Truffle, I agree, you've gotta eat what and when you need.

One thing I've found, which may or may not work for you, is that a cup or two of coffee with real half and half really fills me up for a while, and it's so delightful to savor.

Girls our lifeystyle are oh so similar. My hubby stays up late and gets up way much later than me. It works out great for us because he gets "his" time and and I have my "me" time. I cook one meal a day for the 2 of us and then he has his foods he eats whenever he wants it and I eat whatever I want whenever.

Like Julie I really enjoy my coffee in the morning. I heard all the things about caffiene vs decaf. I have my cafiene in the morning with Splenda and heavy cream. May go back to 1/2 and 1/2 because I did like the flavor better although it has a little more carb than the heavy cream. Some times I eat breakfast and some time I don't. Some time, I just have a shake. I never ate breakfast when I was thin, but I've grown to enjoy it most of the time.

My DH doesn't understand my way of eating. He worked in the medical field for almost 20 years and he just doesn't understand low carbing or Intuitive Eating. I finally decided that it doesn't matter who understands or who doesn't not even him. I have to eat the way I have to eat. His first wife died with lots of problems with diabetes. She also worked in the medical field. I finally asked him if she followed the diet they gave her. He said yes most of the time. I then asked him, "Did it save her life?" Of course it didn't. She had heart trouble lost toes and would have lost her legs if she had lived. I had done all the research on low carb etc. So I told him, "Then please trust me to do what I believe is the best way for me. I've done the research and I want to live a healthy life". He has a fear of losing me. He has health problems and I now see him taking a greater interest in what I am doing. Since I've changed the way I'm eating, my joints don't even hurt as much as they did even a few months ago. So I'm seeing a lot of improvement.

The traditional way of eating may work for a lot of people, but it does not work for me. So why do what doesn't work for me to please someone else. I've seen people do that and lose their health. Just my personal observations.

I am so thankful that when I was diagnosed with diabetes years ago that my doctor handed me the traditional diabetic diet they give everyone and then he looked at me and said "I'm not going to tell you how to eat or what diet to follow. You will find the one that will work for you". And I did. In less than a week I had it under control without meds. I ate mostly protein, veggies and fruit and then I exercised 45 minutes a day. That exercise is what I've got to get back into the routine of doing now.

Well, I didn't mean to ramble on so. I said all that really to say that we are individuals. We have the "right" to learn what works and what doesn't work for us. Most of us are good at taking care of others, now it is time for us to be as good to ourselves and take care of ourselves. I remember a few months before we found out my Mama had cancer and didn't live another year we were talking on the phone. Out of the blue she said to me, "Patricia, if you don't take care of yourself, no one else will". So let's make 2010 the year we do just that.

Y'all have a great Sunday.

Ladies, what great posts. And you make me feel like I'm not alone and crazy.

I have also wondered if I have the right to NOT diet. Who taught us to punish ourselves so much? I wonder what kind of acceptance we are all yearning for to treat ourselves so hardly.

Not only i have the right to NOT diet but I HAVE TO forget about diets. I have to make food concerns be gone. I realized I only overeat when i fall back into thinking I am breaking some rule and eating something forbidden. Then I eat a ton of food and don't enjoy a bite.

We all have the right to do whatever we please.

Ah, ladies, I'm fighting myself on wanting a GoWear Fit/BodyBugg. If you don't know, it's a contraption that reads your body temperature, movement, etc, and figures your calorie burn so that you can accurately calculate your deficit. There's a part of me that REALLY wants it because I have always sworn that the numbers never work, the computations and formulas never work for me even as rough estimates. The other part of me knows that that way lies obsession, and I'm really doing a lot better without that hysterical number crunching in my head all the time. But then, if it's accurate I'll finally have the numbers I've been looking for all these years and finally have a means to achieve my goals. But then, the obsession with numbers is part of what got me here in the first place. AUGH! Someone talk me down please!!

I'm also being very pleased by oatmeal for some reason. I had it for breakfast and dinner today, and I'm pleased as can be. I turned down garlic and herb marinated filet (beef) and meditteranean couscous so I could have oatmeal. Very odd. As DH said, "well, you're a freak." Thanks honey, love you too!


I need to head to bed early. I want to go Spinning in the morning to take advantage of my new saddle pad, and class starts at 5:45! Talk you you later!

