An interesting thought! I'm not sure I've paid attention enough to notice. I do, however, notice that when I'm exercising, I am definitely more attuned in general to when my body had had enough food. I'm just not sure I correlate specifically with each workout. Food for thought, so to speak.

That's what is hardest for some. I think it's also what confuses people who don't do IE and can't fathom it: "How can it work to eat anything you want? I want everything!" Actually, I suppose it's not that hard to tell the difference, it's just hard to resist the mouth hunger :o.

Keep it coming! Absolutely!

Wow, Sidhe! Thank you so much for your input. I couldn't have said it better myself. lol No, I don't exercise. I was walking at local park in the mornings, but some strange people were showing up around there, and one day a woman who was running came back to her car and found it broken into. Her purse was stolen. I live just off a major highway, so it is too dangerous to walk there. I was thinking I could go to a mall, but it is really far away (I live in the boonies). Currently, I am unemployed and looking for a job, so joining a gym would be an expense I really don't want to incur right now. My next thought was buying some exercise videos. I have a bad knee, so it would have to be low impact (blew my knee out doing step aerobics when I was in college). As far as not being active around the house, actually I am. I do all the housework and grocery shopping, but I guess it's not really enough to help me lose weight. I intensely dislike yard work, so my husband does all of that. I have 2 little boys and they keep me busy, too.
As far as the South Beach Diet goes, I did really well when there were no extra carbs. I felt better. I lost weight, but I wasn't entirely happy. I love carbs, and I have a feeling I am a bit insulin resistant. When it came time to add the carbs back in, I stopped losing weight. I had gestational diabetes when I had my son 6 years ago, and while my blood sugar has checked out okay, I still worry I could get type 2 diabetes. Anyway, I plan on exercising more and listening to what my body needs. I love vegetables, and I usually eat fairly healthy. I don't like to have a lot of junk. It makes me feel bad.
Thank you, again. Maybe with the support here, I can make this work.

Julie and sidhe, I remember this from when I did IE the last time. The first time I got a definite STOP, I was surprised and shocked. I would like for it to happen again.

Well, I guess, think about it logically: for the calories you are consuming living the life you are, your body looks like it does right now. Your weight's not changing, right? So this is the right calories to keep your body here. So logically, either the number of calories you're consuming needs to change, or your activity level needs to change. (Can you tell I'm a scientist? ;) )

From what I've read, when your activity level increases, your body does NOT increase its demand for calories proportionately. What I mean is, if you're 500 calories more active, your body doesn't ask for 500 calories more from food. The whole "exercise makes me hungry" thing seems to be a fallacy. It goes up a little bit, but not the same amount you burn. All I really know is from my experience, but like I said before, when I exercise my body definitely tells me when to stop! :lol:

I'm sad for you that you don't have a safe place to exercise. :( I think I'd go nuts! When we got married I told my husband that the one thing I INSISTED on was that we had to have money in the budget for a gym membership for me. Non-negotiable!! I've never been challenged by the exercise component of living a healthy life. When we lived in London I actually belonged to two gyms--a regular gym, and a Pilates/yoga gym. I've been a gym goer since I was 15. Too bad I haven't had a handle on my eating that long, too! :dizzy:

I think the fact that you've experienced gestational diabetes, and you lost weight with limited carbs, and you just simple feel better with limited carbs, is your body trying to tell you something. Your mouth might not be happy about it, but your body will!! :)

Just checking in. A flyby. I had a post written and it went out in to cyberspace somewhere... lost it. Don't have time to write a new one since I have to leave for BSF in about 10 minutes.

Let me just say great posts ladies. Lots to think about. I'll try to get back here later this evening and try to remember what I was sharing.

Have a great day Everyone!

Thank you again, sidhe. Today I had my low carb breakfast and coffee with no sugar (I've kind-of gotten used to it that way). I will have some bread or fruit today, but not too much.
Now, I need to look for some activity to do. ;)

Have a great day to you, too, Trish!

I can relate to that...
 

Just a quick "Hello" today, got lots to do!

Welcome Natoshial! :welcome2: We are glad to have you with us, just jump right in! This place has been very busy here the last few days with lots of good insights, feel free to share!

Well, I'm off. Have a great one! :sunny:

Well, I'm a SAHM, and my kids are in school. I'm always looking for something to do. :D I've been spending a lot of time at their school helping in the library, and I'm a "room mom." The rest of the time I'm cooking, cleaning, and job hunting. I can't just sit around. It would drive me nuts.
And, yes! I DO like not having to think about food all of the time. I had lunch with a friend today, and no guilt involved! Very good, I think!

