Hello! I'm an IE'er too. I've read the book 4 times and taken 2 classes about the book.

I have Insulin Resistance and to keep my endocrinologist happy, I count calories on and off during the month. For the most part though, I IE. I love it. IE is so freeing. I shed so many diet mentality thoughts and ideas and have such a happier/freer outlook on food.

Today when we went out to eat DH and I could have shared a meal, but we didn't realize it. It wasn't a restaurant we will frequent. I know I started to try to eat all the meat. It was chicken tenders and we usually only eat 2 or 2 1/2 a each and there were 5 in a serving. After eating a 3rd one we both said that we just couldn't eat any more. He went up and asked for a bag or something to put the extra tenders in. I mean I can't eat as much as I used to. I was starting to feel really bad. We went to Home Depot and walked it off and I got over it pretty quick. But IE has helped me to see that I don't have to eat it all. I'm sorry to say we threw the fries away, because we don't like them warmed up. It wasn't the type of place you would usually get a bag to take it home, but I'm not going to force down food any more.

Hi Cassieroll, I look forward to the time I will be totally free of the diet mentality. I have been dieting for 44 years so it is difficult, but I am slowly making progress. Are you new here? I haven't been here for very long just a few months myself. Sounds like you have some real IE experience and I could learn some things from you.

Looks like you are making some real progress, Patty and Shay. Good for you! I've kind of been following that program on the website I posted. You see, because of prednisone, I have so much trouble with hunger, even in the middle of the night. This new way of eating has helped me with that. I'm still eating all kinds of food, just limiting the time I eat. So far so good. I'll keep you posted.

patty, that is the most liberating part for me. I had to undo 30+ years of diet mentality that I learned from my mother and then all the junk I learned as a young adult. It is so freeing.

I don't diet. Period. I eat what I want. My family (me, hubby and kids) eats a pretty health diet.. we eat tons of fruit/veggies and whole grains. We don't buy much of anything processed and make a lot of stuff from scratch. We don't buy anything fat/low fat. I've only ever eaten dark chocolate because I think the other stuff feels waxy. The IE thing for me just made so much sense. My problem has always been with portion control and over-eating so it was pretty easy once that all clicked in my brain.

I eat rich foods but just enough to satisfy me. Sure I still struggle and overdo sometimes but I tell you what, that full feeling... I hate it. HATE.IT. I think long and hard before I put that fork in my mouth if I'm passed satisfied. I haven't been "over" stuffed in years. You know that sick to your stomach stuffed feeling? That one. I've been past satisfied and well on my way to full but not stuffed. A heavy stomach just makes me feel icky.

The other really liberating thing that really stands out in my mind is the ability for me to leave crappy foods in the break room at work alone. Before IE I would shove, SHOVE that crap in my mouth because it was there. When I slowed way down and actually tasted the food.. 90% of it I don't care for. I just leave it and don't give it a second thought. Amazing for me.

I'm newly registered here but I lurked many years ago when I first started IE and didn't really find anybody else. I recently came back and registered again because of my Insulin Resistance. I also count calories to make my endocrinologist happy so I spend some time in that forum too. This morning I thought I'd venture into other areas of 3FC and was happily surprised to see this thread today.

I want to clarify my counting calories and being on IE for those who are wondering how that's possible. LOL A couple of times a month for a few days a week I will track what I'm eating at Fitday for my endo dr . I don't ever alter what I'm eating on those days, I just simply write it down for her. Once a month I send her a report/email.

This is sort of rambling and all over place so I hope you can follow it. LOL I'm cooking dinner between typing this out.

Cassieroll!

Pattygirl--Great job on stopping eating. You're right fries never taste good warmed up. Another thing about letting go of the rigidity of diets--I realized I've stopped measuring stuff also because of IE.

Chapter 4--Awakening the Intuitive Eater: Stages
I'm in Stage 3: Crystallization--Kinda the hits and misses I talked about before but almost there. Today I could feel that my mouth wanted food but my stomach did not. I think I've always been able to recognize the difference between physical and emotional hunger but just ignored it. I've always recognized satisfied vs overstuffed signals but ignored those also. Although I haven't adjusted my ticker up when I first started this process I was 235. I wonder where I will be when I weigh in on Saturday. I'm tempted not to weigh because I'm just getting the hang of this. But I will weigh in. My next weigh in will be April 1st. I think I like the monthly weigh ins. I do think at some point I will weigh in every other month or quarterly but I'm not there yet. I am still tied a little bit to the number.

Hi, so happy everyone is doing so good. now what is the title of this book and author? i am going to check library for it. thanks. LaDean

LaDean--It is "Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works" by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche.

