I think I seem to have a handle of the eating when I am hungry part, hard doing the eating till I am full particularly if the food is really good. I haven't been stuffed, but I know I have eaten more than I as supposed to, still less than I would have normally. I think part of it is sticking smaller portions. We'll see tomorrow through saturday is moving so limited posting.

may i ask you kind folks a question?

i have been wanting to try intutive eating, but i am worried about giving up dieting....it sounds nutty, but dieting is my hobbie...it occupies more of my time and attention. i am beginning to think that if i was not thinking of dieting, i would not know what to do with myself. But.....i need to lose weight...bad...for health reasons that i won't go into here now, I am scared by trying intutive eating my weight will only get worse.

what is your experience? did you gain weight by giving up dieting? were you scared?

thanks!

kat..

Ckatgo I think you should read the overfed head and intuituve eating. Those are the books that helped me withe IE. There are differing opinoins on how IE works for some people, but I think with any diet you have to make it work for you.

Also it is pretty simple to try out. You don't have to buy the books....Try to only to eat when you're actually hungry and only till your satisfied. Pay attention to why you eating if it isn't because your hungry. Most of us have found we eat because or stress or boredom or something else we never realized. I myself do what I call preventive eating. I figure I won't be able to eat later so I eat now which is NOT eating intuitvely.

Just like with any other "diet" you'll have good weeks and bad weeks and it really is a long term learning process. The thing that really got me into was reading the overfed head....who can tell me what MY body needs?

For me when I do eat I try to stick to balanced meals (more fruits and veggies), drinking water through out the day and regular excercise. I have less cravings and slowly foods I was focused on because I couldn't have them have lost their allure.

I still have says where I feel I should be counting something (old habits die hard) so I made my ticker reflect how much I have been walking and during the day I monitor what level of hunger I'm at.

Below is the first chapter of the book (go to the bottom of the page)
http://www.thintuition.com/thintuiti...?section_id=10

This is the link to the hunger guide from the overfed head. It helped me guage how hungry I was.

Hope that helps.

Ok. I am off the soap box for now.

ckatgo, I say amen to all that Obi says. The guy in that book lost 140lb in a year and a half. A long time ago I read Naturally Thin by Eating More by Jean Antenello. That is also a very good book but she limits what she calls pleasure foods and that isn't really how IE (intuitive eating) works. It's such a great concept and so foreign to what you hear most of the time although other authors (Geneen Roth, Gwen Shamblin, etc) have written about it. Today I remembered to eat light at breakfast and feel MUCH better. This really IS a learning process.

Obi, I know what you mean by not being able to stop when the food is good. I have gotten to the place where I don't like to eat out much because I think home cooked food is better. I like to cook and several of my kids are great cooks. I'm still enjoying the leftovers from my son's Chinese dinner on Mon. night. There's one thing Jean Antenello said in her book that I think bears repeating. She said that after she quit dieting she could eat a lot more because her metabolism raised. Our bodies were designed to survive starvatioin......so they slow down when we are dieting.

hey guys, im losing weight like crazy and happy but the thing i am wondering if is i am losing it healthy. i know i have to eat when im hungry but im new hungry at brekafast time. i eat 2 small meals cuz thats when i know im hungry and i usually eat cuz im bored or tired or just stressed. is this healthy?

What do you mean by "like crazy"? How many lb per week? Rob Stevens of The Overfed Head fame lost 140lb in a year and a half. If you have a lot to lose you usually lose fast at first so I don't think you have to worry about it. His whole point is to listen to your thintuition which you seem to be doing.

I have the Intutive eating book...I have not read it though. I bought it very skeptical about it, I just don't know what I will do with my time if I don't consentrate on dieting all the time! I think that is why I don't just give dieting up. I know in the back of the book they suggest a low fat eating plan....doesn't that run counter to the premise of the book? I am not trying to slam the book, just curious :)....

Crawl before you walk. How about this...IF you feel you MUST count something count calories AND only eat when you're hungry AND only eat till your satisfied. DO NOT limit any types of food. If you feel like a hambuger have it, chinese food have it. Try it for one day or one week. There is a post some where about me having a hamburger just because I could. LOL I think others can agree they went through something similar. For me food lost power when I wasn't obssessing over it. Conversely foods I didn't like because I HAD to eat them I am starting to enjoy again (even salad)

Also in the end you have to do whats right for you and also something you can do long term. If that is counting calories, IE, Atkins, WW or anything then woo hoo, as long as it is right for you.

