Welcome Patty. I am 58 and have lost 20lb with IE with 40lb to go. Maybe if I wouldn't try to diet every once in awhile I'd be further along. But the dieting world has a strong pull. Your post could have been mine. We like long posts here.

Thanks Carol for the warm welcome and sharing. It has been so nice today. I ordered the book to learn more about this way of eating and hope I can learn to get rid of diet thinking. I printed out the info that was on the IE website. I started out with a Slim-Fast this morning for breakfast before I found the email from a friend telling me about IE. I ate dinner around 2 pm because DH likes to eat somewhere around 2 or 3. I finished off a diet dessert I had made a few days ago. You know what was interesting? We went to the store to get DH his favorite candy he keeps around. He is thin (normal weight) and I usually like to pick up a little some thing too, but now that I am free to eat it I found that I didn't want any candy. Usually I like to buy Christmas candy and I looked but I didn't want it. It just didn't look good to me. Also checked calories on something I wanted in comparison to the diet and found that the real thing had 10 calories less than the diet. Go figure.

Do you eat breakfast? My Daddy used to say he could go all day without eating, but once he ate something he had a hard time stopping. DH has said to me many times "all you think about is food". It is true. When you diet all you think about is what you can or cannot eat or what you have to eat. I think this is going to be just what I've been looking for and fun. I want to lose the weight, but I don't want to have to think about food ALL THE TIME.

Please feel free to share with me anything you think will help. Looking forward to getting to know you and others here.

This happened to me as well, I like to snack in the evenings before dinner (we eat VERY late) and I got a bowl of those olestra fat free chips (which leave a vaseline like film in your mouth) but they are ok, I ate a few and poured the rest in the bag. It's that whole, "If you can't have it you really want it" thing. Now that I can have snacks I"m not as interested...

I find myself realizing after a few bites i don't even want this. Then if i sit and think of what i do want i eat some and then feel more satisfied i don't keep looking.

Welcome Patty!
I think it is so silly when diet plans "make" people eat more than they want to!
Also, one of the reasons most diet plans don't work for me is that I am kind of quirky, I think we all are in different ways - and any plan that makes assumptions or takes an average of what works for most, isn't going to work optimally for any individual.
For example, I don't like to snack. Some people do. But a diet that tells me I have to eat a cracker or something else I don't even like, at 2 pm is not making it for me. Also, I need to eat in the morning, but not traditional breakfast foods. Any diet that instructs me to have a poached egg and toast is not making it for me. Some people prefer not to eat in the morning at all. I don't think they should "have" to.
There is the often repeated warning that if you don't eat enough early in the day that you will go bonkers and overeat later. For some people, yes, that is true, but it doesn't apply to me.
I like the concept of IE because it lets people be themselves, and not fall into some universal prescription of dietary advice.
jo

Yesterday I made some chocolate muffins and forgot to put in the oil. After tasting one I threw the rest away, then made a new batch. In the old days I would have found a way to eat the bad muffins but not now. I almost do better when I go by the feel of my clothes rather than relying on a scale. Really the only way I've ever lost a great deal of weight is when I've been seriously ill. Every diet I ever went on, even a diet center where you weighed every week, I only lost about 15lb. When I found out about IE I thought....this makes sense.

I am so confused and at sea. I know that I need to lose weight. I was 291 pounds when I stepped on the scale this week. This scares me so much. I know why I am overweight. Because I overeat and am very inactive. I have looked into IE, but all the books say that you may gain weight while you are letting go of the "diet mentality" and just the thought of topping 300 is enough to send me into a panic.

I have always been "overweight", I was 130 pounds in the sixth grade. But I was never "fat" until I topped 200 pounds. I carry weight very well and people always guess that I am 30-40 pounds lighter than I actually am. So, I know that I probably shouldn't judge myself my the scale and the BMI charts, but its hard not to.

Just this week, I spent over $200 on new diet products, the 6 Week Body Makeover and then when I felt that it was too restrictive I spent money signing up for a Medical Weight Loss Clinic and buying all of their nutrients, which I am supposed to start on Monday.

Before I head out shopping and buy all of the "diet" food on the lists they gave me, I was searching here to see if anyone had done this type of plan, had any advice or some recipes. Instead, this thread popped up and I decided to take a look.

I feel drawn to IE, like it is the "right" thing to do...but the work is hard and not structured the way that diets are, so I feel like I am not anchored when I try to embrace it.

This whole thing is so frustrating!

Hi Peachinabrownbag - welcome!
I know what you mean, IE is not structured. Some people need structure, I am too much of a rebel for that
But those nutrients you bought are probably really good!
I like all your determination and all your mini-goals!
If I were to go on a specific structured plan, I know I'd still tweak it a little bit, like not eating something I hated or NOT eating when I had no desire to.

Wishing you success in all your goals and I hope to get to know you here!
jo

hi everyone!

i like the intuitive eating plan better. i've tried counting calories and ww, but i go off of it and feel like i spend too much time thinking about food and worrying about what to eat.

lately due to some stress and depression, i've been eating pretty mindlessly for the past 3 months and not exercising. it's time to get back to the basics for me.

i'd much rather eat when i'm hungry and stop when i'm comfortable. going on a diet for me puts such a focus on food. i want to just live my life and make healthier choices!

