Blue - They know some people, like me, won't or can't stay off the scales. I'm using a lot of the ideas and the skills that I learned in the Complete Beck Diet book (can't remember full name of book right now). I am one who likes to know what is going on so I decided to also use the idea of weighing daily and use a graph. I didn't think of it until today, but I made my graph this morning and made August 1st my start day. I was so excited to see that I had lost 4 lbs. I thought I had only lost 2 until I made the graph. However, while doing the daily graph, I also confirm daily on one of my Response Cards that I read everyday this little thing I got from the Beck book... "My weight is not who I am. It is not a measure of my worth. It is just a number that gives me imortant information." I also have this written on a 3X5 card taped to the mirror in my bathroom and say it several times a day.

I have begun to listen to the good voices IE says will help us. The Food Anthropologist and the Nurturer is really taking hold and working for me.


Bootsie - I too like to choose healthy foods for my health. I know health problems that run in my family and I like to eat foods that will help me ward off those things. When you get your book you will learn that as you learn to get rid of the Fool Police and the Nutrition Informant that you will develop the help of the Nutritiion Ally. From what I understand the Nutrition Informant becomes your Nutrition Ally when you let it work separate from the Food Police. What I understand this to mean is that you make healthy choices without any guilty. This means that you may make the choice not to eat a healthy food and you will not feel guilty about it. There are a lot of healthy foods I used to eat just because I thought I should eat them because they were healthy. As an Intuitive Eater, I have learne that some of those foods I like and some I don't like as much as I thought I did. Now I choose to eat the ones I like. For example, I ate oatmeal, fruit and yogurt with nuts because it was healthy. Now I eat oatmeal with blueberries, yogurt and nut because I like it. I choose not to change the fruit to something else because I don't want to. I believe that the Nutrition Ally along with the Food Anthropologist and Nurturer voices have helped me to learn that this what I love to eat for breakfast and that it is okay. No longer is it because it is a healthy "diet" food. It is just a food that I thoroughly enjoy eating. My explanation is long, but I hope it helps you until you get your book.

Blue - Thanks for this article. I copied it to my Journal for today. I've learned that I need the scale because in the past, when I stayed away from the scales it meant I was gaining. I have a new and better relationship with my scales.

On portions? I do weigh some things when necessary. Another thing that is working for me with portions is that sometimes when I am taste eating along with the biological eating that I want to eat more, but I'm not really hungry. I've learned to tell myself that I can have more later. I wait a few minutes or find something else to do and I usually forget about the food completely. If I find that I really do want some more then I give myself permission to eat it.

Julie - I find that eating the healthier foods you mention seems to stay with me longer and keeps me from being hungry. I don't have any cravings. In the IE book one of the authors, Elyse Resch says that she 10% of the foods eats is what she calls "Play" foods and no guilt when she does. The other 90% is healthy foods. That is pretty much my goal.

I think it is good to learn IE after dieting. I find that the healthy foods are what seems to win out because we have a knowledge of how good we feel when we eat healthy. It also helps to know that it is okay to eat the Play foods and not feel bad about it.

I am thrilled that other people can find diet programs that work for them. They didn't work for me any more. I am so thankful for learning about IE and that it works great for me. I found it about the time that my doctor told me to stop dieting because they don't work. I thought he was nuts and kept trying to lose with diets and I kept gaining. I finally a decided that I had to "really" give IE a chance to work for me. I thank God because I think God led me to this point with IE.

As Dr. Cherry on TBN used to say... Everyone has to find their own Path to health. IE is mine.

Y'all have a good day.

Hi all. Hot here today. Lots of company again which means lots of cooking. I'm ok with that.

That's a very important part of IE. I've been known to "Last Supper" because I didn't do what you just said. We really do have to retrain our minds, don't we!

Whoa! That's unusual, but wonderful!

I had forgotten all about all those positive voices! I really need to get back in this book!

Question for everyone: When you follow IE, do you ever feel like people are judging you for eating "normal" (as opposed to eating diet food or avoiding certain things)?

Not that it really matters what somebody thinks about me, but I often feel like people are thinking "Why is she eating that ... she really needs to be on a diet."

Hi Carol, hope you're enjoying your company!

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Trish thanks for the advice . I do like the no fat things a-lot better than the other, they just seem to taste better to me. I have been feeling so much better health wise since I started this diet and been walking with my friend but I sure dread that hill every morning.

I do like bread but have been eating tortilla's because it concerned me that God told them not eat yeast in the old testament but I found out why. It took 3 or 4 hours for the bread to rise and he wanted them to be ready to go , when he said go and parted the water! So I will start eating bread again.Ha! I only got 4.5 miles in today.

