Idrial, I am so happy you have found this thread and have posted! Ditto to what Kay said, stay with us! You can walk away from diets forever! You can learn how to tell when you are hungry again! And you can get down to your natural healthy weight through eating intuitively. I want to encourage you to pick up that book, dust if off and begin reading it. Take it one page at a time, or one chapter at a time, or whatever works best for you. You can do this! I'll check in later to see if you've written more.
Thank you Kay and Christy. I AM going to dust off the book, go to bed early tonight and read for awhile. I'm going to be gone all week and maybe this will be good for re-evaluating things and getting some focus. I will have lots of time for walks, swimming, things that I enjoy and that help me relax. I think the hotel has wi-fi but I'm not sure. If so, I'll check in when I can.
Idrial, A good short book and very to the point is The Overfed Head by Rob Stevens. He lost 140lb in a year and a half using IE. I think you would really like that book. You can get it on Amazon. I do think Intuitive Eating is a very good book, too, just long. I'm still working on it. Keep listening. Christy, Kay and others, thanks for all your encouragement. I tried on some clothes that I wore last summer when I lost a lot due to illness and one of them fits and the other is getting looser. This may work yet. Ha!
I ordered the Intuitive Eating Book off Amazon about 3 weeks ago and have been reading a few pages every day...while I know that the information is not really new or ground-breaking to me, it just seems to speak to me now, you know?
I made my food list of foods that appeal to me and the next time we go to our favorite Mexican Restaurant (Abuelo's) I'm ordering the dulce de leche cheesecake, dang it!! Heck, maybe I'll just order it for dinner if that's what I'm really craving anyway.
I've been using the IE tools for a little over a week now and I must say I feel really good. I had one slip up last week where I vegged out in front of the TV with my pretzels and got back into the old habit of consuming half a bag...but I have recognized it and moved on.
I am a runner and am currently training for a marathon in December so I have been focusing on that more than my eating anyway.
Right now I have no idea what I weigh or what my measurements are. My goal is to weigh once or twice per month and monitor how I am feeling, how I think I did with my IE, etc...
A struggle: Last night I wasn't hungry, but I just wanted to eat anyway. I knew I shouldn't, but I did anyway. I was tired and I wanted to relax, so I guess the way I took care of myself in that instance was by eating. Looking back, what I should have done is just went to bed. Does anyone else struggle with this?
Something I am noticing just how much I battle with diet thoughts. I just came off of doing Weight Watchers and I feel like I'm being "weaned" off because the thoughts are still there. Just this morning I was thinking about how maybe I could incorporate intuitive eating with Weight Watchers. Huh? I know that wouldn't be wise.
One thing I'm trying to be real careful of us making intuitive eating just another "diet." But the topic is just so interesting to me and I feel like the more information I find, the stronger I stand. So is it wrong to read a lot of books and resources on it?
Hi Emily! I was so excited to see your post! We must have been posting at the same time! That's great that you are reading IE and already applying those things that you have learned into your life. Welcome!
Hi Christy and Emily,
I read a lot. Just an avid reader, I guess. I too had a moment this afternoon where I wanted to start eating without being hungry. But I didn't!!!! I know it tastes so much better when I am hungry. I tried on some clothes this am and they were looser. I've decided this IE thing can be fun because being too ful ISN"T fun and eating when hungry is! I couldn't believe the guy who has the Thintuition website lost 140lb in a year and a half using IE. Can anyone tell me how to get one of those little pictures by your name? Not my own picture, just something else.
One thing I'm trying to be real careful of us making intuitive eating just another "diet." But the topic is just so interesting to me and I feel like the more information I find, the stronger I stand. So is it wrong to read a lot of books and resources on it?
christy - I definitely don't think it's "wrong" to read a look of books, etc. on IE. However, what I think you're alluding to in the first sentence above is that you don't want IE to become an obsession, as maybe dieting was for you (and many of us). And I think there can be a fine line between "focus" and "obsession." My personal feeling and experience is that I have to immerse myself in any new thing I'm trying to learn for a few days/weeks until I feel I have the basics down. So while we may seem a bit fanatical at first, hopefully that will even out over time.
I hope if I can finally lose some weight,so that I can help others with this. I always wished I could lose to help others, too, especially my own family because there are a few of them that fight this battle. I get excited when I think about it. My mother-in-law fought this battle her whole life and now she is in a nursing home and not fully aware of things around her. So sad. I have 10 kids and would not want them to have to fight their weight if possible.
I've been trying to lose weight since March and I've been unsuccessful. I thought I would look into IE and now I've been doing it for about a month now and have lost about 4 lbs. The first thing I did was hide the scale so I'm only weighing myself once a month. My focus for this first month was to just get all the "rules" out of my head. There's no more good and bad or right and wrong. I've been walking about 3x per week about a mile or two. I usually have a problem with binging but I don't feel the need to do that since I can basically eat whatever I want. Since I'm able to eat whatever I want, all the things I craved aren't so appealing anymore.
