Any body there?

Just about to begin my IE journey, just found this website for it. Made a lot of progress tracking macros this year and loving my workouts. Seems daunting to ditch weighing out my food but it would give me a lot of freedom and if it doesn't work out I can go back to tracking.

Angie. I've been doing this a long time and I just can't go back to dieting.

Thank you. It seems like the ideal way to eat. Worried that I will lose all my progress from tracking. So far I have just been eating the same foods that I normally do but just eyeballing the portion sizes rather than measuring.

Good job.

Yes I know what you mean. I still haven't had a lot of success with eating mindfully. I find it very interesting how much resistance I have to it. I have a lot of resistance to meditation as well so I suspect that they are related. Good luck with your challenge! How is it going so far?

Hi Angie! Welcome! Have you read any books on IE? We have an IE resource thread around here somewhere if you would like me to find it and link it for you.

Hi to all.

There's an IE thread! I'm so happy to have found it. I have been trying to do IE for a bit over a month now... I have gained a few pounds... I tell myself it's okay. I am still in the "I can eat whatever I want!" mode, and still working on the "Am I full, or am I eating because of X".

Since IE doesn't focus on weight loss at all... I'm curious... Has anyone found themselves smaller by doing IE?

No. But I feel more beautiful, more confident, and there is a weight that has been lifted from my shoulders.

Wish that was the case for me, Palestrina.

Feeling beautiful is not something that comes easy. It is a skill, and it needs to be practiced constantly. Nobody just wakes up and feels beautiful by chance. It takes a lot of work.

Yes, I did reach my "goal" weight and size and I maintain it with IE. I am still working on the beautiful confidence feeling Palestrina is talking about though. I believe those feelings are completely independent from weight and I definitely agree that it takes work.

It was/is a very long journey for me, one step forward two steps back sort of thing and I am still working on it. I am happy to say though, that I almost never wonder anymore if I am hungry, and when I am not hungry I genuinely do not want to eat, and I can tell I am full before I am stuffed. It still isn't completely unconscious for me, and I have to maintain a certain level of awareness but it is much much easier than it was in the beginning.

Ok don't be disappointed in me. I've enrolled in an outpatient program at a very well known ED clinic here in NYC. I've really been struggling lately. Not because of my body image or my weight. But because my ongoing chronic illness (GERD) has been triggering my dysfunctional eating. I have to constantly battle food, food that is not necessarily unhealthy but it still triggers my symptoms. I have to constantly think about what I can or cannot eat and it's keeping me from my sanity. The stress of all this has resulted in pretty severe anxiety attacks, and my most recent anxiety attack landed me in the ER thinking I was having a heart attack. My anxiety has never been so physically tangible before. I have been urged by various doctors to seek therapy but I was having a hard time finding any kind of therapist that would treat someone with an eating disorder. So now I'm in ED therapy based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The program is rigorous, I have to constantly read the book, log my food, and they weigh me at every appointment. I do have mixed feelings about this but it's been getting to the point where I'm getting very sick. I'm not giving up on IE though, and in fact there are many corelations between IE and CBT as far as I can tell. I truly believe there is no way to be a normal eater without IE so I'm hoping this program won't veer me too far from it.

Palestrina, I am not disappointed in you at all. That sounds serious! I am glad you are getting help. I have read a book that seems to use the CBT method with IE, I am trying to remember what it is called, but I believe you can use both methods at the same time. What book are they having you read? I hope your anxiety attacks become much less. Please keep us updated.

It's called Overcoming Binge Eating