Real quick note: I was driving home from lunch with my husband today and thought, "hey, I can have some apple crisp when I get home, I'm allowed!!" (I went apple picking and made a fresh crisp last night). The next heartbeat I had the thought, "well, are you hungry yet?" I had to admit to myself that no, I wasn't hungry. I thought about how I would feel if I DID go home and eat the apple crisp anyway just because I wanted it, and I had to admit to myself that I'd feel, physically and mentally, pretty lousy. So I 'agreed' with myself to wait until I got hungry again.

DARN IT!! :tantrum: ;)

I'm off to the gym. Gotta work out and get hungry again. And if I want to, all I'll have for dinner will be apple crisp!! ;)

Very tired today. You know it's bad when your son wakes you up instead of the other way around. Having my coffee now. :)

Sidhe, the apple crisp sounds really good!

I have to say "Intuitive Eating" saved my whole weight loss journey i was afraid that i wouldn't be able to get control my eating issues. My main issue you was boredom eating or ill eat in front the t.v. and not tasting my food. smh such a dang shame it took me so long to figure it out. But my number one rule is if i am going to eat i have to eat at the table away from the t.v.
Surprisingly it works because i have a pack of mini oreo's in the freezer (i like them hard lol) and they've been there since Mon. any other time i would have easily finished them off in like 0.009 seconds lol. Does anyone else have this experience?

What experience, eating frozen Oreo's? :devil:

Ok, to be serious, I'm beginning to eat that way more than I used to. I used to eat really fast and mindlessly. Then I started eating healthy, and reading a book or using the internet while I ate helped me slow down. It really helped me to learn to recognize fullness before I ate too much. Now, I'm finally starting to find I can just eat and not necessarily do something else at the same time (I usually eat alone).

I suppose it's those snacky foods I'm least likely to sit down and focus on eating, and they're probably the ones that need that approach the most.

I think I've found yet another diet backlash symptom ... it's feeling like a failure at IE (even tho IE is not a diet). Then there's the diet thinking that "I'll try harder tomorrow to do this right." When does this stupid diet mentality go away?

As much as I'd like to believe that there are no "rules" with IE, there are. If I don't honor my hunger, I'm breaking a rule. If I don't honor my fullness, I'm breaking a rule. And because I've been lousy at honoring hunger and fullness lately, I feel like I've failed yet again. (My bloated belly reinforces this feeling of having failed.)

But interestingly, there is another side to this. As discussed much earlier in this thread, *what* I've been eating has played a major role in me not honoring hunger and fullness. The overload of carbs and overall low quality foods I've been consuming lately has totally wrecked my ability to stop eating. The "standing in front of the pantry" syndrome is back in full force.

So, I know, from past experience, that I can't count my carbs while doing IE, it backfires. And I know that I can't just cut out certain food groups because that will backfire, too, when I start craving them because they've been put on a pedestal again ... what's left to do? I've got to find a balance. I've got to find moderation.

Today I've had 2 8oz. glasses of low-sodium V8 juice for breakfast and [way too much] Greek salad for lunch [gut-busting too much]. I hope that the cravings to keep eating so much will go away if I eat better foods today. I think I'm off to a good start (eating better, that is). Ah, and then there's the political (in?)correctness of "eating better" ... there are no bad foods. Hmph.

I don't know how others respond to carbs, but overload seems to be my normal. I just need to figure out how to include them in moderation.

So I think that what I'm finding out is that even tho I would love to take the IE book at face value, as "the cure all," I have to treat it as just another program for managing weight (and sanity). Like any diet out there, the idea that you can eat a certain way and lose weight and be happy is peddled with IE. It's just packaged a little differently. The "rules" are much looser but if you stick with them, something will happen. Maybe that's true with those who are diligent with IE, but what about us slackers? Why do I just plain feel better when I eat better? Why do I feel like crap when I eat crap? Duh. There has to be some kind of restriction (better, "limitation") ... does anybody agree?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing IE. I love IE. But what I've come to realize is that I have to make certain *healthy* choices instead of "I'm gonna have my cake and eat it too, because I can." That just doesn't work for me. I have proven this again and again and it only serves to spin me further down the diet mentality spiral. What? IE is causing my diet mentality? I dunno. Maybe.

Well, I don't know why I felt the need to go on a rant today, but that's what came out! LOL! I'm still struggling with IE even tho it should be the most natural thing in the world to do. Once again, I need to open my IE book back up and just read it. Maybe I'll learn something new, but right now it's just feeling like another one of my dieting failures ...

Have a great one! :sunny: