You can read the first chapter over at the thintuition website. With most diets books (intuitive eating included) you have some expert telling you what you should do with some case studies showing how their theories worked sprinkled in to make you go "oh wow" this must be something good.

Overfed head is a plain speak first person book. It isn't filled with charts and diagrams and blah blah blah. Also it just makes plain old common sense. I was trying IE before I read this, but this helped it all click together for me.

One thing I always mention is the end when he tell you he left off a FAQ section because you have to answer questions about yourself ...no one else can do that.

Big ole light bulb went off on that one....

Having said that I think I am more of an intuitive eating (the book) person. They mention nutrition and excercise in their book.

I use the Overfed head scale to decide how hungry I am and someone on here posted countin how much you have chewed to slow down your eating and enjoy your food.

I went through a few stages and I am sure other can chime in....
At first I...
I was afraid to eat forbidden things.(I remember eating a hamburger just because I could) I avoided eating things I had to eat on previous diets (salad)


Then..
I paid attention to when I wasn't hungry, realized most times I could cut my portions in half and not miss it. Chewed about 30 times to force myself to slow down and enjoy food. gave up eating in places where I rushed or hide what I ate (my car).


Now...
food isn't such a big deal anymore. This week I had a half eaten kit kat on a shelf for 2 or 3 days. I don't get scared if I have to eat out. I still have issues eating till I am satisfied, but I try to eat smaller portions and eat again later when I am hungry again. (I haven't had a foot long subway sandwich in months and couldn't imagine eating one now).

I will say for me, i have to excercise. I have been doing 4 miles every other day and I feel the difference (looking forward to the weigh in next month).

Ok, that was entirely too long, but felt like posting.:carrot:

Snowbunny, This is a good time in your life to go with IE. I have been dieting for 30 yr and believe if I had just followed this way I would not be 60lb overweight. I have 10 kids and used to lose some between pregnancies but then started doing a lot of fasting and really put on weight. I was an intuitive eater as a young adult. I have also battled prednisone (steroid) hunger because I have a chronic disease that I have had almost as long as I have been dieting.

Wavin' hello to everyone! I posted in the Living Maintenance Thread a few times and had this one recommended. I definitely belong here! I have tried the staying focused, counting calories, and exercising religiously before and it just is never sustainable for me.

My short history is I was never terribly overweight but just struggled with 10 pounds or so which I was constantly going up and down and up and down and well, you guys know. I read the Intuitive Eating book about 5 years ago, tossed my scale and since then have been working at it. While I can never say I've totally *arrived* I am MUCH MUCH better these days and really do eat what I want, stop when I'm satisfied at least most of the time.

I feel so very at home in myself and am so much less obsessed with food. I exercise, but for the joy of it and not for hours at a time and doing the things I enjoy, mostly walking and some simple floor stuff.

Anyway I've read back through at least part of this long thread and it's nice to see a group like this.

What causes you to have second thoughts about IE?
 

Welcome to the list Cindy.

Ok, I have a question, how much does what you read and what people tell you effect what you eat?

So over a month ago I bought precooked bbq ribs (I hadn't had ribs all summer, so I figured why not) I threw them in the freezer and didn't think about them until this weekend. Also I was on 3FC looking at a thread about all the foods you think are good for you and aren't....and I just looked at the ribs and thought they were a heart attack in a package....

The I thought ok, I hadn't planned on eating the whole package in one shot more like over 2-3 days, with veggies, and I wasn't going to eat ribs all day everyday...

There was also a mention of jucies and such...and I realized i was slowly on the way to dieting again....I just think if I take everything in moderation and don't overeat....I should be ok...

Anyway, Ribs are done (no great desire to have them again anytime soon), making marinated grilled chicken and veggies tonight.

As for the working out. Taking that in moderation and I enjoy it more as a result. I set my goal for the week, and as long as I hit it...I am ok.

How is everyone else doign?:carrot:

Ie
 

:welcome3: Cindy. We can use all the help we can get! Obi, I think eveyone has a different idea about what we should eat. If you were doing Atkins the ribs would be fine as long as you used a sugar free sauce. Even drs are always changing their minds. I even change mine from week to week. You know how that goes......if you eat something often enough it loses its appeal. That always amazes me. I've been kind of discouraged lately because I have been really hungry. Such a learning process this is!!!!

Cindy, I just read your intro and would never have guessed by your picture that you were in your 50's like me! And later you said you had been married 30 some years. I have been married 37 yr and have 10 kids. My dh is a veterinarian. Sounds like your job keeps you busy. Write often if you can!

Hi all, and welcome to Cindy!

I have a couple of questions for you who have read more than me.

First, I see some of you concerned with whether or not a food is healthy. When I read Overcoming Overeating, I took from that that I shouldn't be too concerned with if something was healthy or not. So with the actual Intuitive Eating approach, are you supposed to go ahead and eat all those things you wanted but had told yourself you couldn't have? Because that is how I gained the weight I expected to gain by starting this (and may be losing some now, according to my wedding rings - I do not weigh). So ice cream and burgers were so "bad" for so many years so I legalized them by permitting myself to eat them at will, while learning to listen to my body signals.

