Trish, when you have a tracker, how often do you change it? Do you put it up if your weight goes up? I just wonder how these things work or even if I could get it to work. Thanks.

Carolr, I haven't done one in a long time. I just show the weight loss. I don't know how anyone else does it. I am bad about weighing every day still, but once a week usually on Sunday is what I call my actual WI day. The scales didn't move either way this week which is good. The tracker was a little tricky for me as I'm simple minded when it comes to my pc, but once I learned it I found it not to be so bad. Just read the instructions and follow. I say that because the first few times I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. If you have a problem PM and I will help. You probably won't have a problem though.

Couldn't remember if I shared why I decided to use the tracker. I decided that I need to see how I'm doing. I thought I had lost 5 lbs, but when doing the tracker, I found out I had lost 7 lbs. Some people don't like to use them because of various reason, but I think I need it because it is so easy to forget the progress your making even if it is small or slow. This way you know you are succeeding especially during those times you feel like you are not. I chose the hearts to remind me to love myself enough to be good to myself and my heart.

Today, I'm also trying to get rid of the sweets at least for the most part. I know through IE they are not bad foods. I'm leaning more toward the low carb way of eating. I've had success with low carb before because not only do I lose weight with it, but it actually makes me feel good. However, I think the problem I did have with low carbing was too little carbs. As I've been reading on nutritionally low carbing online, I realize that some of us who do better on low carb, need to do it more wisely and more nutritiously (at least for me). I need some of the whole grains/whole foods included for more fiber to keep things moving so to speak. Still not going to count any thing just eat more healthy. Maybe that is where I am in my IE stage.


Blue - Are you okay? Check in and let us know how you are. We are here for you.

Everybody have a great day!

When I think of everything in moderation I come up with some delicious small treats. Here's mine. What's yours?

Put a single small square of chocolate candy bar on a saltine and put on a little coconut. Melt in a warm oven.........mmmmmmmmm!!!!

Thanks for the kind words, Trish, Carol and Julie! I am reading a new book by Jan Chozen Bays, MD called mindful eating. It is a new book on the mindfulness approach. She is a pediatrician and meditation teacher. She identifies seven different kinds of hunger: eye hunger, nose hunger, mouth hunger, stomach hunger, cellular hunger, and mind hunger and heart hunger. Heart hunger, of course, is the emotional hunger which I have so much of a problem with. Eye hunger is what happens when you are stuffed and the waitress brings a tray of beautifully designed pastries and you have one because they look so good! Cellular hunger is what your body really wants and needs. I am finding this a very interesting approach. She has a CD with meditations on it. I did one on eating a raisin mindfully, and identifying which kind of hungers were involved. I have a lot to learn. I have had a problem with using these approaches as an excuse to eat whatever I want. I definitely did that last night, after leaving DBF's hospital room. I got chocolate covered peanuts and ate the whole small bag--even though I wasn't one bit hungry and it was probably 500 calories. (But I did eat it slowly and tried to enjoy it.) There is a lot about compassion for yourself in this approach. The truth is I'm upset about his health and I don't know of that many other ways to comfort myself. I did call a friend after I finished the goodies. Well, he's coming out of the hospital today, most likely. He's not in bad shape. He has shortness of breath, which has improved during the hospitalization. I am going to have to cook more--I'm not much of a cook--and focus on low salt foods because he needs that for his breathing. Take care, all. -Lily

Hello everyone!

Welcome to those of you who have found our little group.

Lily, I'm sorry about your situation.

Trish, Thanks for missing me. I'm still around. Just haven't been on the board much. (I actually didn't realize how long I had been away! That was kind of a shocker to me! lol) Been busy, lots going on.

I'm still stuck on "cruise control." But I don't think that's a bad thing. I'm not obsessing about a diet, so that's good.

I'll tell you what is hard, I have relatives on diets who are losing weight. While I'm cruising along at a steady 55 they all seem to be zipping by me dropping weight all the way. That's frustrating. But ... it does help to remember that these same people have all fallen off their diets in the past and put it all back on (and who knows ... probably more). I've been in that boat. Don't enjoy it.

