Welcome ishatorres!

I experimented with a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups when I first started seriously following IE. I was able to take them or leave them. (Something I couldn't do in the past.) That was a good feeling.

hey love my high froctose frozen!!! lol
you really hit it on the head with "eat really fast and mindlessly". i did that often out of boredom. just writing that makes me cringe im glad im more aware and taking care of my body cause that stuff can get dangerous:dizzy:

Thanks hun
lol at the reeses cups, my real creptonite is cookies and cream ice cream im going to reintroduce it into my diet in a few weeks. if i notice any addict shakes or late night visits to the freezer i'm chucking it. lol

I experiemced this when I gave up dieting. I didn't know what I wanted to do since I don't plan my meals in advance, count calories or anything. I didn't realize that diets and foods had taken up so much of my time. Now I have the time to do some of the things that I didn't think I had time to do and even some I enjoy. I remember my husband telling me one time "you are obsessed with food". I realized that he was right. I was always buying a new diet book and even recipe books that I seldom if ever used.

IE has set me free from always thinking about food. Isn't it great? I only have to do what I choose to do to make it work for me. I make the rules no one else. Feels great because I feel like I'm in control of my life again.

See, I just don't see mindful eating as being about having cake just because I can. I think it's about make your choices based on all the realities that are relevant. In the so-called diet mentality, listening to our hunger and even some of our cravings is not allowed, and that backfires. Because it ignores some realities. I think mindful eating is about putting things back into perspective, giving each input it's proper due - *not* about replacing a particular one-sided view with another particular one-sided view. How your food makes you feel, whether it keeps you satisfied for more than an hour, and so on - those are valid inputs too. Ignoring those will also backfire.

But the point is that you're not following some external rules. You're letting your body tell you what it needs. If your body is telling you that when you don't get enough veggies, you feel yucky, or when you eat lots of white bread you go a little nuts, that's not a rule. It's your body giving you information to work with, to correlate with all the other factors that are relevant, such as how you feel emotionally, what scheduling you have to work with, how much money you have, etc. And then you make a choice - you don't follow some rule.

I hope that makes any sense at all :dizzy:

I'm reminded of a blog post I came across yesterday. It's a guy with a book about mindful eating. He talks about mindful emotional eating. Yes, you read that right. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about his point of view, but it's definitely interesting.

Mindful Emotional Eating

Another interesting post of his was:

Counting Experiential Calories

Blue Strange how we seem to always experience pretty much the same things. And it is true again.

I too have a problem with too many carbs. So I am concentrating on keeping them down, but not counting them. I decided that I would do lower carb and use what someone on a nother site named the 4 Golden IE Rules.
1. When I'm hungry, I will eat.
2. Eat what I like, not what I think I should eat.
3. Eat slow and savor every bite.
4. Stop eating when I start to feel full. (I like until I start to feel satisfied).

I can choose most of my foods from lower carb foods because I feel better when I do and I also eat only the ones that I really like. I've learned to just take the ones I either don't like or that are not so important to me and not buy them. I don't eat anything any more just because it is good for me any more, because I found out from IE that there are plenty of foods that I do like to choose from.

I do have a few "goodies" that I like from time to time which I keep on hand. And with the IE rules, I find they don't "call my name" as much as they used to.

Hope this helps a little.

Have a good day.

Julie - Great post. I totally agree. Thanks for sharing.

Two things struck me ...

Hmmm. I've been so hung up on "follow this rule" or "don't follow any rules" that everything has become a "do" or a "don't" that I hear somebody else telling me ... DO honor your hunger, DON'T eat unless you are hungry ... DO eat white bread and pasta because if you don't you're not giving yourself freedom ... DON'T eat white bread and pasta because it will bloat you to no end. Your words are very empowering ... "I only have to do what I choose to do to make it work for me." Maybe I've been letting the author of books make my decisions for me. Ugh. Why do I have to be such a perfectionist?

Yes! It does make sense. As mentioned above, I think I've been getting hung up on the rules/non-rules thing. I mean, I love white pasta. If I eat too much it makes me feel blah and bloated and craving more, with no end in sight. But it *tastes* so good! I would much rather eat that than whole wheat pasta. But I feel better when I don't eat the over-processed stuff. So which do I honor? How it tastes or how it makes me feel? Maybe I should mix the two? But this is beyond pasta. You're right, I need to use the information my body's giving me to make better choices. Toss the rules (or non-rules) out the window and just listen to ME. Trust myself a little more.

Thanks guys! :grouphug:

Haha! Speaking of rules! Those 4 sound a lot like the ones that worked for me when I managed to lose weight (with the help of a little regular movement).

Maybe I could get this IE thing better if I adapt the golden rules as "choices" I make rather than "rules" I follow. (I think there's a rebel in me!) lol

Oh wow, Julie ... I just had to post this real quick. I went to that link you left for us (thanks) and the first thing I read was this: Intent: to help you reclaim the eating moments of your life with meaning and moderation, and without perfectionism!

Without perfectionism. I think I need to read this.