Hi Ladies,

Yesterday I shared about me using the daily weight graph I learned to do from the Beck diet book. I am thrilled to report on what I have learned from doing this. Again, Blue Serenity thanks for that article you shared. It has really helped me relax with doing this.

When I came back to IE, I switched from a lowcarb diet that allowed me to eat whenever I was hungry and until satisfied, but I was allowed certain carbs every 5 hours and we had to count the carbs no more than 5 grams. I gained doing that just as the author warned us that we would. We were not to weigh for 8 weeks. I want to say that if I was going to diet that I would go back to that one. Any way I decided that if I was going to gain that I might as well give IE a chance. At least I could eat when I was hungry and have the carbs without Phases and/or Steps and no measuring and counting calories or carbs etc. I had started reading IE book again and read that you would gain at first, level off and then should start losing at a steady rate when your body knew it could trust you not to diet and starve it any more. So my weight gain was actually on the diet. I started my graph on August the 1st with the 8 lbs I had gained on the diet. This is when I switched to IE. Let me say here that I was really scared when I switched to IE. 6 years ago I had lost about 76 lbs. I had really struggled not to gain all that weight back and on August 1st, I was only 9 lbs away from doing just that. If I gained weight on IE, there was a good chance that I just might gain back those 9 lbs and more putting me be back where I started about 8 years ago. But I was desparate.

Ladies I've learned in 9 days that IE WORKS just like the book says it will. Doing my graph shows that by the time I came back to IE that I was at my high weight. Thank God, I leveled off at that weight for 2 days. Then I lost 2 lbs and stayed there for 4 days and then yesterday dropped 2 lbs and 2 more today. Of course, that does not mean I'll lose 2 lbs a day or lose any weight everyday. There will be days when I will level for days while my body adjusts to what is going on. That is not the point to sharing this. The point is that IE WORKS.

Another thing I want to share is why the scales works for me. But 1st let me say that some people don't need the scales. In fact the scales may be dangerous for some people to use the scales as it blocks their success as it messes with their minds and eating. So I'm not saying everyone should use the scales. The lady on through think and thin thread NEVER weighs even when she goes to the doctor she refuses to be weighed. So it is one of those "what works for you" things. As for me, they are my helper. Here's why. As my body was adjusting to the IE way of eating, I felt heavy, bloated and "fat". There were times I just knew that I had eaten too much and as you know I struggled a few of those days with going back to the "diet" route. Reading the book, weighing and charting the graph helped me to stay committed to IE. I felt I had to give it a one full month chance. I think if I hadn't had the weight graph, I might not have stuck it out. Just my personality. I am so thrilled to say that this experiment with the graph has proved that IE works exactly like the book says it will. I can honestly say that No matter whether you choose to use the scales or not, you can trust the IE plan to work for you.

Also, let me add one thing about the article Blue shared. That person learned to do IE the way that it would work for her. IE is not a group of a lot of rules like "diets" have. From what I understand about IE is this. When done as intended, it will NOT be a bunch of do's and don't rules. It should be a way of eating that just "flows" naturally because we have learned to listen to our bodies and work with what is NORMAL for us individually.

Other than the headaches I've had since Friday, today I feel good weight wise. I don't have that heavy, bloated feeling. No cravings and hunger is really changing. Didn't eat as many times or as much yesterday. So I think my "normal" way eating is showing up. Those good voices are really helping as well as the Beck skills that I've incorported with IE.

carolr Enjoy your company.

Everybody else

Y'all have a good Sunday.

Trish tell me some more about the Beck book, it sounds like I should get it also because it sounds like you can combine the Beck and the Intuitive Eating together and it works, right? Congratulations on your weight loss!
Yeah Trish!!!!

Bootsie-I got The Complete Beck Diet for Life book when I bought mine. I ordered it from Amazon.com and I had only heard about it from a friend. I got it because it was the newest book. It has a suggested calorie diet in it. If I had known, I would have just gotten the earlier book which I thing is called The Beck Solution because I think having the diet in there threw me off of IE. When she wrote the new book she added a diet because some of her followers had asked for a diet. I understand that her original book was written to work along with any diet. She later noticed that she also has book Beck Solutions workbook. If I had it to do over and knew what I know now, I probably would have gotten that one. You can go to Amazon.com and see the different books she has and choose which one would work for you. I believe it has been a big help for me.

Fly by today ladies. Fighting sinus issues today. Meds make me feel tired.

Everybody have a great day.



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Thanks Trish, I will check it out and see if our book store has it also. Hope you get to feeling better.