So is that the same as with Intuitive Eating (the book)?

Also, how have you all handled alcohol? I read a discussion long ago where some people felt that alcohol should be avoided because it can make one eat more, but then normal people drink alcohol and overeat from time to time, so why not?

Anyway, I guess I have legalized alcohol rather recently and really had too much of it. I actually determined how much would give me a headache (I am prone to migraines). Now it is not such a thrill and if anything I enjoy being away from it. Not to say that I won't have more from time to time! But to just have it whenever I felt like it and not explain it to anyone was very interesting. I will be starting a short term job soon and so it was good timing to get the whole alcohol "legalization" thing out of the way.

Lately I have been on a vegetable kick. We've been making whole juices: carrots, apples, bananas, cabbage, oranges, limes and the like (all together no less!) and adding a scoop of protein powder, or some yogurt and a little honey into the "superblender". Also I've been back at the Turbo Jam and did a whole 40 minute "cardio party" yesterday.

So has anyone else here gained a substantial amount of weight since starting Intuitive Eating or similar, that they attribute to the program? I cannot imagine trying to do this with a less than supportive mate. My husband has actually gained some weight with me on this but has wholeheartedly encouraged me.

Just one thought.......I've noticed since eating this way that foods I once thought of as irresistable have lost their pull. I have chocolate candy bars but they aren't very enticing anymore which REALLY baffles me. On the other hand what some people call healthy food really tastes great! Most IE books don't want you to put foods in catagoies which is totally opposite of most diet programs.

Ok, kinda busy at work and don't want to lose this post, will follow up later

I still have problems throwing food away.......grew up not doing that and it has stuck. Like today.....I ate a long john and from the first bite I knew I didn't want it. Guess I'm learning not to take that first bite because my tastes have changed.

Wiffle- are you saying because you've been eating all your forbidden foods that you've gained weight with IE? I can see that happening for me, too, but I think once I know I really have permission to eat what I want then hopefully the weight will come off.

Here's my nickel/dime on some of this.

I really find that mustly I want good for me food - I have been going out for dinner a lot with work and it's interesting to watch what appeals to people. This gal I really like just wants different things than me - I honestly love simpler preparations and am not into the cheesy sauces and stuff that just draws her. I am ordering what I want and it just isn't that gunky stuff.

BUT, I do want it sometimes and then I just have some. Especially at first I think you have to really pay attention to how much you are really enjoying it and how much is the thrill of decadent behavior and just doing it.

I drink wine and enjoy martinis - the wine is ok in moderation, but the martini thing is just empty calories. But what the heck when that's what I want, I just do it. And it's true that like overeating and the miserable too full feeling, drinking too much isn't enjoyable later either (but kindof fun at the moment - LOL).

You just have to give up the good/bad categories, although for most of us our intellectual knowledge tells us which are whole foods and which are sugary/fatty things and so we know it anyway.

Aim for the good, not the perfect as the IE book says and know that's the way it should be to be working.

"Aim for the good, not the perfect as the IE book says and know that's the way it should be to be working."
I agree, Cindy, but it's just hard to except mistakes when you have been dieting for 30yr. My biggest problem right now is hunger....the stomach ache kind of hunger mostly at night and early in the morning. Fiddler says she eats a piece of fruit and drinks water in the night when she gets hungry. Some may say I'm not eating enough during the day but I have gained some weight so I don't think that's it. Also I have found that I really don't like to eat out maybe because I was raised in a farming community in NE and we nearly always ate at home. I just liked my mom's cooking (I wasn't overweight then either) and that's the way I cook now, nothing gourmet. One other thing: I get so frustrated when I eat even though hungry and it really isn't good but I have no choice maybe because I'm away from home or just eating someone else's food. I never know what to do when I'm hungry but nothing looks good. I don't have that problem at home. I wonder, too, if you have only 20lb to lose like Snowbunny, that you can relax a little more. I know I have only 60 to lose and not 100 but it feels like 100 sometimes and I feel like I might get up to that if I keep going the way I am.

Oh, by the way, any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Maybe good and bad are the wrong words, but i like to be concious of what I am eating, not in a restrictive way, just in a.....I want something to eat, I don't have a preference so I'll choose the apple over the donut. When I want the donut I eat it. Most times I tend toward healthy things. I think even "skinny" people eat badly and have high blood pressure and other issues. So I want to lose weight and be healthy.

Carol, why not see if you can find something that fills you up and maybe eat later at night? Are you anxious about something, could be something emotional manifesting as hunger? Or just eat something and go back to bed, doesn't matter what it is, just eat something and see how you feel?

When you talk about eating out, do you mean restaurants or just out and about and your hungry?

Work calling, more posting later.