Blue, I think we can make it IE as well. I'm thinking that there are times I'm not hungry 3 hrs later, but then there are times I might be hungry again a 1/2 hour, an hour or 2 hours later. According to IE we eat when we feel hungry to honor our hunger. I am finding that by eating smaller amounts more often, I am satisfied. Example I like to take flat bread wraps and put a slice of deli ham with cheese and mixed baby greens and eat it. So today I decided to cut them in half and make my wrap for breakfast and make the other half later in the day. As I ate I remembered that yesterday when I did the whole thing that it was too much, which caused me to notice that eating half made me sooo satisfied. It was all I needed. Carolr This experience made me think of that article you shared with us a while back about the guy who ate fast food in some other country where they had the same food we have here but smaller. He said he realized that the smaller portion satisfied him just as the larger ones in US.
So just maybe by eating smaller portions knowing that we can have more or something else if we need it later, will help us train our bodies to lose weight and teach us to eat less. Also by doing it IE style, it will lose the effect of the "diet mentality".
Blue For years I was in Overeater's Anonymous where we were drilled that we had to eat only 3 meals a day and NO snacks. Back in those days we used 2 diets (I think it has changed through the years) a gray sheet which was very, very strict low carb diet which I did very well and felt great but lost very little weight. The problem was that I also experienced binges from time to time and craved sugar like crazy. The other diet was the orange sheet which from what I remember allowed a slice of whole wheat toast with breakfast. I say all that to say that was so strongly pushed that I still feel guilty when I have a snack. It is like a little voice says "You can't eat snacks and lose weight. You must remember to eat ONLY 3 meals a day.
So I know how you feel. I agree that we have to get rid of or take the negative things we've learned over the years of "dieting" and make positive ones. I believe that when I can make myself feel like I'm eating a "normal" lifestyle for me rather than a diet, then food will lose its power. What I liked about the 3 hour diet I read about is that the guy said the same thing that IE says... "there are no good food, bad food" there is only how much and when we eat it." He says eat less, IE says eat what you need to eat. They are close enough to work together as we need it to for our personal plan. In fact one person I read about who eats every 3 hours and was doing it before she read the book and I think she said she did it before she had even heard of it doesn't call it a diet she calls it her eating plan or program. I think that is key to because a diet is something we do until we reach goal if we ever reach it but we all have some type of eating lifestyle and it is up to us what that is.
I better close this is way too long.
See ya later.
Last edited by pattygirl63; 03-16-2009 at 01:01 AM.
No great words of wisdom except I am enjoying all your long posts. Thanks Trish and Blue. After 30 yr. of all kinds of diets I know if you are not eating somewhat like you normally would it won't work. I'm amazed at how I am sometimes really hungry and other days nothing looks good. Isn't that weird?
Carolr I find that strange too. I find that happens even during the day not just day to day for me. I can have a moment during the day when I feel like I'm starving and then all of a sudden I feel absolutely turned off when thinking of food. Of course that may be the point of eating every few hours or knowing that you will or can... to get rid of those starving feelings. I'm inclined to have this attitude of IE to eat when I'm hungry and if 2 or 3 hours later I'm turned off and can't find anything that looks or sounds good to me, just maybe, my body is saying "wait" I don't want anything or need anything just now. Maybe this a game I'm playing because I know I can have it which IE says I can any way whenever I need or want it and perhaps that is normal at least for us.
I was wondering how everyone's hunger goes in day. I'm usually hungry right away but can't eat more than a piece of toast and glass of soy milk. I'm usually hungry at 11am and if I eat a big lunch I"m not hungry until late a night. So I have to watch it that I eat light then because my dh always wants me to eat with him at night. I still eat a little too much sometimes but I don't like that feeling at all.
Carolr- I haven't really paid that much attention, but I do know that some days I'm hungrier than others. I'm trying eating several smaller meals during the day until I learn to recognize when I'm hungry and when I'm not and also hopefully learn the feeling satiation.
I've been calling myself a recovered yo-yo dieter for
years. Now I'm on a campaign to rid the world not just of
the concept, but the phrase "yo-yo dieting."
The term yo-yo dieting is perfectly descriptive of the old
paradigm of weight management--but it is completely outdated
in terms of what I know works.
Here's my issue with this metaphor: a yo-yo is either up or
down. You're either tightly wound up around rules and
restriction, or you're unraveling toward the bottom again.
I call this the Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle.
My Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle
You see, when I was overeating due to triggers like boredom
or stress, I craved more of certain foods like chocolate or
chips. Eating helped temporarily, but the temporary
distraction or pleasure acted like an engine, driving my
overeating, because the boredom or stress always came back
(imagine that!).
When I went on a diet to regain control and stop myself
from overeating, the boredom and stress didn't go away.
Instead of chocolate and chips, I ate the foods that were
allowed on my diet. When I felt stressed, I still "binged"
on vegetable soup or light popcorn. Eventually, I'd feel
deprived, hungry, or worn out by all the time and energy it
took to follow the rules. So I'd cheat, feel guilty, give
up, and go back to eating my favorite foods in response to
the triggers I hadn't dealt with in the first place.
I always blamed the chocolate or the chips, but it was
never really about the food.
In this addictive pattern of yo-yo dieting, I moved from
one extreme to the other, feeling powerless to change
without understanding why. I was either up and down over
the course of weeks or months, sometimes in the same day,
or even in the same meal. Most mornings I'd start out with
good intentions but quickly lose control.
Think of a Pendulum Instead
Even if you decide you don't want to spend the rest of your
life in one of these two extremes, there's no real
in-between with a yo-yo. It can only be up or down.
Ironically, even the common advice to "follow a healthy
lifestyle" usually means exercise and watch what you
eat--not terribly helpful if you've been trying
unsuccessfully to do that for years.
Instead of a yo-yo, now I prefer to think of a pendulum.
Think about how a pendulum works. While still conjuring up
images of extremes, as a pendulum loses energy, it finds a
gentle arc somewhere in the middle. In terms of your
eating, rather than expending so much of your energy trying
to stay in control (dieting) or spinning out of control
(bingeing), there is a gentler arc in the middle where you
are in charge:
* You have the freedom and flexibility to eat the foods you
love, without feeling guilty.
* You fearlessly choose a variety of foods that nourish and
nurture you.
* You love what you eat, savoring every morsel mindfully.
* You are able to sustain an intuitive balance that allows
you to reach and maintain a healthier weight without
obsession and deprivation.
You were born with the natural ability to effortlessly
manage your weight this way. When you finally stop wasting
so much of your energy on overeating and restrictive
dieting, you'll naturally settle into a more comfortable,
centered space, freeing up your energy for more enjoyable,
productive, and fulfilling activities. The goal is not to
stop dead in the middle, but to make mindful choices as
each situation arises.
Finding the Middle
Wherever there are extremes in your life, there are
opportunities for you to seek balance and moderation. Could
you benefit from more work-life balance? Do you yo-yo
exercise? Could you allow yourself to be a
less-than-perfect parent so you can focus on your
relationship instead of raising a perfect child? Where else
in your life could you let go of the need to do it
perfectly or not at all? A pendulum's gentle arc requires
much less energy to maintain, freeing you up to live a more
fulfilling and vibrant life.
Yesterday I gave the IE book to my DIL. She is only 30 so I hope she can get a hold of this and spare herself years of struggles with food. She was quite thin as a teenager but her family has weight problems. Maybe I can encourage her. She has gotten gradually heavier after children and my son is now a runner and can't understand why she can't lose.
For part two, I thought I was going to write more about my thoughts on Oprah's way of thinking and approaching her admitted struggle. However, in rereading the article, I came across a subject that really merits its own discussion. The subject Oprah makes a brief reference to is having a "food addiction" and having to tackle it. She doesn't say how she is doing that, she just goes on to talk about changing her food choices to more "commonsense basics", meaning eating more "healthy" foods (my words, not hers). I think this is a belief that many people share and it keeps them stuck in the diet - overeating - weight gain - diet again cycle that doesn't lead to anything but long-term weight gain, constant guilt and diminished self-esteem.
You've probably heard many people talk about their addiction to food or particular foods, like refined sugar. While I can understand why people believe they are addicted to food in general or to a type of food, I disagree with this concept. My beliefs about this are a bit controversial for many, especially those who believe in a 12-step approach to overeating, and the truth is different things work for different people, but my personal and professional experience in overcoming emotional overeating cause me to disagree.
In a 12-step recovery model, which is a widely accepted approach for overcoming addiction, a person needs to abstain from whatever he or she is addicted to, such as alcohol, drugs, or gambling. It's just a fact that we cannot abstain from food, right? I know that these programs will say you need to abstain from your "binge" foods, but these are usually flour and sugar and these are really hard to avoid if you are even the slightest bit busy and can't spend all day shopping and cooking. And for most of us, if we are told we can't have a certain food, that's all we are going to think of and want, leading to deprivation and eventually overeating on that food. This is really why it feels like an addiction, we feel like we can't control our urge to eat it or we can't stop once we start.
