Thanks, Fiddler for the inspiring me to keep at it in the midst of normal everyday life. I think I'll print your last post and put in on the fridge!

Happy Monday ladies! I hope you all had fabulous weekends. I had a great one, got lots done around the house and did very well with food. I gotta tell you though, it's so weird to me still to know that "it's ok" to eat what ever I want. Obviously I've always been allowed, what a brainwashing we take with the diet mentality. Makes me so angry!!!

On Friday we took the kids to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Now, normally I'd go whole hog and get a Reese's blizzard and suck that thing down before we even sat down.lol This time I went in there truly thinking about my hunger and fullness. I opted for a small chocolate dipped cone and you know what, I couldn't even finish it!! I got the top all gone and when I got down to the cone part I discovered that I really just couldn't eat anymore. What a liberating experience!!

I have struggled with binge eating for as long as I can remember, starting before my teen years. I've gone to therapy where basically I was told to "just stop doing it", with no other help whatsoever. I've beaten myself up mentally, emotionally and obviously physically with the bingeing, for the fact that I felt like I could never stop doing this. I realize that I am fairly new to this whole concept, but boy has it really clicked with me. I was very leary of trying this for fear of gaining anymore unneccessary weight, but told myself that I had to be true to the process and give 110%. If I don't get anything else from it, just the thought that food doesn't have to be my enemy anymore is enough I think. I've discovered that already I am making better food choices (not all the time yet! lol) and portions are where they should be and often times alot less. I am starting to crave good-for-me stuff like lots more veggies & fruits. Who knew! lol

Ladies, I hope you have a fabulous Monday. Having this place has truly helped me keep at this, knowing that there are others out there doing it with me. Thanks for listening!

♥ Danielle

Hi All. It has been a while since I don't post, but I have been keeping up with the reading. I am happy all of us are getting better and learning more about IE as we go alone.

Carol,
I do a lot of cooking and I find myself nibbling and hungry while I am at it. Sometimes I eat a few mixed nuts and that seems to calm me down until dinner time. I don't eat much of it, just a little so that my hunger will not disapear for dinner!

I am doing good with IE. I can identify when I am truly hungry must of the time, but I have trouble at finding when I am confortable :( If you girls know of a good website where I can get some tips from, please let me know.

BTW, I came across this site: http://www.hood-meddac.army.mil/defa...ht2&vi=n&mnu=0 and it has valuable info. Check it out!

About the scale... I have tried to stay away from the scale but I can't :( It feels like I need to know for reassurance, I know that sounds crazy, but it is the truth. In the past two weeks or so I have managed to lose 5 lbs, so I think I am doing pretty good at it. I do excersise 3-4 times a week, so I think that helps a lot. The best thing about IE is that I don't find myself going up and down like before. I used to lose 2 lbs during the week, just to gained it back on the weekends and that was driving me nuts. With IE, I either stay the same or lose some weight as I go alone.

Hi everyone! Good to see some new people here (like I am not - ha).

Things have been "okay" here food-wise. I've been so busy but also I have been trying to get stuff done around the house like painting, and I have school, and now we are planning a trip for Thanksgiving week, and I will see my parents for the first time in several years.

The last time they saw me I was quite a bit smaller, maybe 30 -35 pounds. But they have seen me much larger too. My mother is very judgmental so I can only imagine the "look" I will get.

My husband had a sudden death in the family so we have spent a lot of time in the car the past few days, and will do another roound trip again tomorrow. There is something about the car where eating helps. We bought candy to munch on and I suppose normal people do eat too much candy from time to time.

Scale vs. no scale: we put our scale in our closet and don't bother with it anymore. The one time I pulled it out I was disappointed and binged again. :(

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well...

I am kinda back into a routine since moving and my eating has gone back to the way I was before moving. I think our bodies are thrown out of wack when our routine changes...be it vacation or stress or whatever....anyway that is my completely non scientific opinion based on some random thoughts.

As for the scale. I get on once a month, I am too emotionally attached to the numbers to do it more often, but I do want to know where I am at in terms of weight. Also I think it is a reality check when I am not holding myself accountable.

Hope everyone else is doing ok?


