunger. I had to take my son to the airport yesterday to go back to Alaska and we stopped at his sisters overnight. Part of the trouble is getting overly hungry and part fatigue, I'm sure. When you're home you can decides to eat or not but food is always there in case you really are hungry. Well, my DD had some shrimp to munch on as we were eating dinner late. She teaches pottery classes 2 nights a week and is very busy right now making pots. The art fair season is about to begin and besides that she has a wood kiln outside and doesn't fire during the dead of winter. So dinner was at 8:30 or 9:00pm. That would have been ok but she also made chocolate chip cookies for a snack. I wanted to stop with one or two but ended up eating 4 and one more after the late dinner. UGH! Then the next morning she bought specialty sweet rolls. She just knows we like them. She is really thin so no problem for her. Today is a new day and eating is gentle again.
Friday
I've still been getting on the scale. Its been tough to stop something you've been used to doing every day. I've finally not been on the scale for a couple of days straight now. What I have learned is I am maintaining even though I am eating what I want when hungry. The reason I know I'm maintaining rather than losing is because I need to stop earlier than I do. I take 5 bites when 3 would have been more than enough. Still a work in progress. My schedule has been ridiculous but I am managing.
Today
Okay everyone it is confession time. I made it through 24 binge free days but didn't make it to 25. Yesterday was a disaster. But you know what? I am so proud of myself for making it to 24. I have not been able to go that long without bingeing for a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. Today is day 1. My friend at work got her IE book yesterday so here's hoping she gets a chance to start reading her book so we can do it together. I already know what my 10 day reward will be. Either a few new cds or games for my computer.
By Elaine Magee, RD, MPH
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic Feature Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD, MD
Try these tips for getting more satisfaction from fewer calories.
Babies are born knowing to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are comfortable. But as we grow up and are exposed to fad diets, advertising, food used as a reward, etc., many of us unlearn this beautifully balanced way of eating and begin to overeat.
Yet eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are comfortable is one of the keys to healthy eating and living, says Linda Bacon, PhD, nutrition professor at the City College of San Francisco.
Much has been written on the "eating when you're hungry" side of this equation. But how do you learn to stop when you're comfortable if you've lost touch with this over the years?
Experts say there are things you can do to make yourself more likely to stop eating when you are comfortable. They include:
Eating Slowly
This isn't a new concept. Remember all those familiar dieting tips like "sip water between bites" and "chew thoroughly before swallowing"? These were all aimed at slowing us down when we eat. Research led by Mark Gold, MD, at the University of Florida at Gainesville has shown it takes 12 or more minutes for food satisfaction signals to reach the brain of a thin person, but 20 or more minutes for an obese person. Eating slowly ensures that these important messages have time to reach the brain.
Being Aware
"Be more attentive about the whole eating experience; don't eat when you are driving or at the computer," Bacon advises. When we're distracted or hurried, the food—and calories—we eat tend not to register well in our brains. Jean Kristeller, PhD, a psychologist and Indiana State University researcher, suggests a brief premeal meditation to get centered before eating so you can more easily derive pleasure from your food, give the meal your full attention and notice when you've had enough.
Make the First Bites Count
Bacon believes that maximum food enjoyment comes in the initial bites. "After a few bites, taste buds start to lose their sensitivity to the chemicals in food that make it taste good," she explains. Satisfying your taste buds by really savoring those first few bites may help you stop eating when you're physically comfortable.
Keep up appearances
Using a smaller plate and paying attention to the presentation of a meal can increase your awareness of the food in front of you and help you stop eating when you are comfortable. "The brain looks at the plate and decides if the portion is adequate," Gold says. "It takes some time, but the smaller the plate, the smaller the portion."
Choose Satisfying Foods
Steer away from foods that give you a lot of calories for very little volume, such as milk shakes, cheese and chocolate, Gold recommends. The higher the fiber, protein and/or water content of a food or meal, the more likely it is to be satisfying in your stomach without going overboard on calories.
Research during the past decade suggests there are three factors that help make a meal more satisfying: the weight of the food, the amount of protein and the amount of fiber.
A revolutionary study done by researchers at the University of Sydney in 1995 noted that of the 38 foods tested, certain foods scored higher in satiety. Top-scoring foods included whole-meal bread, grainy bread, cheese, eggs, brown pasta, popcorn, all-bran cereal, grapes, porridge, baked beans, apples, beefsteak, ling fish (a type of cod) and oranges. All of these foods are high in fiber, water or protein.
And which foods tend to have low satiety scores—making them much easier to overeat? These would be foods with large amounts of fat, sugar and/or refined carbohydrates, like potato chips, candy bars and white bread.
Great article Carol. I always look forward to reading them. I was very excited that my friend wants to do IE. This was based on sharing the book at the "fit club" meeting. I think some people find the concept of IE weird because many feel if they knew how to stop eating when satisfied they wouldn't be overweight. I love it because I don't have to restrict or deprive myself. I am still working on the stopping when satisfied or full and not eating beyond that.
Shay, Have you seen the discussion, I Can Make You Thin? It's about Paul McKenna. Bascially, I think it is IE. He has a website and you can join his group for free right now.
Carol--That's the exact reason I wasn't interested too.
