Though the Skinny Chicks book is interesting, I could never live with that eating plan. I don't really like eggs, can't eat dairy, and....well....it's just not the things I like.

I just read "7 Secrets of Slim People" for the first time. I really liked it, although several reviewers on Amazon derided it for being solely in bullet point format. I thought it was kind of refreshing and it didn't take very long to read and digest.

I started with "The Weigh Down Diet" in the 90's. I failed that pretty quickly and didn't think much about it until last year, when I read "Intuitive Eating," and suddenly it all clicked. Then I read "The Eden Diet," "I Can Make you Thin," and just now the "7 Secrets" book. I also read "The End of Overeating," which is not an IE book, but it was very informative for awareness of certain calorie dense/ unsatisfying restaurant foods. I'm currently starting "Overfed Head," and I want to catch up on everything else out there. I feel like I find a new piece of the jigsaw puzzle with every new book!

I think you're right. I've read about people having trouble maintaining their weight losses with low calorie diets. Some can only maintain their losses by eating 1200 calories a day (the same as when they were in weight loss phase), and that number often decreases every year for them. One poor lady said she eats 1000 calories a day just to keep the weight off. That seems way too low to be healthy.

January 2011 E-News
Dieting is like cutting weeds with nail clippers...you'll never get to the roots

* Why can’t I stick to a stupid diet?

* Why did I eat that candy? I wasn’t even hungry.

* Why did I order the burger and fries? I was going to order a salad.

* Why did I eat that whole bucket of popcorn? The movie hasn’t even started.

* Why did I eat so much? Now I feel miserable!

* Why did I hit my snooze alarm? I was going to get up early and go to the gym.

Sound familiar? These are the result of habits that keep you stuck in your eat-repent-repeat cycle. By definition, a habit is a recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.

The problem with any habit is that it takes away your options. When you act out of habit, you continually recreate the past. No matter how motivated you are, new patterns cannot emerge from old, often unconscious, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

You may already know that these are habits and you may have even tried various diets to try to break them. But that’s a habit too! Dieting is like weeding your garden with nail clippers; it’s a difficult, endless, futile chore that will never get to the root of the problem.

Until you know the real answer to Why?, you're doomed to repeat those behaviors again and again (and again and again). Difficult. Endless. Futile.
The Missing Structure

What you're missing is the necessary structure for getting to the root of the problem. Once you know and understand the missing structure, you can make your ineffective beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors conscious. Once they are conscious, you are able to use specific processes to systematically replace them with effective beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Without this structure, the whys? like those in the examples above are sources of recurring frustration. Try as you might, the solutions are out of reach.

With structure however, the answers and solutions are clear and often quite simple. For example, each of the questions above is addressed by the processes in each of the six stages of the Mindful Eating Cycle™ (in order):

* Why do I eat?

* When do I eat?

* What do I eat?

* How do I eat?

* How much do I eat?

* Where do I invest my energy?

The structure provides you with the flexibility and freedom for lasting change.

Jeff Butts before

Take Jeff. At 643 pounds, he was running out of time and running out of options. He made the decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery. However, he knew that his fundamental problem wasn’t the size of his stomach, but his relationship with food. He participated in an Am I Hungry? Mindful Eating Workshop in preparation for his surgery and again afterward. He’s lost 423 pounds and attributes his tremendous success to the combination of bariatric surgery and changing his longstanding thought patterns around food. Read Jeff's success story and watch the amazing video of how he celebrated his success!

No matter what you struggle with, I can confidently say that you’ll get to the root of the issue using one or more of the processes in this structure. (If you’re interested in learning more about the Mindful Eating Cycle™, download chapter one of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat.)

Do yourself a favor. Put away your nail clippers and get to the root of your issues so you can cultivate the habits you really want.

Eat Mindfully, Live Vibrantly!
Michelle May, M.D.

At 643 pounds, Jeff Butts was running out of time and running out of options.

Jeff's problems began twenty years earlier when he moved to a new job in a new state, away from his friends and family. He developed the habit of eating when he was bored, lonely, mad, or celebrating. The heavier he got, the harder it was to move - and the heavier he got. He was caught in a vicious cycle.

He tried everything to lose weight. He'd been on Medifast, Weight Watchers ("of course"), a hospital-based program of meal replacements, SlimFast, and others. "I'd start out really good and really motivated. I would lose 20-30 or 40-50 pounds then I'd fall off the wagon. I'd feel like I'd blown it so I'd just give up." He also considered bariatric surgery but was afraid of complications and as he explains, "I knew I couldn't stick to the rigid diet."

As his weight continued to increase (643 at his highest), his life became more limited. "I was getting to work but that was about it. I was using a walker and had hand controls in my vehicle because I couldn't move my foot from the accelerator to the brake."

His mother participated in an Am I Hungry?® Workshop in Ohio and called him right away. "She said, 'Jeff, you've got to find one of these workshops!'" He did. Luckily there was an Am I Hungry?® Facilitator, Lori Hurst, M.D., near his home. He signed up but didn't go. "It was the middle of winter and I was afraid I'd fall on the snow and ice. I had fallen once in my home and it had taken me three hours to get myself up."

The final straw was his online search for a power scooter. "They don't make one that was large enough to haul me around that could fit through a door." He had an epiphany. "I had to change or else."

He ran into an old friend who had had bariatric surgery. "I wouldn't have recognized her." She invited him to a picnic with the WLS Indy Support group. After talking to a lot people, he made the decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery.