Even tho I seem to be stuck on cruise control, I think I'll just ride it out. I enjoy not counting anything and not obsessing about what I put in my mouth. I think things have just kind of leveled off for me. I'm not gaining like I was recently. I think I had said in my last post that I was finally finding balance. I still believe that is the case. (But I also know what I need to do to get the scale moving in the right direction ... get moving ... and that is my next step.) But I think the cruise control experience has been good for me. It is teaching me to just relax. During this process I've rediscovered that I love grapefruits and have made them a regular part of my food intake (hate to use that term "diet"). I've also been getting back into the habit of waiting until I'm truly hungry to eat in the morning. It feels right. Sometimes I don't eat until lunch, sometimes I'm hungry as soon as I get up. I'm relearning to eat things I know will keep me satisfied and that do not trigger major cravings but I'm also enjoying treats too. So I'm leaning towards more whole foods and for me that means home-cooked meals. (Not the kind out of a box! lol) Today I'm going to experiment with the crock pot. If I'm going to follow thru with this way of eating then I've got to find a method of preparation that doesn't have me in the kitchen all day! It's got to be convenient or I know I won't do it. The crock pot should leave me free to do other things like get moving!

So anyhow that's where I'm finding myself at these days. Still not losing weight, but finally leveling off and feeling pretty comfortable about it. Still hate looking in the mirror as I am at my highest weight now, so that's a bummer but a constant reminder that if I want to do something about it I have to keep at it, can't let myself get too comfortable.

Oh, just wanted to share this. I found this post to be sooooo very inspiring. It is also a reminder to me not to give up! What a blessing! (PS. be sure to check out the pictures at the myspace page!)

Have a great day everybody!

Hi, ladies...I haven't posted in here for what feels like a LONG time. My dh was hospitalized for 45 days this winter, and my weight has been one of the last things on my mind. He's home now and doing fine. Lily, I hope things will improve for you and your DBF as well.

At one point during my dh's hospitalization, I was down 15lbs from my highest, and I didn't feel like eating so thought I'd keep losing, but I didn't. In my worry, I did far too much mindless eating of stuff like Reese's Cups and Cheetos. I also never felt like cooking for myself, so ended up eating toast or a sandwich many times.

I regained 10 of the pounds I had lost, and started driving myself nuts trying to go "on a diet" again. The problem, as always, is that I couldn't decide between low carbing, which works for my body, but I hate it--or counting calories, which drives me nuts, but at least I can eat what I want, sort of.

I only drive myself nuts and make myself yo-yo when I do this, keep trying to follow diet plans, and I need to get back to doing *my own* thing. That means figuring out what I like, eating it without guilt and drama and under threat of a diet. It also means making a point of being more active.

Though I enjoy the 3FC site, much of it can throw me back into "diet head", so I thought I'd come post here again. I know it's not always the busiest here, but you ladies seem to stay steadily on the path, and that's a good thing.




I love this term, "food intake", instead of "diet".


I bought a bag of Ghiradelli 60% Cocoa chocolate morsels. I took one serving, which is 16 morsels, and let each one slowly melt in my mouth. It was a very satisfying evening chocolate fix.

Here's the latest from Michelle May, M.D. I haven't read it closely so you can tell me what you think.

TRUST YOUR GUT INSTINCTS:
Tuning In to Your Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit

By Michelle May, M.D.

Have you ever said, "I have a gut feeling..." or "My stomach
is tied in knots!"? There was a time when I wasn't aware of
my instincts--or didn't trust them. Take eating for example:
I usually led with my head.

If I was off my diet, I thought about food all the time.
I'd walk to the break room at work or open my refrigerator
to see if there was anything good to eat. Then I'd eat
standing up or plop down with the whole package, with no
awareness whatsoever about what I was physically or
emotionally feeling.