One Question, when do we start a new thread?:carrot:

Hey girls! I hope everyone's having a great week so far. It sure's gotten slow here, I hope everyone's doing alright.

I have a question. Anybody here with kids, or someone else they have to cook for? My problem is that dinner time is becoming sort of a nuisance. While I've been doing super great with IE, dinner time is some what chaotic for me, in my mind anyways. lol Many times I am discovering, I am not even hungry when it's time for dinner to start. I have a 13,12 & 10 y/o and a dh. While dh isn't really a concern, it's the kids and a schedule that we keep in order to fit everything in, ie. homework, showers, music lessons, etc... I've been having dinner the last few days when I'm just not hungry, no where in that 0-5 range at all. While I'm not bingeing or anything like that, I am finding that I'm eating but then I am hungry again an hour or two later. Anybody have any suggestions how to fix this? I would like to be part of the family at dinner time and some how it just feels weird to not be eating when they are. Maybe it's all that ingrained thinking that all those diet books have given me??

Looking forward to hearing how everyone's been doing this week!

Danielle

Hi,
I'd like to join in or re-join as the case may be. I posted on the first IE thread but then started low carbing and stopped posting. I've been away on vacation where I didn't LC. I followed IE and only gained 1 or 2 lbs. rather than the usual 5. :D I have come to the conclusion that I have had enough of dieting and want to continue with IE. I've been dieting since I was 12 and dieting has only made me fatter. I am still trying to figure out the hunger scale.
All of you seem to be doing well with IE. I look forward to getting to know all of you.

Ali

Welcome Aleka....hope you stay awhile

Sugar-n-Spice. I don't have kids or a husband and I live along....but....
I was noticing I would eat breakfast and then when it came time to go out to lunch with my girlfriend I wouldn't be hungry. So rather than have regular breakfast I had about half or really just took the edge off so I could keep going. I also used fruit and small snacks to hold me over. Fruit isn't very filling to me and about a hour after I eat I piece I am hungry again.

For me, carbs are filling (bread, potatoe rice....) so if I have 2 pieces of wheat toast with my yogurt (at about 9am) by 12 I am wondering about luncha and by 1 I am focused. On the other hand if I know i am not going out to lunch with someone I may have a bagel and juice which will hold me till about 2 then I have a salad or something and then regular dinner.

I don't think this is eating completely intuitively, but I like to eat with other people so this is what I have worked out. Basically the amount of starches I eat will decide when I get hungry next. Meat, vegetables, fruit don't really factor because unless I stuff myself they aren't going to keep me satisfied. This might be a side effect of low carbing...not sure. With IE I am no longer tied to having to eat something so I can pick and choose what works and not feel tied down.

Ok, that was kinda long, but there it is.

-Obie

Hi Danielle,

I also have this situation. Most of the time I will sit with the family and just have something to drink or nibble on some vegetables with some bleu cheese dressing, something like that.

Eating together is very important in our household, but our relationship with food should also be important. It is hard though, especially with kids. You expect them to try new things and how many of us got in this mess because we had wacky input from our parents when it came to what to eat and how much?

Hi Aleka, I never tried the whole LC thing but have been tempted in the past. I have a friend who had been doing it for quite a while and now she is onto WW. Anyway, I look forward to your postings!

Hi, it's me posting again...

While we were traveling for my grandfather's funeral, we did a little binge eating. Especially on the way home with four hours in the car and me with the flu or something like it. But overall, I would have to say that food is taking a back seat as far as what is important in my life.

If you have ever smoked cigarettes, then perhaps you can understand the fear of facing a day without something unnecessary, like binge eating. Like, what the **** am I going to do without ice cream, cheese, whatever. It's scary, but doing away with the dieting eventually sets in and eventually the slavery to whatever forbidden food goes away.

I know that I am not the thinnest I have been in my life, in fact I am likely closer to the fattest. But I feel a peace and a new freedom from the need for food.

I feel like I am on the brink of something much, much better. And I've recently been around people who have had the surgery I once considered, and I am honestly glad I didn't do it. I admire them and want to look like them, but without the demons. I can wait a few years to get there, instead of the six months or whatever that surgery promises. I want to be there without being sick, or feeling deprived, or having a physical barrier, or removing a food group from my life. Heck, all I have ever wanted was just to be normal!