I told my friend that I thought she should talk with her sister about how she is restricting her niece's eating. I told her it was an eating disorder waiting to happen. I'd been thinking about it for awhile and I was worried about what she would say. My friend agreed and had been thinking about it herself. Her niece is so young she does not need a lifetime of sneaking and eating which will just lead to bingeing. I know. My mom didn't restrict me but another family member did and I know it contributes to my binge eating amongst other things.
I got on the freaking scale again this morning. I am determined to not do it again. I am maintaining which is amazing to me with that terrible binge I had on Saturday and I am still working on trying to get back on the right track. IE is so going to work for me once I master stop when satisfied because eating what I want has worked. Part of the reason I believe I am still getting on the scale is because I feel so fat these days. I think that has to do with IE and me being more aware of my body. In the past I was always in denial. Now it is really in my face. I'm contemplating totally getting rid of my scale and just going by how my clothes fit. We shall see.
OK Shay - I'm here! I'm brand new to the IE mentality. and although it makes sense to me in a nutshell - I still have a lot to learn! I was an avid calorie counter - and that's how I lost the last #20 - but it's just not enough for me. I hate the guilt feeling when I would go "over the limit" and then I'd fall into the "Hel with it" mode for a few days or more - completely screwing up any progress.
Currently I'm learning to listen to my body - eat when I'm hungry - stop when I'm full. Today was day one for me. (I made it 6 days a few weeks ago - but that went to heck) I'm learning to not eat out of emotion - and to get rid of the guilt. This is VERY VERY hard for me!
I know that in the long run this will be the best solution - because I can maintain this for the rest of my life. There will be times when I'm hungrier then others - and times when it's ok to have that cookie...and I'm accepting that.
Amy - as for the lunch thing - I generally take my lunch too. but in the case of getting to lunch time and not wanting it - I generally run out to the store and get what it is I want. I put my lunch in the Fridge and either take it home or eat it the next day.
My goal right now is to finsih the introduction and Chapter one tonight during my newly scheduled "ME TIME".
I thought this article from the lastest Beyond Chocolate newsletter was interesting.
Soul food
Hot cross buns, still warm from the oven, oozing butter... Chocolate eggs, cracked open to retrieve the treat within, then savoured slowly, piece by melting piece... A slice of simnel cake, delicately spiced, and topped with marzipan... Will you be indulging in these timeless traditions this Easter?
Every religion has feast days and food rituals - the Jewish Seder, the Buddhist ideal of 'mindful eating', the grace that followers of many faiths say before meals - because food has always been sacred, worshipped by mankind for millennia for sustaining life.
Why, then, do so many of us now pray at a very different altar - the altar of deprivation? In recent times, far from the act of eating being perceived as enriching, it is viewed warily, as something to control, its significance sidelined. This historical shift in our attitude is something that interests Michelle Stacey, journalist and author of Consumed: Why Americans Love, Hate and Fear Food and The Fasting Girl: A True Victorian Medical Mystery. In an article entitled Starving Your Soul, she questions why limiting what we eat has become revered: "Food is not just sustenance but comfort, companionship and communication. It is both a connection with our most elemental, animal selves and with the physical world outside of us that supplies our needs. In that connection, and in the plain physiological reality of eating, there is a joy that can be transcendent, if we let it be. The truth and logic of this fact have become so lost recently that, oddly, we've turned the idea around: we're more likely to think that in being stingy with how we feed ourselves lies our salvation."
Ellyn Satter, a US dietician who specialises in treating eating disorders, agrees: "Dietary restraint - holding back on either the amount or the types of food we eat for external reasons - has become so pervasive that people see restricting their food intake as normal. And it's applauded by the dietary powers that be. It's become completely accepted that eating for emotional reasons is bad, that one should simply put fuel in one's body as if it were a car."
Instead, says Stacey, we should make sure our diet is peppered with "soul foods" -"the cheesecake you used to share with your high-school best friend, the spaghetti carbonara from Maria's Kitchen that you fell in love over, the rice pudding your mother made when you were sick. These foods soothe us, take us back in time, and unite our bodies with our hearts and our minds."
She concludes: "An Italian friend once described the family meals she grew up with, at which cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings, grandparents talked, argued, laughed, stirred pasta and risotto, drank wine, then let enough hours elapse to return once again to the kitchen for midnight pasta; the food was inseparable from the emotion. These are the foods we cannot live without - and fats, protein, and carbohydrates have nothing to do with it."
If you're ready to learn how to eat when you're hungry and what you're really hungry for, join Sophie and Audrey in London on 29th March for the Beyond Chocolate 1 Day Experience, or, on the same date, either near Wallingford or in Bristol for An Introduction to Beyond Chocolate with your local Chocolate Fairy. We have just a few places left at each venue, so book now!
Good morning girls! I made it two days - and then not so good yesterday. It was a bad day from the start. I woke up with an enormous headache and went home from work around noon. I'm getting burnt out. Because of the headache and being exhausted - I didn't work out. Eating was really good up until about 9 pm. I was hungry - which generally I'm not that late - but I indulged and ate WAY more then I should have or needed to.
I'm brand new to the IE mentality. and although it makes sense to me in a nutshell - I still have a lot to learn! I was an avid calorie counter - and that's how I lost the last #20 - but it's just not enough for me. I hate the guilt feeling when I would go "over the limit" and then I'd fall into the "Hel with it" mode for a few days or more - completely screwing up any progress. 
Enygirl!