At the end of the overfed head he talks about not having a FAQ section because he can't tell someone what THEIR body needs. So I can tell you what works for me, but in the end you have to do whats right for you.

Ok, off the soapbox for now
-Obie :dizzy:

Ah I forgot to talk about my day...I phase 1 of operation get out of dodge (moving from NY to NJ) happened today. Definitely got in some cardio, LOL

Ate breakfast (no longer feel obligated to eat egg white anymore) was kind fo carb heavy. Then managed to resist when my brother and I went to subway to grab him a sandwich before the drive. Then pizza (one slice had salad on it, which was pretty good) before we headed home.

I think I am pretty much a 2 meal a day person when I am not at work.....hmmmmm

Ok off to relax. sore and stiff.. blah... :dizzy:

ckatgo,

What about using your spare time to learn to cook new things? There are lots of kinds of food out there that are interesting and healthy that you will never see listed in a diet book. Generally, home cooking is healthier for you, and if you eat a wider variety of foods you tend to feel less deprived, and can be satisfied with eating less. That has been my experience, anyhow.

Fiddler, Good to see you again. kcatgo, I was just like you and still kind of am. I have read almost every diet book out since about 1980. Pathetic, isn't it. I usually tried to hide the books from my dh because he made fun of me. Now I am really serious about this........The Overfed Head by Rob Stevens explains things so cleary and succinctly that you will wonder why you never thought of it before. It is the best IE book I have read. It makes me want to NEVER think about dieting again. So give it a try. You'll be glad you did.

Yesterday I had a few new situations to tackle. I have decided if I eat when not really hungry (maybe just a little bit) I can at least take really small portions and that seemed to work for me yesterday at least and I ended up not full. No one even noticed. We were invited out after supper to a birthday party for a 80 yr. old friend so again I just took a really small portion of what was offered. If I really was FULL like sometimes happens at home, I would skip the meal. That happens sometimes if I eat late lunch or snack in the afternoon.

Has anyone ever had the experience where you were craving something, ate it and thought it not substantial enough so you ate something else and it didn't taste good? I have been craving sweet and sour sauce with crab ragout (sp) since my son made it the other night. So I dipped some cheetos in the sauce and that's just what I wanted but thought it wasn't very balanced. Still learning.

I actually have to track my sodium intake because of prior health problems. So, what I do is incorporate my sodium tracking with the IE theory. In other words. I do write down what I'm eating ( to track my sodium intake ) and I use the hunger guide to decide if I'm hungry. The sodium tracking only helps me choose wiser foods. If I have a day where I'm eating too much sodium foods I'll just adjust my choices the next day or the next meal and it all balances out. I'm definately not depriving myself and I enjoy everything I eat.

I do agree about your weight fluctuating but you have to take into account that some days you are really hungry and will eat more and other days when you are not too hungry you'll eat less. You really have to think like a little kid - If you watch a little kid through their day - they eat when they are hungry refuse food when they are not and they are so active and happy.

Hope that helps

Ladybug, I like the idea of thinking like a little kid. I think I can do that. ha!

I just realized that ever since I started IE I made a point of eating all meals, because I could. Now I am realizing, hey, I'm not hungry. I'm not going to eat. They always pushed that "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," so it is hard to skip breakfast; but I'm finding that I am not hungry every morning! I gave myself permission several times this week not to eat breakfast, and it didn't kill me!!!

I've also been in a few situations lately where I would normally have eaten, because it is expected. It is hard to know what to do with myself when I know that I don't want to eat but I don't know what to do with myself instead. You know what I mean?? You know how you go to a sporting event and when you win everyone goes out for ice cream? Those are the kind events I don't know how to handle. I used to LIVE for the ice cream afterward. In fact, I used to not care about the game at all because I was fantisizing about the excuse to eat junk food afterward. Now I don't associate food with rewards or celebrations anymore. Like someone else said also, going out to eat just isn't as magical as it once was. I am actually getting quite sick of thinking about food!