If I was on my diet, I thought about food all the time. I'd
think about what I was going to eat for each meal and snack
and filter everything through my mental calculator: How
many calories (or points) was it? How many minutes on the
treadmill would it take to burn it off? Still, there was no
awareness about what I was physically or emotionally
feeling.

Many of us keep ourselves too busy, distracted, and
disconnected to hear our hunger and fullness signals, much
less all of the other valuable information available to us.
Many diet and health "experts" lead us to believe that
those signals cannot be trusted anyway. Our own personal
experiences with overeating fuel that distrust, though
ironically, overeating is merely a symptom of our
disconnection from our true physical, emotional, and
spiritual needs.

BODY WISDOM

As a physician, I'm tempted to explain this
physiologically. After all, the gastrointestinal tract has
100 million neurons and 95% of the body's neurotransmitter,
serotonin. But a journey that began by learning to
recognize hunger and fullness has taught me to trust my gut
instincts in all things. The amazing results cannot be
explained by biology alone.

Whether you call it your instinct, intuition, spirit, inner
voice, body wisdom, a knowing, listening to your heart, or
some other descriptor, it is a powerful and reliable source
of information that you can learn to listen to and trust.

In Am I Hungry?® books and workshops, we introduce the
practice of listening with a Mind-Body Scan. We use it
first to help you identify hunger and fullness, then to
become more aware of other signals your body is trying to
send you. I won't go into the details here but the essence
of the mind-body scan is to get quiet, breathe, and focus
your attention.

While listening to that inner voice can be challenging,
trusting its wisdom is the more difficult part. We want to
control, second-guess, and overanalyze the possible
outcomes. While there's something to be said for checking
in with your head, I've gradually learned that when the two
don't agree, my gut is usually right.

THE BODY, MIND, HEART, AND SPIRIT CONNECTION

Let me share just a few of the many non-food related
examples from my own life that demonstrate how my inner
wisdom has served me. Perhaps you can think of similar
situations from your own life.

Self-preservation: I had just entered my hotel room when
there was a knock at the door. I looked through the peep
hole to see a maintenance man who said he was there to fix
a hole in the wall. I looked around the room to
substantiate his request and identified a small defect in
the wallpaper. Something told me to ask him to come back
later. He left but I still felt uneasy. I called the
maintenance manager and asked them to wait on the repair
until I checked out the following day. He couldn't find a
work order for my room and when I described the man's
uniform, he said it didn't belong to that hotel.

Congruence: I was recently asked to participate on a
committee that had been working on a childhood obesity
initiative for several months. During my first conference
call, I began to "feel" uneasy. I didn't agree with the
good food-bad food approach they had taken and I sensed
resistance when I said so. It was clearly too late to have
an impact on the direction they were headed and though I
told myself I should stick it out, I could already feel the
drain on my time, energy, and spirit. After the call, I
took a few deep breaths and decided to trust my insticts to
withdraw. I immediately felt better and inspired to share a
more positive, less restrictive message.

Clarity: Last month many of you participated in a poll on
my new blog at http://www.eatwhatyoulovelovewhatyoueat.com/
to help me select the cover of my next book, Eat What You
Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your
Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle. Your feedback was insightful and
frankly, a bit surprising. The majority of you selected a
cover with a beautiful heart-shaped ring of cherries.
Others felt the cover with the single piece of heart-shaped
chocolate was more compelling. I wanted to honor the vote
but my spirit keeps insisting that the people who need this
book will be drawn to the chocolate, a symbol of the freedom
and joy that comes from eating fearlessly and mindfully.
While chocolate is unexpected on a book in the diet and
self-help section of bookstores, I sense that this cover
will tug at the hearts of those who have a painful
love-hate relationship with food and are ready to be
healed.

PRACTICE LISTENING TO YOUR INNER WISDOM
This week, whenever you find yourself unsure, struggling,
or depleted, take a few moments to be fully present to all
of the information that is available to you. Get quiet and
listen to your body, mind, heart, and spirit. You'll feel
more decisive, centered, and peaceful. Trust what you hear
and act on it.

