Sugarrox, personally, I have lost 35lb very slowly but am very happy about that even though to get back to young adult weight I would need to lose another 30lb. I am now almost 61 so don't know if that will happen.

Im hoping the IE and exercise will help me lose weight. I know its best to lose weight slowly. Im hoping for 1-2lbs a week. My husband is currently deployed and due back at the begining of the summer and I would like to have lost some lbs before he gets home.

Do yall think its doable? My highest weight was about 215 and Im at 164 as of today. I lost the majority of my weight doing the South Beach Diet. But I just couldnt maintain that life style forever. I felt like I was always back in phase 1 and thats why I lost so much weight.

SugarRox... I don't think IE is a weight loss program. i think, if you follow it and you are overwight, you are bound to lose some weight, but I wouldn't approach it as "I want to lose a few pounds a week" because it's going to be extremelly frustating.

That said, I think IE is the best think that can happen when you have an eating disorder. Before losing lbs, we all need to learn to deal with our emotions without food, and that's the key of IE.

I hope this doesn't sound patronizing. I am just trying to be realistic.

Personally, I don't know if I have lost any weight because I don't weigh myself anymore. I did a few weeks ago and the scale was a bit up, but I've also been working out at least twice a week since November now, and you can really tell the difference in body shape. My husband is loving it too. But again, I am 5' 5'' and an average of 150 lbs (give or take a few up or down) so I'm not gonna shed lbs that easily, even if i'd love to be 15 lbs lighter.

SugarRox, I'd say: do your best, don't beat yourself up too much, and enjoy being with your husband when he comes back

This was a post about how I over ate trail mix w/ dried pineapple and oh God no, maybe I should just diet! (hand to brow for dramatic effect). It was good to get it out but needed to be removed. I do need to find some sort of structure, though, because I would be a liar if I said I'm totally hip to my size and diggin' the extra curvature to my frame. I'll come up with something.
I'm also considering seeing a dietician to see what they have to say. It's tough to read about it because for every way of eating there is an equal but opposite way of eating.
Also wondering if anyone's ever read "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan (sp?). ?

I'm considering intuitive eating. How did you chicks get started with intuitive eating? What resources help you stay the course? Are you happier than using a regular diet plan?

Thanks a million!

Good questions! I have read about IE in the past and thought it was a great concept, but also thought I was one of thowse people who had to diet. The idea of not dieting was foreign.

In early Jan my husband was ill, and in the hospital. I ate and gained 15 stubborn lbs.... but the whole idea of dieting tired me, even thinking about it. I then decided that I don't want to diet. I am 31. I don't want to waste any more of my life worrying about diets. Dieting always made me obsessive about food. Not good.

I am still very new to this. On good days I adore it. On bad days it's tough to stick with. I'll binge and then proclaim that all hope is lost and I must now diet. I'm also understanding that there is still food I will over eat.
Over all I"mhappier but it is tough to let go of hte diet mentality. I love that I can have a fish sandwhich when I want one.
I havent' lost any weight and that is tough for me...

ONe thing that's awesome is that there are no hard and fast rules with IE. It's very much 'what works for you'. the definition is broad. It's a definite process, and for me, forces me to examine my issues beyond food.
Resources? Mostly this board. I read one IE book and want to check out some Geneen Roth stuff...

A few thoughts from Michelle May, MD.

Emotional connections to food are woven into the fabric of our social experience. Notice how often food is at the center of your celebrations: holiday office parties, baking Christmas cookies with grandma, and sharing traditional meals with your family. Eating is a wonderful way to reminisce, nurture, and bond.



Emotional eating is normal, even healthy—unless it is the primary way you cope with or avoid your feelings. During the holidays, emotional eating becomes magnified. Not only is food everywhere, but you may feel more stressed, lonely, exhausted, overwhelmed, or even happier—all common triggers for emotional eating.


How emotional eating leads to overeating...