Thanks everyone for your wonderful replies. I have started reading the book and BOY! is that me! It described my life exactly....always dieting (I think I have been on one kind of diet or another for about 20 years...really...and I am 37 years old....NO JOKE! I don't know what it is like to "just eat normal" I want to experiment with this, see what happens...I kind of started yesterday by eating dinner on a small plate...not the huge plate I use to get, but a small one to gage my hunger better (because it forces me to stop more and think..) I was satisfied and not full. I went to bed not stuffed and woke up much more clear headed than I had in along time....WOW.....

:bravo:

Isn't that something, Kay? We get to think about something besides food and life takes on a whole new perspective. ckatgo, I thought this would work for you, too. I have another observation. Last night I went to bed hungry but woke up not hungry. Anyone have any ideas of why that would be? Ladybug, I'm still trying to think like a kid. Haven't done that in years, maybe because I am 57!!!

Think like a kid???? NO PROB......

I normally don't wake up hungry. I can be up for a couple of hours before I get an appetite for anything but coffee, really. I have gone to bed hungry before and woke up not hungry, something about glucose and your liver when you sleep I think I heard once...but don't quote me on that...

Today went ok so far...over ate at lunch though. I went out with some office buddies and had a hard time focusing on my fullness and ate too much....way too much.....but I didn't count the calories on my plate and that is a first for me. My hubby is bring home McDonalds...I ordered fries and a shake. I know he was thinking I had gone mad when I said that....

this is kind of fun....

carolr,
I don't know why that happens, but happens to me sometimes. Some days I wake up hungry, some days I don't. I usually eat my last food 5-6 hours before bed. I don't like the feeling of food in my stomach when I'm going to sleep.

I've also always noticed it when I'm really hungry...There seems to be a period of time where you're hungry if you haven't eaten recently, but if you don't eat, it eventually goes away. Not sure why this is, but I there's probably some rational explanation.

Hi everyone,

I am new here, so far I've only posted in the intro section.

I've read Overcoming Overeating and have been "doing that" for about a year now. I don't weigh myself but I would guess that I gained about 30 pounds and have been the same size for what seems like forever.

I feel that I have really made some breakthroughs recently (although time is hard to track these days since I don't weigh myself or count anything).

I'm almost 42 and I have always had a battle, even when I was "normal" because I always had very thin friends (like size 0 and 2). So after so many years of yoyo dieting, NOT getting anything I really wanted, and then going hogwild during my binges, I expected that it would take a while to make headway. Especially with ice cream, cheeses, salad dressings, etc.

So I am at a point where I may actually be getting smaller, although I try very hard not to make that the goal. I'd like to hang out with some people who actually understand this so that I can share small victories. Like for example in spite of my size going out and getting a really good haircut instead of putting it off forever because of the money... buying ice cream that I like even though no one else likes it... ordering a piece of pie with a walnut crust even though my husband won't be able to help me eat it (allergic).

A lot of my food hangups seem to revolve around money, like food = money, so buy/order the biggest portion for the money instead of what I really want. There are different ways of denying onesself, it can be money or food, or other things and sometimes it isn't real clearcut.

I don't mean to ramble on forever, I've been reading this thread but wow - it is long - I also wanted to say something! I'll be reading more this evening, hoping to participate because it is exciting to find others who know what I am talking about and striving for.

Tara amd ckatgo, thanks for the input. I wish I could find out the scientific explanation for that. I know a nutritionist I miight be able to email. Maybe she would know. I once called Judy Halliday who co-wrote Thin Within to ask her about prednisone and how a persons deals with that kind of abnormal hunger. She was very nice, talked to me about a half hr. but didn't really have an answer. I appreciated her taking the time to speak with me nonethe less. Welcome Wiffle!!!! We like long posts here!!!!

Wiffle, Thanks for posting! I understand all that you are saying. Please hang out with us.
I understand about not doing nice things for myself- like buying a nice outfit because I don't deserve it because I am overweight. Or somehow by buying something the right size might mean that I want to stay this size forever.

Really just learning to like myself for who I am has been a great struggle. Then I started watching some of the "larger" women that I admire. They all have the same things in common. They love themselves for who they are. They dress themselves nicely and groom themselves. They aren't always apologizing for their size. They do the things they enjoy. They are happy! While some may desire to be smaller, it isn't the all consuming obsession, "I can't be happy if I am not thin."