Anyway, I just felt like writing something to the board. It's scary, but I think it is worth it to try giving up the diets. Stick it out, I know I will...

Wiffle,

It definitely does take a leap of faith to give up the dieting mentality. The sellers of diet books, videos, etc. have done a good job of drilling into us that you can't lose weight without being on a "diet." That was what I had the hardest time with when I first started intuitive eating--making that leap of faith. But as fat as I was I decided it could hardly make things any worse than what I was doing.

And it is wonderful to just be able to enjoy food without having a lot of emotional baggage tied to it.

TGIF! Good Morning ladies! Hope everyone is well and ready for a great weekend! I am SO thankful the weekend is here, I am draggin my behind today! lol Luckily the kids are out of school today so more rest for me---yeah, right! lol

Wiffle, I couldn't agree more with you, loved your post. I know that IE is the way for me now, forever. I can't explain the sort of peace I had rush over me just on the 2nd day of this. All the stress, all the expectations, then what I knew would be disappointment, all fell away. What a load off! I am content to do this slow, may take me 3 years instead of the 1 that will take my best friend who's low caloring it. BUT, I think I can say that I'm almost guaranteed to keep it off for good??? And, enjoy every bite along the way! :D That's the best part if you ask me!!!! I've also discovered that alot of what I thought were my favorite forbidden foods, don't quite taste as great as I'd always thought. Go figure!! I was sorry to read about your grandfather, I know he's in a better place now for sure. I hope you and your family are well. :hug:

Fiddler, gosh you are just doing this whole thing brilliantly! Your clothing size difference is amazing. Go you!!!! When I read the book IE for the first time, I went into it with the same mindset, it couldn't hurt anything more than where I'm at. I am so glad that I did it!!! I admit, I was terrified to try this, absolutely not trusting myself with food. What a shame, all the diets I've bought into over the years have made me believe that I couldn't be trusted and therefore had to follow THEIR plan or I wouldn't be successful. So glad to have finally woken up from that nightmare!

Ladies, thanks for all the suggestions regarding family dinners. I think alot of my fear was stemming from, yet again, the diet mentality. The fear of eating out of control if I spent extra time in the kitchen for a meal for myself after feeding the rest of them. But honestly, it really is stupid to eat if I'm not even hungry, isn't it? lol

I hope you all have a great weekend and keep up the great progress with your new way of life!

♥ Danielle

Sugar-n-Spice, I totally agree with Obi here. I have a small little girl and dh, and I want dinner time to be a family event; so I try to anticipate what's coming ahead. I usually have a very small breakfast, a satifying lunch to make sure I am hungry by the time I get home. If I know that I will be going out with friends for dinner or be with my family, I try to eat something small to hold me down if I am hungry before it is time. In that way I will be nice and hungry when dinner time comes along.

Tonight something weird happenned. My dh decided to go out for dinner and beers with some of his friends so I stayed home with my dd. I had a satisfying dinner with my 1 yr old. In about a half hour or so I wanted a piece of chocolate! I was suspicious of this hunger since I just ate recently and had dessert too. So I stop myself and asked "Are you hungry?" I said "No" Then I did not move from the couch!!! I refused to overeat. Then the desire went off. I then realized that I was bore/lonely/out of place since my dh left to go out with his friends. The realization that I wanted food to confort me hit me hard, because in the past I would have never admit to such as behavior. Sometimes all we have to do is to "ask" ourselves before we reach out for food, and if the answer is "no" then wait and don't do it ;-)

Fanny-

Well, after another try at dieting, I am about ready to give up AGAIN! The extra weight in the belly area gained from taking prednisone has really been bugging me. But I sure can't last long on anything any more and I really think the IE is the answer to weight loss. It's just that I haven't lost any since I was sick last summer and gained it all back after I started the prednisone. Seeing as I will probably be on it for the rest of my life, I have yet to figure a way out of this. But it is easier to relax around food then to be constantly thinking what you can and cannot eat. Looks like everyone is learning some great things.