Hello all,
I've been reading all the postings, just enjoying the support.
Happily I've been maintaining lately, just trying to eat when I'm hungry. We've been getting our house all fixed up to sell, and been up at 7am and to bed at 1 or 2 am... sometimes I get ravenous at 11 pm, and used to I would have denied myself and then probably gorged later. But I just find a healthy snack (just had an apple and some popcorn) and relieve the hunger. I haven't lost, but haven't gained, either.
The hardest thing about this is when we meet with family to eat out and I'm not hungry at all... any tips from anyone here on when that happens? I think that's the reason I've been maintaining and not losing. Also I haven't had time to exercise--working my tush off fixing up the house!
Blessings!

Fixing up a house is a great way to lose weight. My DD has lost about 10lb and she's not overweight. As for eating out with friends maybe something small like a cup of soup or tea would be ok. Just tell them you're not hungry. It gets easier as time goes on.

Carol - thanks so very much for the reference on another post about mindfuleating.org. It has been really helpful. I always liked WW core plan idea of eating if you were hungry and stopping when I was finished. I wanted to use it with the pts system, but met lots of opposition on their website especially from those counting pts. This morning I remembered that core plan says to check your hunger before you eat on a scale of 0 to 10. Also don't remember if it was WW who said use he 5 minute theory where you think you are hungry or want something and instead of eating it right away, you wait 5 minutes. If you still want it in 5 minutes, then you probably are hungry and should go ahead and eat it.


peachinabrownbag - Welcome here. I too am new here. Just learned of IE a few days ago. I was afraid of eating like this and gaining too. Then I remembered reading some where on a diet I went on once that said that for a few days you might eat more, but that you would finally slow down and eat less. I think that as long as you don't use it as an excuse to binge, I think you could do it. I know I had to ask myself why I wanted to do IE. I want to learn how to eat right and feel like I'm in control. I am tired of going out to eat or going to peoples homes and trying to stay OP with a diet that doesn't allow me to enjoy eating out or eating with friends.

I met a woman one time who told us at a diet group I was in that she hated to burst our bubble, but that she ate whatever she wanted. She not only lost weight but maintained it this way. We thought she was absolutely nuts. She said "If I want a banana split, I have a banana split". She said, "I just don't eat anything else with it". She told us that some time that was all she ate that day. Now after learning about IE and reading about no-diet sites what she said makes sense. I have done this many times when we travel and the strange this is that I didn't gain weight. May I suggest that you look at website mindfuleating.org that Carol guided us to on this thread. I think it will help you decide what to do. It has really been a BIG help to me. It has worked for others so it can work for us.

Jo - I too have become a rebel in my eating. I found myself wanting the very foods a structured diet says I can't have. IE automatically takes care of that problem. I am a snacker especially at night (retired and free to stay up late and get up late). IE gives me the freedom to eat little snacks when I'm hungry even in the evening. It just works for me all the way around.

Thanks for the welcomes. I look forward to getting to know all of you. Hope we all wil have a great IE day.

Patty

mom2mollie - First let me say what a precious baby. Is that Mollie?
I agree with Carol. You could have a cup of soup or tea if you want it. Also want to elaborate on why I think you will find it easier if you say you are not hungry. I know from my own experience with diets that when you say things like "I can't have that" or "I'm on a diet" etc people have a tendency to try to talk you into eating some thing any way... especially things you don't want to eat for some reason. I don't know why people do it, but I absolutely hate it when they say "Oh come on... 1 bite won't hurt you". No one bite won't hurt us especially now that we are do IE, however, we are learning not to eat when we aren't hungry we don't need to eat if we truly don't want to. And I believe we should feel like we have the right to make that decision. Just my thoughts on the subject. Hope my thoughts help.

Patty

Hello again, Intuitive Eaters! And a big welcome to all the new posters!

CherryAutumn (What a pretty name, btw), you DO have control. The ironic thing about diets is that they want you to GIVE UP control by following some external plan that is someone else's idea of what a person should eat to lose weight, instead of listening to what your own body is telling you.

When I hit bottom I was somewhere around 300 pounds (a little heavier than the "before" picture I'm posting). I had that same feeling that I couldn't stop myself from gaining, and the idea of losing a substantial amount of weight seemed impossible. So I stopped focusing on the goal and focused on the process instead. Common sense told me that if I ate only half as much as what I was currently eating and started exercising regularly, I should lose weight, or at least stop gaining. And if not, then I still wouldn't be any worse off than before. I also started focusing on the quality of what I was eating, rather than the quantity. I learned to cook the kind of food you find in 5-star restaurants (I can't afford to go out for that kind of food, LOL) and found that I could be satisfied with a very small amount of really good food, whereas I could eat 5 Lean Cuisines and still feel like I was missing something. I worked on becoming a food snob, telling myself that I deserved only the best, and that my body wasn't meant to be a garbage disposal. After dragging myself to the gym half a dozen times to work out, I found that it really was starting to make me feel better and that I liked it.

It takes control to deprive yourself. It doesn't take control to do something nice for yourself. That change in attitude made all the difference for me.

Here are some before/current pics. They were taken about 1 year apart.

Sternfan. Lets us know how you are doing with IE. Fiddler, I really like your new picture. Looks like IE is still working for you. I enjoy reading your posts, Patty, and hope you keep sharing. That's what keeps us all going.