I guess we need to get real- Even those women that we see with "perfect" bodies don't have "perfect" lives. Being the "perfect" weight is not going to bring us ultimate happiness. It certainly isn't going to make our spouse turn into the kind of man we would hope of him or keep our bosses from being jerks. Instead of saying that I have to get to a certain weight to be happy, I want my goal to be to achieve a size where I will be healthy and comfortable participating in all of the activities that I love. That may not necessarily be getting back down to a size 8!

Not sure where all those thoughts came from, but I am really working on loving myself and giving myself permission to be happy with being me. It definately is going to be a long process of getting rid of the critical, hateful voice that has haunted me for so long (even when I was thin because I wasn't thin enough!).

I have a very hard time buying clothes. None of them seem to fit right at all. I think that makes it worse for me because even if I went to the stores for the larger women, I don't look right in the clothes. My butt sticks out in the back and looks horrible in almost anything. When I was smaller (size Medium, size 6 or 8) I used to be so excited to get nice clothes - and the smaller sizes cost less too. Now my clothes feel more like physical restraints than just clothes.


I know what you mean about not bringing ultimate happiness but it would be so nice to get clothes that fit, be able to go out and rollerblade without the fear of a massive injury, etc. I really do have a good life, a good husband (more on him in a minute) and maybe I'll get around to getting a job soon (I temp right now).

Re: husband. How would anyone try to work out these eating issues without a very understanding husband. I don't know many who would drive their overweight wife to the store to make sure she has plenty of ice cream.

I was on the verge of weight loss surgery when I found "Overcoming Overeating" over a year ago, and my husband urged me to try this instead of the surgery, knowing I would gain. In that year I have had an opportunity to meet quite a few people who have had WLS, and some of them (1/3 - 1/2?) have not had the success they expected. I'm glad I didn't do it.

We are trying to incorporate more "normal" exercise in our routine rather than obsessive "all or nothing" exercise. Today, as a family, we are going to "play tennis" at our local courts. We aren't very good, but it is good exercise to chase the balls around at a minimum! :dizzy: We also have the Turbo Jam CDs to do a little workout at home. I figure these are things that people of normal weight do.

I had a couple of really hungry days but I am going to try to stay off the scale because it can be really discouraging. My clothes have been looser and I am wearing things I haven't worn for awhile so that is always encouraging. I do bodyflex everyday. It just makes me feel better overall. I like to walk but my nephrologist told me I shouldn't be in the sun so I try to to that. I have gotten to the place where I don't think I could diet again. Going by hunger and fullness just seems to be so natural.

There is another good website www.undieting.com and I want to share one of the free posts they sent.

Many attempts at dieting have taught us to try and
adhere to rigid rules. The last thing we want to do is
put ourselves into diet-mode by creating a whole new
set of rules. Diets themselves have proven that
perfection, rigidity, and undereating are not
successful.

Undieting works best if you allow yourself to fail a
lot. It's a process of experimentation.

The paradox is that failure leads to success.

Failure enables you to discover what works best for
your body. Learning is most effective when you allow
yourself the freedom to make "mistakes".

You get to try lots of different things with
absolutely no guilt and no judgment.

Think of this process as a time to objectively notice
what you do...
~ Test different levels of hunger and satisfaction.
~ Decide what foods make you feel best.
~ Become aware of which favorite foods you may not
even actually like.
~ Notice which foods make you feel horrible after you
eat them.

You won't always eat the perfect food in the perfect
amount at the perfect time. NO ONE DOES. That's okay.
It's how real life works.

Accepting that you sometimes eat the wrong thing, or
the wrong amount, is part of how this program leads to
a normal relationship with food.

People who eat normally sometimes eat too much. They
eat from mouth hunger. They eat a wide variety of
foods including some junk.

Former dieters tend to want to ban all such behaviors
100%. That is diet thinking and it's too rigid to be a
way of life. Give up the need to be perfect and allow
yourself to be human.

Undieting is based on moderation. It is making choices
based on self-love. Take good care of yourself, learn
from your mistakes, and you will succeed.

Allow yourself to fail without guilt or punishment.
Letting go of toxic "diet thinking" is an essential
part of success. Undieting will guide you every step
of the way with a simple 11-step roadmap.

Here is another post from the above site.