There is a thread on here about that but I have never read it. You could always post in the thread Does It Work and see what comes up. I kind of wonder how it works. There are so many variables. It is like you can't trust your hunger and fullness signals and those were designed by God.

Sidhe, I want a BodyBugg too, I'm just geeky that way. But moneywise, it ain't gonna happen, so I'm saved by the (empty) wallet I guess I don't think it *has* to be an awful thing - I mean, if I'm geeky that way in everything else in my life, there's no reason I wouldn't have fun with a toy like that too. But each person has to be honest with themselves if it's really a toy that adds fun to their life, or a torture device in disguise.

I think that is classic IE

Haaving a regular IE day today. Maybe I'm ready for that. We have company coming for the week and they'll arrive tomorrow evening. I can't do low carb with them here because I can't afford to buy the foods for me and them too so I'm just going plain IE.

I got up and had oatmeal with yogurt and blueberries with flaxseed and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've really missed my oatmeal. Then we went shopping and came home. I wasn't hungry all that time. I knew I needed to eat and I realized that I really wanted an ice cream bar. At first, I thought I would eat something "healthier" you know the "diet" thinking kicking in? Well, I decided that I would eat the ice cream bar and if I was still hungry that I would eat whatever it was I had in mind. Funny thing is that I ate the bar and I'm soooo satisfied with the ice cream bar that I can't remember what I "thought" I should eat if I was still hungry. What an experience and revelation. I wonder how many times that I have wanted something and decided to eat what I "thought I should eat" and was never satisfied. Would I have been satisfied if I had eaten what I really wanted? I think I've just had a new learning experience. Interesting. I wonder if this is the point of true Intuitive Eating. I ate what I wanted, savored it and was satisfied. I didn't overdo it. I wasn't tempted to go eat more. I think this is truly a freeing experience.

Not using the company as an excuse to eat what I want, but I will use it as an experience to test how I do really following IE. Looking forward to seeing how it works out for me.

Sounds like you had a really great IE day, Trish, keep up the good work!

Sidhe, I'm kind of geeky with my pedometer. I LOVE to see how many steps I can get in, and am always competing with myself to do better. I track steps on StepTracker.com, so I have some nice graphs to study any time I want to too. I find that the pedometer numbers don't trip me up at all, but the SCALE numbers sure do. Maybe the BodyBugg will just be a fun thing for you.

I'm really driving myself nuts. I keep falling back into "diet head" thinking and actions. I'm desperate to lose some weight this coming year, so since the New Year will soon be here, I'm trying to rope myself into another diet. I've been on Spark People this morning, trying to psyche myself up by writing a blog entry about how I'm going to lose 30lbs this year, watch what I eat, record it, blah, blah, blah.

But it backfires on me, and I find myself out in the kitchen filling a bowl with Chex Muddy Buddies (aka "puppy chow"), which I don't really need, but which I am eating because I just can't get myself to stick to another diet plan, no matter how much they claim that it isn't one.

Diets and dieting, no matter how mild a form, are TOXIC, and how I wish I had never gotten sucked into them in the first place. I don't think I'd have half as much weight to lose if I had just listened to what was going on inside myself.

I had a really terrific IE day yesterday. I checked the scales just for the fun of it and I was down half a lb. I was surprised that I was not all that hungry and I didn't eat a whole lot. Hunger was minimal amount of hunger so it didn't take all that much to satisfy me. I even cooked a really nice dinner for the family who came in from out of town and never even thought of eating any of it. It was really a strange but wonderful experience. I thinking that I may have just eased into IE without even trying. Sure would be nice not to worry about food any more. So I am going to just roll with it. Just follow the 4 Golden Rules I found on another IE thread.

I wish that too, Becky, but we need to move forward and make a change for the better and be thankful we finally found something that works. I still sometimes get discouraged in the winter because I usually gain some back but it comes off eventually. Right now my appetite is down some and I wonder if it is from all the goodies we eat this time of year. Trish, sometimes when I have finished cooking for the family, food just doesn't look good.

Thanks all for your thoughts.

I thought hard about buying a GWF, and I ended up making the purchase. I feel very calm about it, so I think it was the right choice.

