Your story and most of the things you mention could be me except I have 10 kids and an autoimmune disease called sarcoidosis for which I take prednisone. I've had it since I was 28 and am now 57 but ignored it for most of my life. Basically it is a lung disease with small nonmalignant tumors. However these tumors cause the body to retain calcium which ruins the kidneys. Comlicated, I know. I lost 30lb at first a year ago but put it back on quickly with the prednisone. I tried walking 6mi a day then to no avail. Hard to keep that up when it is not working. Sorry for the boring medical info. and welcome.
Carol,
I saw in some of your previous posts (I read all three IE threads) and that you have ten kids. Wow, you amaze me! I have 3 (and only one that's not grown) and I still go nuts.
My autoimmune disease affects my skin. I have protein deposits that cause my skin to thicken and tighten. I'm lucky because IVIG treatments keep it under control. I have to get the treatments once a month where I get 5 days of infusions. It takes about 4 hours each day, so it's a real pain. They've been having a lot of break throughs with IVIG and autoimmune disease. Have your doctors considered trying it for your disease? I asked my doctors to try it after some on-line research I did. Maybe you should look into it. I really lucked out because prednisone was once concidered for me, thank God I never actually needed to take it. I have heard horrible things about the side effects.
Anyway, I guess this is off topic and I won't bore others with it.
It is good to meet some else with a rare autoimmune diease though. Mine is so rare I can't even find a support group for it. And my doctors don't fully understand it either. Of course that doesn't mean I'm happy you have your diease. I wish we both could find a cure.
Hello! I have auto immune kidney disease and have been on prednisone for too long (9 years, I just realized, ouch!). When I first went on prednisone I was 24 and active, I didn't gain weight at all. But when I was 29 I had to take much higher doses and that's when I started gaining. I'm on other meds too, which my doctors say mess around with my metabolism, so losing weight is a big challenge for me.
I still drink a lot of diet pop, how did you give it up, bdank? I've read that people like us, with chronic illnesses, often get addicted to caffeine because we're tired all the time and crave that kick.
I haven't heard of IVIG. When I've been very sick I get Solu-Medrol injections, which equate to about 3000mg of prednisone over 3 days. It wreaks havoc on my weight and skin, but so far is keeping me off dialysis.
When I first started IE I was constantly eating and testing the waters trying to relearn true hunger and wondering if I was hungry and how long between meals and such, was I satisfied should I eat more, should I eat less....
I think this is what you need to relearn your bodies signals. I really had no idea what my "true" hunger signals were. Give it time and enjoy getting reacquainted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdank
40 before 40,
I'm still finding it hard not to obsess. I'm even obsessing about if I'm doing IE right! I'm constantly thinking about my hunger signals, and I find myself watching the clock to see how long I've gone without a meal. I really want to get to the point where I don't think about food or eating all the time anymore. It use to be so easy, I'd notice I was hungry and I would eat. There was very little thought about it other than that.
Well I went to visit my family this weekend and much better than I had been doing. Went to the movie saturday had a soda, no popcorn, hot dog or nachos. Soda was all I wanted.
Next day went to my grandmothers and I was hungry, wanted jamaican food, but couldn't get it. We ended up getting soul food and I gave away most of my chicken (had 3 pieces only at 1) and threw away most of my yams.
Had some soup my mother made and didn't eat any of the meatloaf. I love meatloaf but wasn't in the mood for it.
So one of my biggest hurdles is past me (phew).
Back home and still on track.
Hi Bonnie and Welcome -
Thanks for sharing your story. And your drawings! They are amazing!
I also have never heard of Scleromyxedma - but I have autoimmune stuff going on too.
This IE thread is getting so interesting!
Hope eveyone has a great week.
Oh and I also kicked diet sodas. Occasionally (rarely) I will have one sweetened with Splenda but I've eliminated aspartame (nutrasweet). It makes my tongue feel weird and increases my appetite. It's weird how it does that. I can feel quite satisfied, and then drink one diet pepsi and and then feel "hungry" right away - that's not real hunger! It's nasty stuff.
Hi, folks,
I'm trying my first day of intuitive eating today. Here's a cut-and-paste of an email I sent to my sister-in-law (whom I'm trying to get on board with the idea of IE) about my experiences so far:
Don't get the wrong idea about intuitive eating, it's not about trading up "bad" foods for "good" foods. Because that's still diet mentality. It's about finding the gray area in-between dieting and binging. For example: I was getting pretty hungry around 10:00, and normally when I'm on diet I make myself wait to eat lunch until noon, but my body was telling me I was hungry so I thought about what I'd like to eat. My first thought was I wanted a tuna sub from subway, but the old diet way of thinking kicked in and I thought: tuna=Mayo and Mayo=fat and fat=bad food. So I thought maybe I should make my own tuna on light bread with fat-free Mayo. Then I realized this was not intuitive eating. Back in the days when I never worried about what I ate I would have NEVER thought of substituting a food I wanted with a lower fat option. So I said to myself I'm going to go get that tuna sub, and I did. But, unlike my binging days, I didn't go get a 12 inch tuna with chips and sweet tea. Instead I got a 6 inch tuna, no chips, no drink. Because I didn't really want the chips or drink anyway. And I didn't even finish the whole sandwich. I ate slowly, and realized I was at that point where you know if you take another bite you'll start getting uncomfortably full, so I stopped eating. There was 3-4 bites left and I gave it to Tyro. (Tyro is my dog)
Anyway, this is the first day I decided to try the whole intuitive eating approach. I'm not counting WW points anymore and I'm not avoiding certain foods or trading up for lower fat options either. Instead I'm eating only when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm full. And only eating what I really want to eat, I'm not adding in sides like chips just because it's expected.
I'm not sure if this intuitive eating is going to work. I must say I'm sort of nervous. Especially because when I put on my jeans this morning they were tight. And the last thing I want to do is buy new jeans in a bigger size! But I decided to give this a shot. I'll let you know if I still keep losing weight.
I'm having a bit of a hard time washing away that old dieting mentality. I did really well yesterday with my food because I just wasn't hungry but the day before I was just soooooooooo hungry.
The day I was super hungry I was afraid to allow myself to eat until satisfied incase I ate too much. The day I wasn't hungry I was worrying that if I didn't eat my body would think I was starving and go into "starvation mode" screwing up my metabolism.
This IE is much harder than I thought it would be. I'm finding myself thinking about food a lot more now than I did before discovering IE. I'm hoping that with time and practice all these conflicting voices in my head will calm down.
Applecake:
I started substituting diet sodas with iced tea, because I like tea. I had to go for the high calorie sugar laden tea though, because I refuse to consume artificial sweeteners anymore. I’ve reduced the amount of sweet tea I drink though and I drink a lot more water now. I’m also learning to like un-sweet tea, which is how they drink it in Japan (I spent two years there). At first it’s awful, but if you think about it, diet soda tasted awful at first too, and you can learn to acquire a taste for just about anything. I’ve also heard of a no calorie natural sweetener called stevia. My dad, a diabetic, uses it. I’ve never tried it myself. He buys his online, but it might be found in health foods stores too.
Carol:
IVIG is a human blood product, it comes from blood donors. They remove the immunoglobulin from the blood and administer it through an IV. It takes like 5000 blood donors to make one dosage of IVIG! Many people with certain autoimmune disorders depend on IVIG to stay healthy, I’m one of those people. So if you reading this please consider donating blood, and if you do donate, THANK YOU! Anyway, there’s tons of information about IVIG on the internet. Try a google search. I’m sure the websites you will find can explain it better than me.