Trust your body

There is a dark cave of food worries, weight obsession,
self-criticism, and self-loathing that we inadvertently
stumbled into through dieting. It's time to step out of
that cave. The door is right here.

Walking out is easier than you think. It's not difficult.
It's just different.

You deserve to step into the sunshine. To stand in your
personal power completely free of deprivation and fear.

This is a permanent solution.

This is not another diet that you will suffer through
and then gratefully end as soon as possible. This is a
wonderful way of life that you will enjoy.

As you live in peace and harmony with the beautiful
body you have you will think and act like the naturally
healthy, strong person you are. Your weight will
finally stabilize at your natural ideal and you'll stay
there permanently. It will happen effortlessly and
easily.

Feel comfortable and at home in your body, accept it
unconditionally and love it completely. Instead of
fighting your body, honor its needs and give it what it
wants. Choose to be kind to yourself. You then easily
live every day at your personal peak of health and
vitality.

Your body is wise. It knows exactly what it needs. And
as you learn to listen and honor those needs you
naturally stand in your own knowing, in your power, and
make the choices that best serve YOUR body.

Leave your old habits and that comfort zone behind. Be
brave and adventurous enough to actually trust yourself.

Your body knows exactly what it needs to be healthy and
vibrant. Set yourself free.

Step out of that cave and into the warm sun. There is
so much more to life than food and weight worries.
Leave the diet mentality behind.

Get off the diet bandwagon and return to a life worth
living. Relearn how to trust yourself and then you can
focus all that dieting energy on creating an amazing
life. Undieting will guide you every step of the
way with a simple 11-step roadmap.

One final post.......these are actually in reverse order. Author Nancy Hill

Never diet again

If diets worked, we'd all be slim and trim right now.
As you know, there are hundreds and hundreds of diets
in existence. But dieting to lose weight or live
longer is like taking a drug that causes the very
disease it is intended to cure.

Essentially, dieting is a way to train the body to
store fat. Each diet teaches the body to protect
against future famines. It's the perfect weight-
gaining technique.

In fact, a four-year study of 700 high school girls
discovered that those who dieted regularly ended up
gaining more weight than the girls who didn't restrict
their eating.

95% of dieters regain what they lost. Many of those
gain back more than what they originally lost. The
utter failure of dieting proves how strong and amazing
our bodies are. They want to survive. They will work
to stay alive no matter how much we try to starve them.

It's not that we don't have enough willpower to get
thin. When the body senses it is threatened by lack of
food, it kicks into survival mode by slowing the
metabolism to conserve energy. It sends you urgent,
overpowering messages...cravings...to eat high calorie
foods NOW.

We've been fighting against our own biological drive
to stay alive. There isn't a way to win that battle.

Yet each new diet is so tempting. They promise so much.

Millions are desperate to lose "excess" weight and be
slender. Every day we are brainwashed to desire the
media version of the perfect body. We'll do almost
anything to get it.

Ironically, the best available prescription for gaining
weight is...GO ON A DIET.

Gym owner Bob Schwartz tells how he helped thin members
of his workout gym who were desperate to gain weight...
he put them on a diet.

No matter how much they tried to put on pounds prior to
dieting, they had not been successful. But after
restricting their caloric intake for even short amounts
of time, every single thin person was finally able to
gain weight.

When you diet:

~ You frequently feel guilty or shameful about what
you've eaten.

~ You desperately want to be thinner.

~ You starve yourself and feel saintly or eat and feel
bad.

~ You think about food all the time: how much to eat,
what to eat, when to eat.

~ You spend a large amount of time and energy on menus
and rules and knowing which foods are okay to eat and
which ones are "bad".

~ You often rebel and eat to a point of feeling sick
and miserable.

~ You eat mindlessly and often don't even really taste
your food.

~ You are always on the lookout for the next diet cure.


With Undieting:

~ You take excellent, loving care of yourself.

~ All foods are equal. There are NO banned foods. You
exercise your right to choose whatever food you want
to eat.

~ You savor your food and get full enjoyment from
eating.

~ You make conscious, thoughtful choices rather than
rebelling or eating out of habit.

~ You feel energized and light.

~ You stop eating when you've had enough.

~ You love your body as it is right now.

~ You are happy and free.

~ You focus your attention on having a great life.

The first step in Undieting is to simply decide that
you will never diet again. Make it a firm, 100%
commitment.