To me, and this is just the way I'm reading the book and experiencing IE, how your BODY responds to the food is your first concern. I kinda look at it like this: I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my mouth will like anything sweet I give it. It's really nondiscriminatory, that mouth of mine. :dizzy: It'll take ice cream, it'll take cake, it'll take cookies, it'll take something that might have been a cookie 6 months ago when it was packaged but now is a blob of fake sugars and chemical additives, it'll take a lovely juicy orange. All are sweet and my mouth would be thrilled with any of them. But the wheat in the cookies and cake will make me hurt and bloat, the lactose in the ice cream will make me hurt and bloat, and the fake sugars and preservatives will make me hurt and bloat. Is it worth it? Really? To go through all that just for something sweet, when an orange would have been just as happily accepted?

I was actually standing in the grocery store today thinking about this. I stopped by for some Cool Whip, and walked through the bakery just to peek at cakes. I was actually holding one in my hand, and considered getting it. I'm "allowed", after all, now that I'm following IE, to have something if I'm hungry for it. Then I thought about how my body would react to that particular combination: cramping, bloating, pain, a sugar crash, probably a bit of weight gain because YES, my body gains weight off of even one slice of cake. I accepted that it was my choice to have the cake, and I TOTALLY could have it if I wanted it...but I didn't want it, considering what it would do to me.

Blue, if I were you I would give some thought to the idea that just because you CAN have something doesn't mean you MUST, and just because you CAN doesn't mean it's a good idea for your particular body.

All of this I've just written has actually be a long-winded, fancy way of saying I totally agree with what Julie wrote. :love: ;)

Haha! And I agree with you both. I'm realizing I have a long way to go.

A long time ago I used to not eat red meats for spiritual reasons. It was very easy to just say no thank you. My family respected that I did not eat red meat and would fix my standard chicken when I would visit, etc. How easy it was to just stick to my guns back then for spiritual reasons. But now, when health is a concern, I find it so hard to find a healthy balance of foods even tho certain things have such a negative effect on me.

Well, hopefully I can get this thing turned around in the right direction.

Thanks for your input. :)

Hello, Blue, and everyone!
Blue, I totally understand what you wrote. I'm just starting to get back in the swing of this IE stuff, though, and already I feel better. On SBD, there were so many restrictions, I just couldn't stand it. At the same time, now I'm getting the "did I eat too much?" message in my brain, or "Am I going to be hungry again in an hour?" I don't know. I'm trying to remember the beauty of this is there are no restrictions, and I shouldn't beat myself up for eating a bit too much, or eating something when I'm not hungry. I will say, if I don't eat too much or and I don't eat when I'm not hungry, I feel better about myself. Just trying to do that consistently is sometimes hard.
Anyway, I was curious, so I hopped on the scale this morning. I'm still the same! :D Well, what did I expect?

Good Morning Ladies,

I have a good attitude about my eating right now and just hope I can keep it. I had a Slimfast shake for breakfast this morning. Strange, but that is what I wanted. Got hungry a few minutes ago and had a few bites of Cashews. I was just thinking as I was reading what others wrote that I can remember when a "few" of cashews or anything for that mattter was not enough. There was a time when a can of Cashews wouldn't last me but a day or two if it made it through a day. So I've really changed. My meal times have become more like snacks. I love salads so I have one big salad a day with protein in it and it pretty much does away with the night munchies. I got hungry before I went to bed so I had a small cut of nuked sausage with one cheese stick just enough to take the hunger edge off. As I ate it, I thought of how there was a time that I would have wanted the whole thing and would probably eaten half.

Blue I too am a perfectionist and especially when it comes to dieting. But I also have a streak of rebellion as well. I was reading in the book last night about a woman who had been told all of her life what she should or had to eat. By the time she went to see one of the authors of the book, her first statement was "don't tell me I have to diet". Her first project of IE was to learn what foods she actually liked. She found 10 and then learned to eat those according to IE.

I too have begun to ask myself what I really like to eat. I wonder how much of my "favorites" were actually my Mama's or my Daddy's. Example, I used to love Fried chicken which I think was Mama's favorite. We went to a diet doctor together for several years. The first thing we did immediately after our WI day was go by a box of Church's chicken our favorite. When I married Tony and moved to FL and now SC, I have no access to that chain and no access to chicken cooked that way. KFC doesn't come close as far as I'm concerned which is the only chicken place here. You know what, I no long crave it like I did back home. When I go to visit my family in TX, they always buy it and have it for me at least once. However, it just doesn't taste like it did back then. I just don't think about it any more. So was it really my favorite or was it the association with my Mama. Who knows. I've experienced this with a lot of foods.

Now, I'm learning what "I" really like and I only buy those foods. I love salads with sliced ham and mayo. My favorite veggie is broccoli and brussel sprouts. DH favorite is cauliflower. So that is the only veggies I buy anymore.

I think we have to learn our preferences and then be patient with ourselves as we begin to work it into the IE plan for ourselves. Many times I put something on my grocery list that I think I would like and when I get in front of the item in the store, I might decide that I didn't want it as bad as I thought I did and I leave the store without it. I not only think IE is work for a while, and given time that it will work for me. I just have to be patient with the program and with myself. I have finally come to the place that I am not gaining. I am kind of bouncing between some numbers right now which is the way my body has worked in the past just before I start losing. So I have hopes this is starting to work for me. Carolr and some others I've read about on other sites are good examples of how this does work.

Sorry this is so long. Just thought I would share how this seems to be working for me.

Hope everyone has a great Friday and weekend.