A HUGE part of my frustration and anger with myself and my weight has always been that I could never "figure it out". The numbers don't work for me--no calculators ever worked, no standard advice ever worked, no programs people tried to shove at me ever felt right or got substantial results. For example: I remember when I tried Atkins. I was doing Atkins for 4 months, watching my calories at the same time I watched my carbs. I lost 8 pounds the first week...and then nothing. For the next 15 weeks, nothing. Then there was the time that I paid a nutritionist at the gym that I went to to put me on a "nutrition plan". He measured my body fat, took my age, my activity level, counted my exercise minutes, calculated my calories, and wrote out a very specific daily 5-meal-a-day plan for me. I lost 7 pounds the first two weeks...and then nothing, for 3 months. No weight change, no body fat change, nothing. He couldn't figure it out, but I was not surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. I have lots of other examples, but I'm sure you get the point!

Anyway. I feel like I've been trying to solve a formula without one of the variables. I am very active and when I am working I have an active profession, but I never know what to use as activity modifiers or anything like that. I know it is very, very easy for me to gain weight, and it's **** trying to take it off. I know I need to lose weight to find a job again (yes, that's a sad fact). I have been tested many times for everything under the sun and my blood work always comes back fine. I don't know which side of the fence I am on: do I regularly eat too little and thus when I give myself extra calories my body hordes them? Or do I need fewer calories because I have a much slower metabolism than professionals think, and thus I need to pay very strict attention to REALLY watching for hunger/full signals? I don't know. I DON'T KNOW, and that not knowing has been ripping me apart. (Which goes into a whole lot of scars from childhood/school age when I was expected to be smart and always have the right answer and never allowed time to actually learn, but that's a whole 'nother story I'm not going to go into.)

So. Anyway. I made the choice to buy a GWF. And I also set some rules for myself:

*I did buy the armband, I did NOT buy the display watch that tells you minute-to-minute what your numbers are. I will upload my numbers in the evening, and that's the end of it. No checking it and no playing with it throughout the day.

*One-half-hour in the evening may be spent on uploading, calories, recording, whatever. That's the end of it.

*If my body is hungry, I'm going to feed it, no matter what the device says. If I'm not hungry I'm not going to eat, no matter what the device says. My body trumps the device.

*No playing games with food combinations, judging food choices, pats on the back for making "good" decisions, nothing like that. I will constantly, if I have to, remind myself that the GWF gives me information about ONE variable. It's numbers, and that's all it is. It's not moralistic.

I have to admit, part of my brain just loves the idea of a new techy toy--and one about the body! SWEET! The scientist part of me is thrilled at getting new data and having a potential solution to a problem with a missing variable. I'm also being very careful and very watchful, and will guard my sanity jealously. I've tried very hard to set this up so that my stability and all the growth I've had in the last few months with IE will not be lost.

Wish me luck!

Sidhe, I wish you luck with it! I love gadgets like that, that feed you data and numbers, so I'd be tempted to fiddle with it all the time.

I'm still going back and forth with myself. Drives me nuts. I went out to shovel snow yesterday, and couldn't even button my coat. I looked like an idiot with my coat flapping open, but I REFUSE to buy an even bigger size because, to me, that just cements it in my mind that I'm going to be this big forever.

Every January first, for the last thirty-something years, I've started the day weighing and taking measurements, because "this is going to be the year I lose weight", and I want to be sure to record every detail of my "before". Of course at the end of every one of those years, I've either stayed the same, or gained, so I was wondering today what it would be like to get up on New Year's morning and NOT weigh and measure--but then I decided that it would drive me nuts. I just have to know my numbers. Don't we play the silliest games with ourselves?

Truffle:

Don't weight yourself and go buy a new coat =) It's cold outside and you don't deserve to be freezing. Believe me, I live in VT, I know how cold it can get. And then, if you lose some weight, go back to this coat and then buy a new one if necessary.

I wish us all a great start for the new year, without numbers and with plenty of fun and joy =)

Hi, ALO22. I actually have another coat and a jacket I can wear. It's just that that coat is my heavy duty snow shoveling coat, and I couldn't get it buttoned. Maybe I'll be able to by the end of 2010.

PS You're up in the ski area--the people there should be overjoyed with the blizzard we're supposed to get this weekend, huh? I'm going to stay in, putter around, and hope that the power stays on.