I used to believe I couldn't meditate. Then I took a course in vedic meditation. It's actually not difficult at all. One of the best things I ever did.

Tried the keto diet again..........one day............will I ever learn.

I googled vedic medtiation. It looks really cool but also like you have to do the courses.

Oh dear, is that a super low carb diet? I think I tried one of those once, it made me feel so, so terrible. I really feel much better when I eat a good number of carbs. I don't care how many diet books say we don't really need them.

You do, it's a 4-day course and I don't know who offers this in your area but here in NYC it's a "pay what you can" with a $500 minimum. It was intense, enjoyable, and money well spent in my opinion. Learning how to meditate has helped me so so much.

This morning I couldn't get statisfied. Must have been that keto diet. Ha

Intuitive eating is so much easier when I'm not super hungry to start with. It's like trying to brake at the bottom of a hill versus braking at a stop sign. This seems to go against the principles of "eat when you're hungry," "hunger is a feeling, not a crisis" and "eat only when you can sit down and enjoy your food in a relaxed way." How many times a day to you all eat (snacks and meals)? Do you find it harder to stop when you're at, say, a "7" instead of an 8 on the fullness scale if you eat less frequently?

I'm not sure I agree with this. Hunger is not a feeling, at least not an emotional feeling. It is a physical sensation for sure and for some of us it can have emotional implications which is why we try to focus on separating our emotions from the physical sensation. The word feeling somewhere in the middle which might be why it makes me so uncomfortable.

How often do we snack? If intuitive eating was a diet and looked the same for all of us then this would be an easy and relevant thing to answer. But it's not. I have the capability of snacking all day whether I am hungry or not. But I eat meals that bring me to an 8 and that keeps me from needing snacks. When I eat to a 7 in usually reaching for a snack. That's when I overeat and it throws off my whole day in some way.

Snacks are not the enemy. I just don't like them. I don't like having to think about food every couple of hours. I like being free of it for longer periods of time.

I agree Palestrina. I try to eat 3 meals a day. If I get too hungry, I can't get satisfied.

Thats awesome that it was so helpful! I will have to look around and see what I can find in my area.


Hmmm... I see what you are saying, and I think there is a fine balance there. If I wait until I am RAVENOUS then yes its hard to stop eating , I do feel like hunger is a crisis when I wait that long.

However, I have to be a good amount of hungry because then I can tell when my body feedback says it is no longer hungry and I know I can stop. The balance is being hungry enough to be able to receive the feedback, but not so hungry I feel deprived and shaky and MUST EAT.

I tend to eat at least 4 times a day, lately 5. I don't like my stomach feeling super full and I find I prefer eating smaller meals and snacks more often. Therefore, I would say I eat to about a 5 or a 6. I have noticed for me, when my stomach feels really full, I am more likely to keep eating, I have no idea why. Also with my work schedule at least 3 days a week, I have about 6.5 7 hours between lunch and dinner so I always snack in there somewhere. For a while I was not eating breakfast at all, but lately I have been waking up hungry in the morning ( which is weird for me) so I have been eating breakfast. There really isn't a set pattern with intuitive eating I don't think, its just all about listening to your body. ( At least in my experience)

Everyone's journey is different.

Palestrina, I totally agree with you that (real) hunger is a physiologic response. The "hunger is a feeling, not a crisis" phrase comes from Judy Beck's "Diet Solution," (another non-dieting approach to losing/keeping off weight that focuses on behavioral changes) and refers to the idea that true physiologic hunger typically comes on gently, grows somewhat slowly over time, and doesn't demand instant satisfaction the way cravings do; you can push hunger pangs away from consciousness if you need to focus on other priorities.

I'm struggling with the fact that I get physiologically hungry between lunch and dinner. If I could eat the way it 'feels right" to me, I would eat 4 times a day, about every 4 hours (e.g. 8, 12, 4, and 8). But neither by job nor my family allow for that approach, so I end up either famished by dinnertime (~6:30) and have the can't-stop-eating problem, or I eat a mini-meal around 4 but have to do it in a super-hurried way, usually while doing something else too, and that amount of food means I don't eat as much for dinner, which means that then I get hungry again around 9-10pm (which I then try to ignore, with varying degrees of success). Any ideas?

I'm familiar with the Beck Diet Solution, I tried it years ago and learned a lot. I was using it for controlling my weight though, thus relegating it as a diet book in my mind.

I have that very same problem between lunch and dinner, or at least I used to. Many people experience the afternoon slump. You can try various things to offput this. First you can try making lunchtime a bit later, and eating more substantially. Or you can try keeping snacks handy, my personal faves are nuts, crackers, cheese, peanut butter, salami, and hummus, and then have your dinner a little later. But I do prefer the earlier choice of pushing lunch a little later and eating more substantially. Usually because snacking goes a little too far for me and ends up being a meal - if this happens I turn my dinner into a snack if I'm even hungry for dinner at all.

Another wonderful thing I've managed to figure out is that sometimes my afternoon slump is not really about hunger, but rather a time that I need for recoop. I find that a warm cup of spiced tea is just what I need to give me that sense of taking care of myself.

Hi, everyone...I haven't read this thread for awhile. I lost my husband to a heart attack six months ago, and life has sure changed.

I lost ten pounds the first week after he died, and altogether now have lost about 40. At my highest, I was wearing a tight 26. I can now get into my size 24 jeans, and should be able to wear them comfortably soon.

My husband and I both fought our weight all through our marriage, and tried constantly to lose, but never had much success.

I figured that since I've now made some progress, if I dieted again, I'd lose even more, faster, so I've tried a few times in the last few months to do low carb, or to log at My Fitness Pal, and every time all it did was throw me back into diet mentality so bad that I started eating everything in sight, which I haven't really been doing since my husband died. Besides that, it's too hard to grieve, try to put my life back together, and diet at the same time.

For many, many years, my weight has been a major focus of my life, but after losing my husband, it's gone way down to the bottom of the list of priorities. Do I like it that I've gotten a little bit smaller? Yes! I feel better, and I'm able to do a lot more things, which, now that I'm alone to take care of everything around here, is extremely important.

It was easy not to eat the first two or three months after my husband died, but now loneliness and boredom make it easy for emotional eating habits to kick back in, so I try to be aware of that.

My weight loss is very slow, not even a pound a week now, but once you've made a start, the totals do keep adding up. I'd like to continue to get stronger, more flexible, and keep building my endurance, but I don't plan to diet again. I don't need the hassle.

Wonderful to see you again, Becky. Sorry for your loss. Can you believe I still pray for you every night? So glad your back.

Alas, this thread exceeds the magic limit of 500 posts.

Would some kind soul start the new thread?