The best thing about this is that I'm not obsessing. No counting or worrying about eating at a certain time. I'm actually more relaxed about food and exercise and as a result I've lost weight.
Oh Wow! Today was the first day back at school. We had in-service meetings all day, sooooo boring! The wow is because it is exciting to come home and have all of these wonderful posts to read. I have so many things that I want to respond to!
Yesterday I was down about my body image, so I reread that chapter to get myself refocused. That was good. I think once you read the book, you can go back and refresh aspects when you need to.
Carol, Congrats on the clothes! I think I may look into that other book "Overfed Head" as well. I like to look at lots of resources
Lucky, I am a runner too, and I see you are in Texas. My dh and I are running the San Antonio, White Rock, Houston, and Cowtown marathons this year. Since you said you were running in December, are you doing the White Rock? Maybe we could meet!!! I am not the fastest runner in the pack. I've done 5 marathons and my best time so far is 5 hours and some seconds. The first marathon I ran three years ago look me 5 hours and 52 minutes, so I am improving. I just can't wait to see how well I could do if I lost some weight!
Christy, The evening is when I struggle the most with eating due to fatigue or the need to relax. Congrats on realizing that you might just need to go to bed instead of eat. I ate two nights in a row. Last night when I found myself heading downstairs for a snack I went back to my room, got in bed, read my IE book a little and went to bed. I was pretty proud that I didn't give in. Sometimes you will, but the more you practice the easier it will get... I think!!! I very much relate to you thinking about combining IE with other programs. I do that too. The safe thing to do would be to ask yourself whether if doing so you would begin to restrict yourself. If so, it wouldn't be very helpful. I have been thinking a lot about the "Super Foods" people talk about. I decided that it would be good to eat those foods when I want to, but to remember that when I am restricted to only eating those things I get bored and start to rebel. I could never do weight watchers because when I tried I found that I was one of those people that found as many 0 or 1 point things that I could so I could binge. Not exactly a healthy eating mentality!
Carol, I so agree with the joy in eating when you are hungry. It is also fun when I am offered a previously "forbidden" food and I decide that I don't want any! I don't feel deprived and I am excited that I am honoring my hunger. Some foods that I used to think were so delicious don't taste as wonderful anymore! Isn't that weird?
I have more to write but my three year old wants to "show me something" will get back on in a little bit.
Hi Nellie, Iam new to the site!! Kinda of confusing. I just wanted to say hello and congrats on the 93lbs gone !! May I ask how you did it?What plan to
lose the weight . My name is Linda ,screen name bouncy hew!! I live in Texas.
Do you have any pictures before you started ? I hope you are having a great evening Keep up the great job!! YOu so deserve it. lol
LInda
First of all, I want to say that I'm getting really excited about this awesome intuitive eaters group we have here! Now we just need our own section!
Kay, (runnin' momma), I'm so excited for you that you reread that chapter to get refocused. I am finding myself doing that a lot too. I struggle with food and feelings the most in the evening too. It's been a struggle for some time. I think when I was younger, I looked too food to help me get through a lot of things, but now I don't have to look to food. I'm learning! I kinda chuckled when I read what you said about "Super foods" because I am one that will over-analyze everything. I want to eat normally (intuitively), but all of these other things are thrown at me, like we should get 5-9 servings of vegs/fruit a day, so many servings of dairy products, etc. All of a sudden I'll start to panic and worry that I need to get all of these power foods in. There are days when it seems like all I'm eating is fat, but then there are days when I eat a lot of fruits/vegs. What is important is that we listen to what our body needs. It sure is a learning process, isn't it?
WazzuGirl, what you shared is very encouraing to me! You are eating intuitively and doing great with it! Awesome! I like the way you are focusing on things just once a month. That's something I need to do, just take things one at a time. And right on about unlabeling the food "good" or "bad." That's a huge step!
Carol, you are already helping others with this! Thank you for staring this thread. I saw your question about the picture thing. Hmmm...(click on) User CP at the top on the purple bar, and then click on the thing that says Edit Avatar on the left side of the screen. Then you can pick from a few lists of pictures. Hope that helps!
Breaking free, thank you so much for what you said. I like how you talked about how it's a "focus" right now to learn IE. That's what I feel like I'm doing, just immersing myself in all of the resources I can for awhile so I can get a grasp on it. Thanks for helping me see it differently!
You can walk away from diets forever! You can learn how to tell when you are hungry again! And you can get down to your natural healthy weight through eating intuitively. I want to encourage you to pick up that book, dust if off and begin reading it. Take it one page at a time, or one chapter at a time, or whatever works best for you. 
I know that wouldn't be wise.