Once you completely let go of dieting, your natural
instincts begin to surface again. Life gets easier.

Get off the diet bandwagon and return to a life worth
living. You CAN get out of the vicious diet cycle with
ease and grace.

Undieting will guide you every step of the way with
a simple 11-step roadmap.

This course is a small sample of the full "Undieting"
experience that will heal and transform your relationship
to your body and to food.

Thanks Carol!!

Carol, thank you very much for the posts, and especially the above portion which applies to the pizza and ice cream I ate late last night and was feeling bad about.

I didn't even feel like eating, I made myself! I only mention that because it was a rather new behavior to eat when I didn't crave it, and I was in a situation where I would normally have a craving. Not having the craving was really nice, even though I ignored my body and ate regardless.

If I had to sum up what I thought, it was "You're going to eat some pizza and some ice cream and even though you don't want it, eating it will bring pleasure because it has in the past."

So I did eat the pizza, ins spite of really just wanting to lay down and sleep (late night alone time) and then I ate some ice cream, which I really didn't want and nothing great happened. No thrill at all. Just discomfort.

But, it was different because it was more of a pure habit than a craving or a hunger of any sort (mouth or stomach).

Hello everyone...

I have been gone this weekend, it seems these bulletin boards can become adicive all by themselves! So I took a break.

Great post everyone. I have been having fun with this...I ate indian food this weekend for the first time in a long time. I ate macroni and cheese too. I ate too much. My problem is remembering to stop when satisfied in social situations. I did yoga this weekend for the first time in a while, it felt good to get back to that.

The doctor told me I am in menopause. That threw me for a loop. I wasn't expecting that so early. All the women in my family go through menopause early, but no one talks about it. Weird......

Anywho..good to see everyone doing well...

IE is really different from other programs, isn't it wiffle? Catkgo, I started menopause at 43. Is that early? All done now at age 57 (been done for a few years but can't remember when that was). Here is another thought from the undieting website:

Try a little tenderness

Work it, sculpt it, starve it, push it, train it,
discipline it. We're taught a lot of things to do to
our bodies. Most of them are not pleasant.

What about loving it?

What if we treated our bodies with love and tenderness?

Okay, it sounds a little sappy, I know. But really
think about the idea for a moment. WHAT IF you made a
decision to treat your body with the ultimate in
kindness?

How would your body feel if you...
~ Fed it the best, most delicious, most nutritious
foods
~ Gave it just the right amounts of food to feel light
and full of energy
~ Pampered it with fun movement
~ Let it nap or rest when it was tired
~ Treated it to healing massages and long soaks in
warm water
~ Noticed all the wonderful, beautiful things about
it and overlooked its flaws

Your body would LOVE YOU for LOVING IT. You would
naturally live at your own perfect weight without
effort or strain.

By treating yourself well and loving your body, you
will effortlessly live at the peak of health.
Undieting will guide you every step of the way with a
simple 11-step roadmap.

Was really tempted today....by dieting. I was reading about a girl here who has lost about 70lb on LA weight loss. I was going to just ask how much it cost and then didn't. Sooooooo tempting.

Carol, I too was tempted to diet not too long ago. It was a diet plan that came with an exercise DVD. I even bought some of the food items. This brought on a binge of epic proportions! Ha ha - I decided to not try the diet again, after I calmed my eating down.

Hey ladies finally moved into the condo...moving sucks...

I did pretty well with the IE, but ate out alot while moving last week. So going grocery shopping today. I am doing about 2 meals a day...and seem to be ok....The BF and I went out to eat yesterday and I ordered more than I wanted because I was really hungry, but ended up giving him my appetiver to take home and ignoring the french fries....I grabbed something from the salad bar and was much happier. definitely a difference from the olden days. Me liking choosing salad over fried...who would have thought it.


Anyway, glad to see the thread is staying active and hi wiffle and glad to see you're on board ckatgo.

Way to go Obi!!!!

I had a strange day eating wise yesterday. I had soy milk in the morning and then had a craving for crab ragoon. So my daughter showed me how to make it and that is about all I ate all day except for some fruit at supper. I'm not sure I like how I felt.... kind of sluggish. Is that the fat doing that? I'm glad I read the above article aboue forgiveness and learning from mistakes. It makes such a difference. How is everyone doing?