Another problem with believing you have a food addiction is the fact that our thoughts lead to our results. You've probably heard this before, maybe as the Law of Attraction. While there's a lot of talk about LOA these days, I'm talking simply about the outcomes of our beliefs. Here's how it works: our thoughts lead to a feeling, which leads to a behavior, which leads to a result. Let's take the thought "I'm addicted to food" and follow the process.
Thought: "I'm addicted to food (or sugar, or fill in the blank with a food)"
Feeling: You may feel guilty for having a "problem", despair because you don't think you can break the "addiction", or helpless because nothing ever seems to change
Behavior: Guilt, despair, helplessness, and similar feelings drive the urge to eat because they are uncomfortable feelings and food can numb the feelings. It is also a learned way of coping, often from childhood (but it's not an addiction).
Result: The result of the behavior of overeating is either maintaining or gaining weight and continued overeating driven by the negative emotions. You get to say, "See, I knew I had an addiction", even though it really isn't what is happening.
I would love for Oprah to be able to break this cycle. She knows all about thoughts and how they lead to our results, but she isn't making the connection when it comes to food and her weight. I hope you are able to do this so you can get the results you really desire.
Congratulations on the weight loss Carol! That's great! Your perseverance is paying off.
I need to check in more often. I've been kind of just half thinking about IE and just doing whatever. (Hmm, well I guess that is IE. lol) But I know there's not been any weight loss for me. Still hangin' in there tho.
I'm still around. I agree with what you wrote Carolr.
I set down a few days and read what different threads to see what others were doing and how well they were doing. I came across someone who had read a book or books by an Anne Fletcher called Thin For Life. I ended up ordering both of her books because she says in the book I'm reading that all you ever hear about are the fact that people lose weight but they don't keep it off. So she set out to find people who do lose and keep it off for 3 years or more. She wanted to see what they did and how they were able to keep it off. Most of them find the plan that works for them. Some follow a diet program and some of them don't. Some of them combine ideas they learn. Some make up their own plan. Some diet and some don't diet. In fact, I was impressed by the fact that one person said she never went on a diet, but she learned to eat moderately. She said that you cannot make diet and maintenance 2 different things which made since to me because most people think that when they reach goal that they can stop dieting and start eating again and gain the weight back. I did that. Some people ate just when they are hungry rather than by the clock (sounds a lot like IE although never used that name.) Some people used diet groups and some did not. I am seeing that we do not have to lock ourselves into a lot of rules that other people make for them. We need to find out what we can live with and do it because it is about a lifestyle that we are going to live by for the rest of our lives. I can't live by someone elses rules and ideas. I have to accept my situation, face it and take responsibility for it. Today DH and I went to Costco. I was looking at something I thought I wanted to by to eat. Tony said "if you eat that you can't eat something else". Before I thought I said, "Don't tell me I can't eat that. I can eat whatever I want." I know I hurt his feelings because he walked away for a few minutes. Later I told him I didn't mean to hurt him, but this is my problem and I have to be the one responsibile for solving it and working it out not him. I think he finally understood. One woman she wrote about in the book said that she made up her own way of losing weight because she needed to feel like she was the one in control and not someone else. She had been an over weight child and her mother had her on diets all of her life. It wasn't until she dated someone who accepted her for herself that she was able to get control of her eating and lose weight and kept it off. I think that is me. I wasn't over weight until I was in my 20s but I think I need to feel like I'm in control of my own weight. I think that is why I lean toward IE. In fact, since I've been reading this book and thinking about how I lost a lot of my weight about 5 or 6 years ago. I ate lots of fruits and veggies, but I ate what I wanted to eat and pretty much when I wanted to.
Well, that is what is going on with me. I lost 10 lbs, but I was back up 2.5 lbs this week. But I wasn't surprised.
Blue Hope things are going good for you. Just hang in there. One thing helped me was the fact that the people who succeeded tried many different things and failed before they succeeded, but the key to me is THEY NEVER QUIT TRYING. I'm not going to either and don't you give up. We will learn what works for us and we will succeed.
All you reading/lurkers You hang in there too. As long as you are doing something, you have a chance at being a success story. We all do.
Hello to ALL YOU IE's reading this.