Got my eyes tested today. I have cataracts but not too bad yet for which I am thankful. I hope I can make it 5 more years because I don't have insurance and maybe medicare will pay for it. I guess with IE you finally just kind of forget about what you eat. Lately it has been that way for me. Too much going on to think much about eating....except for those lovely garden tomatoes. We had a big Sun. dinner this past Sun. and for once in a long time it tasted really good to me. Don't now why. Maybe I was really hungry. ha!

Carol - When I saw the eye doctor years ago before we moved to SC, the doctor saw something on my eye that could be the start of someting. She told me to take Bilberry and to wear the sunglasses that come around on the side of the eys.. She felt it would help slow things down. I have done that every since she told me that 6 years ago. When I got my eyes check last year, the doctor said that I am one of the few people who has a mole on my eye and it was nothing to worry about. I forgot the ratio of people who has it but not uncommon. Any way, maybe the bilberry and the sunglasses will slow things down for you. I do it hoping I will never have cataracts.

Thanks, Trish. I don't go out in the sun because of sarcoidosis and have taken bilberry and lutein for quite awhile. The only time I'm outside is right before sunset to work in the garden. That is a beautiful time of day. I guess sarcoidosis is a precursor for cataracts and glaucoma. I'm really thankful that I don't have glaucoma. My mom had macular degeneration and was nearly blind before she died at age 90. I can give the Lord all the glory because I have had this since I was 28 and am now 60 and get along fairly well. Plus we had 10 kids along the way that are a real joy. Next week our son is getting married. That leaves only the youngest girl not married.

Congrats to the son getting married. And I'll keep you in my prayers. I have a dear friend back in TX who has macular degeration and is considered legally blind although she can see images. She has been in my prayers for years as she and I pray for God heal her. She has beautiful music ministry and writes her on songs of Praise. I will pray with you that your eyes do not get any worse. I also understand about the insurane, etc.

A testimony from Beyond Chocolate.

Before Beyond Chocolate I'd tried Weight Watchers many times, Slimming World and Atkins. I really was a serial yo-yo dieter.

I would do great on WeightWatchers as long as I was losing the weight (although I never made my target!) then everything would go to pot the second I couldn't cope anymore and instead of eating "sensibly" I just had to have whatever I had deprived myself of when I was on following the plan. I used to binge at almost every occasion - if I was happy, celebrating, miserable, cheering myself up, anxious about something - any excuse was good to go off the rails. At Christmas I used to eat till I felt sick, then the second the feeling subsided I'd cram more in to the point of feeling sick again, always telling myself I would start again in January and that I was "making the most" of the festivities. Basically I would spend 6 months losing weight and 3 months putting it all back on. Then I'd start again.

I would force myself to exercise when I was on a diet because obviously that meant I "earned" more chocolate or lost more weight. I used to force myself to go to classes I could just about put up with for weeks on end and LOVED the compliments I got.

When the diets worked I would allow myself to spend money on new clothes and marveled at the difference in my shape. When I put the weight back on I would hide under jeans and baggy jumpers - even in summer. I would rather have fainted of heat exhaustion rather than let anybody laugh at my rolls of fat.

Throughout this whole period of time, from the age of 8 to 24, I was convinced that it was ME who was at fault, it was ME who couldn't stick to the diets, ME who wasn't disciplined enough to do enough exercise and ME who had to eat the whole bar of chocolate and couldn't just eat it "in moderation". Now I know it was the diets that failed me, not the other way round.

NOW

I eat WHAT I want, WHEN I want, I move when I want, in a way that I enjoy and AM STILL LOSING WEIGHT! I eat all foods and enjoy them and thank goodness I've lost that sense of guilt that I'm failing myself by eating certain foods. Now I know that food is there to be enjoyed.

When I move my body I know that I'm smiling because I only do it if I fancy doing it AND MY BODY IS SINGING. I don't force myself to do it - even when people nag me or push me. I know that I will want to do it again when my body is ready.

My confidence has increased no end. I've come to realise that unless I'm willing to do press-ups and sit-ups every day and go without food for the rest of my life - and I already know that, for me, that's not a sustainable option, then this is me. Even if I were to do those things I would never look like any of the actresses or models because I am not them. I now know that I am beautiful. Not in a Cameron Diaz, Eva Langoria or Kirsten Dunst type way but in a Kay Alderton, living my stressful but fun life, studying every day for my career, working full-time, eating all the foods I love, girlfriend of an army recruit kind of way.

I've been doing Beyond Chocolate for just over a year and although I have lost weight (I have no idea how much because I haven't weighed myself since I went on the workshop) for me that isn't the most important thing any more. For a while it was but now I think, even if I hadn't lost the weight I have, I couldn't ever go back to the prison of dieting. I have found freedom!

Ladies,

Just checking in. Hope everybody has had a good day.

Carolr Thanks for the article. I look forward to the day that can be my testimony.