We surprised my dh for his 60th birthday with all 10 kids and families coming home. Was he surprised! We've been planning it for a long time. We had a family picture taken yesterday for the first time in 7 years when we were ALL together...........all 28 of us.

Oh wow, I can't even imagine. Not even before I discovered whole foods.

Oh, by the way, with all the excitement, eating is relatively unimportant!

That's awesome Carol! What a wonderful "present" for your hubby (and yourself)! Enjoy your family!

Hi, I hope it's ok if I jump in here. Before I started calories counting I was doing intuitive eating - I didn't lose any weight but I was healthy and binge free. Now I've lost weight, but calorie counting has me food obsessed, slightly crazed and bingeing like a maniac. So I'm giving the numbers game up and its back to me and regaining a healthy food relationship. I recognize a few of you...so hi

Hey, Carol3639, that's great! I always wanted to have a big family, the kind that sat down together on Sunday's for dinner. Didn't growing up, and don't now. He must have been thrilled.
Hi, Lauren. Welcome. Off to rehearsal, then, to class.
Amie

Hi Spoz, great to have you here! I agree that counting calories can be obsessive. Even tho I'm doing IE now (I was counting too) I'm still having trouble with binging (just haven't been in the binge thread for a week or so). A few posts back I said I was experimenting with eating all my fav foods to see if I can get the binging in check. I figure if I don't feel like I'm doing something bad if I eat stuff I love then maybe the urge to binge will subside. I hope so anyhow. Hope you have success with IE too! and good luck!

From the Beyond Chocolate newsletter.

Act your age?? How to tune in like a child!

Whose relationship with food do you admire? Your Mum's? Your best friend's? Likely candidates! But what about your child's or your three year old niece's? As adults we tend to think that children have a lot to learn but they may in fact be among the most advanced intuitive eaters we know, with tuning in coming as naturally as breathing!

How often do you remember being told 'Don't eat that now, you'll spoil your appetite!'? Young children eat when they are hungry, responding to their own natural pattern of hunger rather than obsessively watching the clock to tell them when it's time for the next meal!

In a child's thought bubble, food isn't good food, bad food, healthy food or unhealthy food! The result? They eat exactly what they are hungry for - even if it does lead to some odd combinations as forum members have found! Lesley fondly remembers that her daughter's two favourite snack foods were 'pickled gherkins and raw button mushrooms' while Amy is still amused by the story of her two year old daughter who, when given 50p for a treat, insisted on spending it on mushrooms and courgettes!

Before adults make children into members of the 'clean plate club', children self regulate and stop when they are satisfied. Ros, a workshop attendee, has noticed that her children 'always stop when they have had enough, even if it means leaving just one small mouthful that an adult might pop in!'

From a baby slurping happily away at its milk to a child giggling as she licks the contents of the cooking bowl, children enjoy food! Diets and binges are a world away and food doesn't yet mean calories, guilt, syns or points!

Moving means grimacing faces, too-tight lycra and shouting instructors? Right? Wrong! Turning somersaults in the pool, zooming around like a racing car, splashing up and down in puddles - children move because it feels good!

Children truly own their bodies! From that first fascination with their fingers and toes, they can happily poke and prod themselves with interest and acceptance for hours on end, while shouts of 'Look at me!' and 'I can do this!' show how they marvel at what their bodies can do, rather than focusing on what they can't!

Have you seen a baby spit out a mouthful it doesn't like? Watched a toddler eat all their favourite parts of a meal first? Listened as a child questions, 'Mummy, why can't I have my cake first and then my pasta?' As small as they might be, children are their own mini gurus, left to following their instincts, they don't need rules or diet plans.

So what happens to change all that? As children grow, they are bombarded each day with rules and messages from all angles -


Parents 'Clean your plate, there are starving children in the world!'


Friends 'Oh gosh, size 12?? I'm only a 10!'


Magazines 'Lose a stone for Summer!'


- and gradually that easy, healthy relationship with food and their bodies begins to break down.

But all is not lost! Simple steps can be taken right now:

· Ignore the clock for a day - eat when and what your body tells you to, you don't have to stick to prescribed times and foods.

· Break a food rule you learnt as a child - is someone really going to send you to bed if you don't eat the last few pieces of cabbage?

· Move your body in a way that fills you with childish delight!

· Eat like a child - rediscover the joy of scraping the jam and cream from a Jammy Dodger, eat the egg yolk but not the white or munch on the sandwich but leave the crusts!

Most of all, have fun!

What an excellent post Carol! I totally agree with everything said here! This is exactly what I'm striving for too. Next time I go grocery shopping I am going to purchase all my favorites and just enjoy them! It will take much effort to forget the scale (tho I am getting sick of it) and even more effort to forget the clock, but wouldn't that be delightful ... just do what God programmed us to do and not worry about it!

Haha I love this I remember as a child I was SWEDE mad! Now I never think if snacking on it!

Thanks Blue.. I figured that calorie counting has helped me figure out alot nutritionally about foods, but the numbers I just cant stick with for life. And actually I never binged until I started trying to lose weight! at the mo I'm having cognitive behavioral therapy weekly and have started and overcoming binge eating manual alongside that. So I'm feeling really positive. Do you find since starting IE your bingeing has improved at all?

Actually I have two answers for that. Last year I did a form of IE and don't remember having any issues with binging while following it. (I developed the binging habit about mid way thru 2006 so I had been doing it for a while before starting the program). This time around I am struggling with the binge eating. I'm thinking that the difference is that last year I was following a spiritual program with daily lessons and questions to respond to along with the help of a mentor, this time I am not following that program.

Haha...glad I made your morning Julie...it really is trippy that IE kind of morphs in Intuitive Living...haha...it mans we really have to examine our motives for not only what we put in our mouth, but what we do...oh man...my motives aren't always so good hahah...

Wow! This sounds like a lot of fun! PLEASE LET US KNOW HOW THIS GOES! I am so excited to hear about it...

Jazzmegirl:
Haha! I too was raised in California and am still here in San Francisco. Moving to the Bay Area has really opened my eyes to all kinds of foods that I NEVER would have tried had I stayed in my humble little town. Now I love persian food, Himalayan food, Korean food, authentic Chinese and Mexican food...hahah...well since you are a food snob you know what I mean..

But still...don't get me wrong...I LOVE ME SOME junk-y fast food. Now those as a result of IE, it has sharpened my tasted buds and made me more discriminating of what I eat...I guess in a way, you are supposed to be "a food snob" according to your own personal taste as an IE eater...

Sure will! Need to find time to get to the grocery store so I can start this thing!