However, he knew that his fundamental problem wasn’t the size of his stomach, but his relationship with food. He signed up for another Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Workshop prior to surgery. "Before that, I always thought I had to do this on my own." By the time the workshop was over, he felt "mentally ready."

After surgery, the weight just "fell off" for about six months, then the cravings returned. This time he asked for help right away and met with a dietetian and psychologist who helped him with journaling and positive affirmations.

He signed up for another Am I Hungry?® workshop to make his success stick. "I really lived it. I did the work. I read the chapters before and after class, and used my workbook and journal regularly." He continued to lose weight--423 pounds in all--and gain his life back.

He shares some of the most important things he's learned with Am I Hungry?

* I take the time to do a Mind-Body Scan to help me decide if I'm hungry. I can actually hear Dr. May's voice!
* I acknowledge when I'm not hungry and figure out what I am really feeling.
* I use the speed-bump technique that I learned in the workshops. I usually discover that I'm satisfied and I don't need to eat the rest.
* I can throw away food now. That never happened in the past.
* I love TFAR (thoughts > feelings > actions > results).

He attributes his tremendous success to the combination of bariatric surgery and changing his longstanding thought patterns and addiction to food.

Jeff has hit many major milestones and celebrated each one:

* After losing 314 pounds, he donated 314 pounds of dog food to a local shelter.
* When he got below 250 pounds, the max for sky diving, he jumped! "That was one for the bucket list!" Watch the amazing video!
* He did his 13th 5K on New Year's Day and for the first time, was able to run half.
* He participating in Bop to the Top, climbing 38 stories in under 19 minutes. Jeff said this is especially significant to him because, "I never need to take an elevator anywhere ever again!"
* He's dating now.

Perhaps Jeff's greatest life change has been discovering his purpose. When he lost his job last year due to the economy, he took a step back to decide what he really wanted to do. He decided to share his hard-won life lessons with others who struggle with food. He became an Am I Hungry?® Facilitator, a bariatric surgery support group leader, and soon, a certified wellness coach.

Jeff has given new meaning to "life changing"!

Just read Jeff's story! I am still in the beginning chapters of Eat What You Love, my problem is I read fast and don't take time to digest what I am reading, hence, I usually have to read a book twice to really get it, so I am going to try and read this one a little slower. Have a blessed evening.

After 2 days of the stomach flu, I feel light! ha! Not a good way to loose weight. Got it from the grandkids....my hubby, too. So we have not been doing much. I tried to eat a little yesterday but up it came. Now I'm going to try again.

Feeling better today. Can't eat a lot at one time which is good!!!!! Food tastes so good now where it didn't the last few days. Now if I can just stick to these smaller amounts.

Truffle...My story is the same as yours. I was skinny til my son was born the same year.
It has been a looong time to be overweight.
I am counting calories faithfully. I keep my daily count and what I eat in my documents.
If I don't I will go over and not lose weight for the week.
It takes dedication.
I lost 34 pounds so far in the past 10 months.
Try my method and you will lose more this year also.
And I think the thyroid problem of yours will ease up also.

Hi all--

Just joined, after spending some time looking for people discussing intuitive/normal eating. I stumbled on the concept about 5 weeks ago, after having lots 42 lbs very slowly over the preceding 16 months by just tweaking my eating habits rather than dieting. (I've dieted plenty in my life, and won't do it again.)

Anyway, I had gained 7 lbs over Christmas (went on a real binge), and was feeling like I still needed to gain control over *all* of my eating. The 42 lbs lost showed I had stumbled on a good routine, but I was still binging from time to time and also was having trouble with shoveling in "bad" foods whenever I had them.

I started looking around for solutions, and read a lot of books--"Normal Eating for Normal Weight" by Sheryl Canter and the "Rules of 'Normal Eating'" by Karen Koenig are the two books that spoke the most to me. (They each have web sites if you want more info.)

I feel like this concept is really working for me, to just eat when hungry and stop when full (with a LOT of "Am I full yet?" questioning), learning to eat much more slowly and pay attention, and to recognize that no foods are truly *bad*. Once I understood that, the need to shovel them in because I might not "allow" myself to have them again for a while completely went away. And to also recognize when emotional issues are making me want to eat, and taking the time to really look at what I'm feeling and not just head for the cupboards.

I've lost those 7 lbs I regained, and I just feel in a really good spot right now. I have a long way to go (but I've come a long way already!), but there's a piece of mind I have at this point that I've never experienced as a lifetime overeater.

(To see myself at a restaurant when I now only eat four or five french fries, and leave the rest on my plate, without having to force myself or use any willpower--how bizarre is that! )

Best wishes to all--

--jd

jd. Sounds like you have a good grip of IE already and I'm sure you are enjoying it.

Thanks, Carol! I bought the Kindle version of Intuitive Eating today, and am on quite a reading binge. Another very good book.

I recently experimented with calorie counting (sort of). I journaled everything I intuitively ate for a month, only I didn't judge the foods or count the calorie totals for each day until the end of the month. I just wondered how my diet [non-diet, rather] compared to the average calorie counter's diet. I was surprised to find that I generally ranged between 1200-1700 calories with a few higher and lower spikes here and there. It seems very similar to a calorie counting "zig zag" approach, only mine was based on appetite rather than planning.

Glad you are feeling better! I had the same experience with taste last time I was sick. Silly me, I should have listened. I think my body was trying to tell me it wasn't going to stay down!

jd202