1.
Food is a quick, convenient, easy way to manage your feelings (for example, stuffing them or calming them down).
2.
When you’re eating for emotional reasons, you’re more likely to reach for sweets, salty snacks, and comfort foods. In other words, why you are eating affects what you eat.
3.
Emotional eating is often mindless, so you barely notice what you are putting in your mouth or how full you’re getting.
4.
You can eat a lot of food when you’re eating for emotional reasons. If hunger doesn’t tell you to start eating, what tells you to stop?
5.
Emotional eating only gives you temporary pleasure or distraction so you have to eat again when the effects fade.
6.
Food alone can’t really make you happy or less stressed so your emotional triggers come back again and again.
7.
Emotional eating can lead to shame and guilt—ironically two of the most powerful emotional triggers for more overeating.

The way to break out of this pattern is to create a self-care buffer zone to decrease emotional triggers. When it happens anyway (and it will), learn to identify and handle head hunger more effectively. When you do, you’ll feel better, for longer.

Preventing Emotional Eating



Practice Self-Care: Give yourself the gift of adequate sleep, healthy meals, regular physical activity, and unscheduled time to decompress. (Read more in Chapter 8: Self-Care Buffer Zone in Eat What You Love.)


Do what you love: What are your favorite holiday activities? Who do you want to spend time with? Which events are the most meaningful to you? Which ones could you do without this year?


Eat What You Love: Deprivation and guilt are powerful emotional triggers that can lead to overeating so choose foods that nourish your body and your soul.



Love What You Eat: Eating can be a satisfying emotional experience. Savor each bite mindfully, staying conscious of how your body feels as you eat.



Recognize Head Hunger: Whenever you feel like eating, first ask yourself, “Am I hungry?” Look for physical signs that you need fuel.


If you're not hungry, FEAST instead!



Focus: What is going on inside of you? Focus on your physical state, your thoughts, and your feelings. Identify any possible triggers for eating such as fatigue, boredom, overwhelm, or nostalgia.


Explore: Complete this statement: I feel _______ because _______. Peel away the layers by asking “why?” and “what else?” Sometimes “I want a cookie” means “I want comfort,” or “I want rest,” “I want to escape from this conversation,” or “I want to experience the joy I remember from my childhood.”


Accept: Criticizing yourself for your thoughts, feelings, and actions will keep you stuck in old patterns. Accept that your emotions, no matter how difficult or trivial they may seem, tell you something about your needs.


Strategize: What could you do to meet your underlying need? (If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got!)



Take Action: The step you take will depend on your specific need; just make sure it small, realistic, and takes you in the general direction of meeting your true needs.



(From Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle.)



Eat Mindfully, Live Vibrantly!

Michelle May, M.D.

Hey all! I've caught up on the last few pages of this thread, and I just wanted to add my two cents. ^_^ I hadn't actually heard the phrase "intuitive eating" until recently, and when I looked it up I realized it's a legitimate way of explaining how I eat.

I have been using IE as a weight loss program, albeit with very vague and time-non-specific goals, and I've never been happier (or thinner). I can't do diets- mentally, it's way too hard on me. With IE, instead of feeling like I'm depriving myself of what I want, I feel like if I don't have something I would like to (like the Cheetos I'm not eating right now), it's because I'm choosing not to, because I'm not hungry and I care about the way it'll make me feel.

I was wondering if any of you have a similar problem to this: when I read posts in other forums where people are talking about calories, or points, or whatever, it can make me really stressed out if I'm not conscious of it. I always have to set aside a minute or two to stop, disengage, and remind myself that what's right for other people isn't necessarily what's right for me.

Hi everyone!

I've been quietly lurking the board for the most part. IE is such a slow learning process that I'm finding I just don't have much to say lately. I've pounded my head over the same stupid things over and over. Mainly, why can't I follow one simple rule, OK, two: 1) eat when hungry and 2) stop when satisfied. Actually the stopping part is much, much easier for me than it was in the beginning (Yay! Progress!) but it is the "eat when hungry" part that still gets me. I'm still eating when I'm not hungry, so I know I've got other issues I'm obviously not dealing with. (Such is life.) So, sorry for not contributing lately, I'm stuck in a groove.