Chapter 5--Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality
The things that resonated with me were
Eating at certain times of the day-- I was eating every two hours and I've gotten away from that. I am only eating when hungry.
SCALE AS A FALSE IDOL--See how I bolded and capitalized this one? I think we all fall into this trap. I am trying to wean myself off the scale but it is hard. I do remember one time when I threw one scale away and took my time finding a decent one when I finally did weigh about 3-4 weeks later I had lost 8lbs. This will be a work in progress. I've talked about this with posters in the Chicks in Control forum. Some of my worst binges have followed a weigh in.

Still working on feeling my fullness. I feel it. I just need to honor that I am full. Like right now for lunch I had a Lean Cuisine panini and I'm satisfied and I'm thinking, really? Don't I need to eat more? No, only if I am hungry and currently I am not. It's hard to trust yourself sometimes.

I just received a copy of Diets Still Don't Work and I'll let you know how I like it. It might take me awhile because I have a lot of things I am reading right now.

Hi everyone! The book is really good. I'm about a third through it and he gives you a lot to think about including 12 reasons for overeating such as boredom, to please others and to avoid doing something. I could identify with all 12. Thin people eat when they are hungry, eat what the want, enjoy it and stop when they aren't hungry. There is a lot more to the book but that's a summary so far. I got mine from Amazon for $.01 plus $3.99 shipping.

I am still reading my IE book. I read 3 chapters today and now I'm reading Principle 10 on nutrition. One of the things I really learned I need to deal with is Respecting my body. Another thing is that I'm not sure my goal weight should be what I've always thought it should be. I had set my goal at 120 lbs, but maybe I should set it at 150 lbs. I've been told by many people that I would look good at that weight and I think I will reset it at 150 and decide what to do after I reach that. I learned a lot about nutrition and dieting theories I didn't know. So I see I have to re-learn some things.

Carol - Your new book sounds really good. I'm thinking about ordering it in a few days.

Shay - Giving up the scale is a hard one for me too. I could probably be accused of being addicted to it and maybe even becoming addicted to my measuring tape since I haven't lost any weight in the last few weeks, but did lose inches. It is so interesting to see all the ways that "Diet Mind" works. I still constantly have to fight the "diet thinking" mentality. What a challenge.

Chapter 6--Principle 2: Honor your Hunger
A bit technical. It took me a bit to get through this chapter because of the technical stuff. Made it a little boring. One thing I identified with is trying to trick your biological hunger can get you in trouble. Instead of eating what I want I try to substitute it with something else. Mistake. I end up eating everything in sight because I'm not satisfied with the substitutes.

I still have a problem with that some time myself. In fact, I was faced with that just last night and realized that I needed to just go ahead and eat what I was really hungry for and I was satisfied.

Maybe this is starting to work for me. I wasn't as hungry today as I usually am. I wrote down their Pyramid suggestion of what to eat each day/week. I didn't really worry about eating all of it. I ate only what I wanted to eat, eating only as much as I wanted and even left things on my plate when I felt satisfied. That is a real accomplishment.

Hey everyone. I'm new to this thread but not new to 3FC. I've been all over the place in the past year especially (after the birth of my second baby). I tried to follow a plan I had followed several years ago successfully (but I was single and had more time and flexibility then), then a quasi-SlimFast diet, then Bob Greene's newest program, then Weight Watchers. I joined Weight Watchers because I felt I needed accountability. In fact, that was the only reason I joined, because I could have led all the meetings myself. I KNOW what to do, I just couldn't make myself do it alone. I was doing great! I even got down to my 10% goal weight, then a lot of things happened to make it hard for me to stay on plan. There was an ice storm, we lost power for a week. We moved. etc. etc. Once things calmed down for me I thought okay! I can do this now. But...not so much.

So here I am. I just canceled my WW subscription. I am only losing money right now, and no weight. And I've come to the realization that I just don't want to count anymore. I don't want to count calories or points. I know that I lose weight when I'm feeling hungry a lot. I lose weight when I don't overeat most of the time. I lose weight when I exercise. I just don't have time for fussiness.

This is a completely new concept for me as I'm kind of an obsessive person. I'll probably look things up in my various diet books for motivation and recipes, but I'm not following a plan anymore. So, can I join you? I see that this is actually based on a book, and I'm sick of reading books about how to lose weight. Is that okay?

Amy888 to this group. One nice thing about IE is that you learn to listen to your own body and you have no diet rules to follow. Although I did finally by an IE book, I went to the beginning of this thread and learned a lot. I just got tired of buying diet books... always said if I didn't have it it was because I hadn't heard of it yet. So go at your own pace. I would suggest you read and learn what you can from the thread and then decide about purchasing a book. The one Carol is reading is not expensive and you might decide to read it. Your choice.