Spinymouse:
I’m finding this very interesting that so many here have autoimmune diseases and we admit to using artificial sweeteners. Maybe there’s some truth to the rumor that they are the cause of autoimmune disease. And I agree, I think artificial sweeteners do increase the appetite. I was always hungry when I was constantly sipping a diet coke.
Beth:
I'm having the same problems. It was very hard for me to not count WW points today, and to eat the full-fat tuna sub I wanted instead of making my self a low-fat version. I know the low-fat version wouldn't have sastified. Now I'm curious as to how long it will be before I'm hungry after eating the full-fat version. Usually when eating low-fat I'm hungry every 2-3 hours. Do you all find that full fat stuff has more staying power?
Beth:
I'm having the same problems. It was very hard for me to not count WW points today, and to eat the full-fat tuna sub I wanted instead of making my self a low-fat version. I know the low-fat version wouldn't have sastified. Now I'm curious as to how long it will be before I'm hungry after eating the full-fat version. Usually when eating low-fat I'm hungry every 2-3 hours. Do you all find that full fat stuff has more staying power?
I find the full-fat version has more staying power both in terms of staving off hunger and of being mentally satisfying. One of the first things I did when I started my plan was to ban all "diet" foods. I use full-fat sour cream and heavy whipping cream to cook with. And real butter. Looking in my refrigerator is enough to make a dieter faint, LOL. But the key is that I don't eat very much of these foods or eat them very often. My diet is mostly more vegetable and meat oriented since that is what I prefer. But on those rare occasions (maybe once a year) when I really want Fettucine Alfredo, I'm sure not going to make some diet version of it that tastes like noodles in wallpaper paste. Blech!
I'm with fiddler on using full fat version of stuff. My boyfriend loved milk so I by it when he visits. He didn't recognize it as milk. I think he thought it was soy because he had been drinking 2% or no fat milk for so long, and he thought it taste better. Milk isn't the only thing I drink, but when I do I want it the least "processed" I can get it.
Full fat vs. not - to me it depends on what it is. One thing that I will not waste my mouth on is most low fat or non fat cheeses. Why even bother - they taste like a synthetic polymer. The one exception I have found is KerryGold brand reduced fat sharp cheddar. Of course it is not cheap but I will gladly buy it. I sure do talk about cheese a lot, don't I? Well, what do you expect for a mouse.
And I do think that fat in foods helps to keep one feeling satisfied. That is probably why Atkins works well for a lot of people.
But I am definitely interested in high quality foods; I think I distinguish them that way rather than high fat vs. low: the KerryGold cheese is a very high quality product. With no synthetic polymers in it. Also I've been more aware of how the products are produced, impact on the environment, etc. That all is so much more important than finding ways to "cheat without guilt" or whatever kind of nonsense I keep reading about on diet food ads.
Not about weightloss, just about life in general. I have a new boss at work, and I can't find a boyfriend. And I've been sick for over a month and just feel generally lousy.
Fiddler - Vent away!
Being sick for over a month is enough to make any life situation feel discouraging, to say the least! I'm hoping you are feeling better very very soon so we can talk, neighbor!
Now as for this thread, this conversation is definitely influencing me!!! After eating a cucumber with ginger salad dressing for breakfast, at lunch I decided to go out by myself to a very nice restaurant (quality) and have what I remember describing as "the best thing I've ever eaten in my whole life" just a couple of months ago. It was not low fat: it was butternut squash ravioli in a tomato-cream sauce. I was disappointed! I did eat half of it and take the rest in a box. It has lots of sauce and I think that the other half can be eaten for one meal just with the ravioli, and the rest of the sauce can be put into something else, maybe cut with straight non-creamy marinara sauce or something. It's not nasty but definitely disappointing. So, if I'm going to be disappointed most of the times I eat, what's the point of making such a big deal about eating, I ask? I know, we are here to lose weight, but, if eating is not a big deal, shouldn't one thing follow another? oh well.....
Fiddler, feel better..............how is everyone else?
Welcome Bonnie, Hope ya stay a while
will calm down.