Welcome Paja! It was actually your post that inspired me to post. To answer your question, yes when I start looking around the 3FC board at other forums the "diet pull" is still there. Everyone else seems to be having so much success and I just can't seem to get my act together. I don't look around the board that often for that very reason. I've been tempted (and tried) more than once to incorporate some kind of restricted eating into IE but I know, that I know that I can't! As I watch my scale go up it gets even more tempting. As I run into people I haven't seen in a while (who must be thinking "Wow! She's gotten fatter!") I am tempted. But when I get my head straightened out I realize it would just be a another set back. The times I have tried to restrict I am learning quicker that I can't (More progress!) and therefore I am bouncing back quicker. But yes, sometimes the pull is there and can be quite strong. The lack of any real progress in weight loss is a trigger for the diet thinking, too. So it comes from within as well! We have to be on guard constantly!

Have a great day everyone!

Paja, that's very true. It can suck you in. And Blue Serenity, it's not all success, that's for sure. Lots and lots of struggling on the boards too. I don't wish that on any one, but I think you're casting a selective eye on the boards

True. I suppose what jumps out at me the most is the success of others. Especially when I visit boards that I used to look at a lot or participate in and see others dropping the pounds, knowing I can't go back to the way they are accomplishing it. It's easier to just not go there. KWIM?

I am noticing the same things. I did lose weight much quicker on other diets... although I was also much quicker to throw in the towel after the first few obstacles, too. IE has much more staying power for me. For the first time in my life, I feel great about the foods I eat, both physically and psychologically.

Hi, ladies...Just checking in to see how everyone is doing.

Welcome, Paja. This happens to me all the time, not just with the forums here, but with any diet/weight loss boards, reading health magazines, or getting into weight conversations with my sisters. That pull to "do something" is always there, especially when I'm feeling fatter (more desperate) on some days than I do on other days.

I've found that I can turn anything, even IE, into some kind of a "weight loss plan", if I'm not careful.

What seems to work the best for me, when I do it--and I don't always do it--is to get so involved in life that I'm too busy to sit around doing boredom eating. I find that the less I think about food, or pay attention to what others say I "should" or "should not" eat, the better I do.

If I'd allow myself to keep going without constantly getting sidetracked into attempting to lose weight again, I'd probably have made some lasting progress now, instead of always doing my up-and-down-the-scale the same ol' four or five pounds all the time.

I'm at the point now where it's even a struggle to make a simple grocery list, just because I'm always trying to decide whether to go with low carb foods, low calorie foods, or throw caution to the winds and eat any ol' thing I want.

I really hate the way weight and fat and diets have messed with so many things in my mind.

With spring on the way though, I've decided to start wearing my pedometer again, and I'm going to concentrate on getting more active instead of focusing on what I'm eating.

I don't know what will happen with that, but at least the peace of mind should be greater.

Boy, here's another thing that really tends to make me think about going on another diet.

This link is about how this actress isn't getting dressed by high-end designers. I don't care about any of that stuff--what caught my eye were the very horrible/rude/crude comments made by some of the people following the article.

I'm not as large as this actress, but I need to lose over a hundred pounds. Some of the comments are downright cruel.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...big-hollywood/

After I read that, I thought, what am I doing trying not to diet, when, especially according to the commenters, a diet is exactly what I should be doing...?

Truffle,
That's just really terrible. For me, it's dieting that got me into this mess. I'm a lot happier now that I don't have to worry so much about what I eat. I have not lost a lot of weight, but at least I'm not consumed with guilt. I don't know. I realize the actress does need to lose weight, but forcing her into it just doesn't work. Those people with their comments are just judgmental and sad.