Eat Mindfully. Live Vibrantly!
Michelle May, M.D.

I just ran across an nice quote about mindful eating, by Thich Nhat Hanh (Buddhist). He's using vegetables as an example.

"Don't put anything else into your mouth, like your projects, your worries, your fear, just put the carrot in.

And when you chew, chew only the carrot, not your projects or your ideas"

Now, he takes mindfulness much deeper than I do on a daily basis. But I thought that was an excellent reminder. So simple, so deep.

Carol, I think Michelle May is exactly is right in her article.
Listening to my intuition is why I know I have to return to intuitive, or natural, eating. Everything within me KNOWS that diets don't work for me, no matter how many times I try to rope myself into one.

Thanks for posting this article. I'm glad to see she has a blog now that we can read regularly.

Carol, here's a quick snack idea for you. Quite yummy!

Microwave S'mores
1 Graham cracker sheet
1 Hershey chocolate rectangle (broken off a regular size candy bar)
1 Large marshmallow

Break the Graham cracker sheet in half and place both halves on a paper plate. Place the marshmallow on one half of the cracker and the chocolate on the other half. Microwave about 15-20 seconds. (Marshmallow will inflate a bit and chocolate should become soft but not puddle.) Assemble halves into a sandwich and enjoy.

CAUTION! You may have to adjust the time to get the chocolate and marshmallow just right. And it will be hot and messy! But quite yummy!


PS. Good article!

Hi Truffle! Good to have you with us.

I can totally relate to what you've said! I'm finding the same thing to be true ... I have to do my "own thing" too. And for me that is getting into the habit of eating "healthier" foods than I have been. Breaking away from the good food/bad food way of thinking has been hard for me but I think the balance is in realizing that some foods have better nutritional value than others and therefore are nutritionally superior. Some foods are loaded with saturated fats and other things like sodium that have been proven to have adverse affects on health and should be considered nutritionally inferior. But they do satisfy something that all the Vitamin C in the world may not be able to satisfy ... the taste buds! So I'm realizing that even tho some foods are inferior to the healthier ones, they do have a place in my life ... but in moderation! I'm all about finding that balance right now, satisfying my taste buds as well as my nutritional requirements.

Have a great one!

How is everyone? I caught a flu bug from my granddaughter and my throat was so sore last night I could only eat chicken soup! It's a little better today. I've been trying to take it easy hoping that will help get better.

Hi Everybody,

I'm still here and just working on my own IE plan. I am suddenly starting to lose weight just hope it continues. I've been reading a lot of info on other threads. There are a lot of good ideas out there that can be added or a part of IE.

Blue Good to see you back. Like the smores idea and might try it although I'm trying to cut back on the sweets since I was eating too many there for a while and ended up craving them.

Truffle WELCOME!!! This is a great bunch. We just aren't as busy as some. Hope you will share and we can get to know you.

Carolr Hope you get to feeling better.

Julie and others

Have good evening.

I hope you feel better soon, Carol. I enjoyed the article by Michelle Mays.
I've been trying the lovingkindness towards the body meditation from Mindful Eating. I love it because I've been sending my poor body so many unkind, critical messages all these years. I wonder how my body can stay healthy without giving it loving support. I'd like that to change.
The meditation is something like this. Breathe quietly a few times. Then repeat each phrase a few times silently:
May my body be free from fear and anxiety.
May my body be at ease.
May my body be well and happy.
NSV yesterday: I met a friend after a medical test. We ate even though I wasn't really hungry. But there was an opportunity to have TLC after that, a wonderful diet ice cream from a store nearby. I didn't get it because I was full. In the past I would have counted the calories and said to myself it wouldn't take up much room!
Something to watch: afterwards I went to a meeting and I had promised myself one home-baked cupcake. Someone offered me ice cream cake, and eye hunger and mouth hunger took over. I ate both!
My weight is still stable within a very close range of a pound or two, but it's higher than yesterday. I have to let go of what I ate yesterday, and just focus on one eating experience at a time.