Hello all,

Our little corner of the world has been pretty silent lately. I thought I'd check in to say that I'm still going strong. It feels so good to nourish my body. I have the energy to do the things that are important to me, and I have mental clarity because my body isn't trying to be conservative with my metabolism. It makes so much sense to live this way- a way that isn't harsh and judgmental.

I am glad things are going well for you, Locke. You're right; it definitely has been quiet on this thread lately.

I don't really have much to report - just trying to hang in there. Still fighting the diet demons that wage war in my head.

I have been staying busy with my sweepstakes hobby, and I have also started a new one - adult coloring books. Not sure if others here have gotten the bug, but it's gotten quite popular lately. I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and they had them all over the place - in 5 different sections, including the foyer before you even entered the store! And of course right in the front by the cash registers as well.

I use both markers and colored pencils. I also bought on clearance some postcards at Michaels that are to be colored - this ties in with my sweepstakes hobby as I use a lot of postcards to enter various sweepstakes.

It's lots of fun and very relaxing.

Still here, just don't have much to contribute. I'm eating what I want when I want it and it's working just fine. No weightloss but I don't feel much of anything about it. I just eat what I crave. I'm starting to feel very indifferent to eating.

That is so great Locke. I read a line in intuitive eating and it really resonated with me. It was " My body deserves to be fed." I know that sounds so duh but for me I was like holy cow! It DOES?? I realized my thinking is always that I shouldn't eat/don't deserve to eat. So I have been working on maintaining this thought.

I have seen the coloring books for adults thing. We used to color mandalas when I was in my twenties. I didn't realize it had become a thing.

Thats great Palestrina! Sounds like you are on the right track.

As for me, I felt like I was talking to myself on this thread for a while.

I have had stuff going on, I have been eating from mouth hunger a LOT. I realized I tend to rationalize mouth hunger and try to convince myself I am in fact stomach hungry. Like I can't even look at my desire and realize Im not truly hungry. So, I have been getting better about that. I have been fighting the diet demons as well, especially after a day of lots of mouth hunger eating. It's very tempting to want to count calories or fast the next day. But I don't. I think I might have gained a little weight, Im not sure. My clothes still fit. I have decided I have to enjoy my body just as it is right now even if I never get back down to my pre baby weight. Oh well. I enjoy all the things my body can do and I like making it stronger. I have been riding my bike a lot and enjoying that.

It's been hard to resist the diet demons but I have done reallly well and I am proud of myself. I am getting better at feeding myself what I really want when I want it and actually eating when Im hungry, not putting myself off. I was a little concerned because I had about a week of eating nothing but trail mix constantly. I felt I was always in the pantry grabbing a handful. Then a few days ago I realized I hadn't had trail mix in days and I didn't want any. I just have to work on trusting my body that it will not lead me astray.

Anyway, its great to hear from everyone and how you are all doing!

Do you mind if I ask the author of the book Overcoming overeating? There are a few books by that title and I would like to know the author of the one you are reading. Thank you.

Tam Tam the authors of Overcoming Overeating are Jane R Hirschman and Carol H Munter.

Sorry I've been MIA, just trying to get my mind off of eating. I'm back in town and weighed myself and saw that I didn't lose any weight at all eventhough i was doing really well with IE. I've asked my husband to hide the scale. I'm really considering a diet right now, I'm not feeling good in my own skin much. I can't afford to see my nutritional therapist anymore and I'm feeling that I've gone as far with IE as I can. I have stopped binging but I don't feel like a success story right now. I'm also feeling my age. I remember when I was younger I'd diet for a few days and see a huge loss. Now I've stopped binging, am eating healthy nutritious food, have a good relationship with food but weightloss is a no-go. In order for me to lose weight at my age I am going to have to restrict. And yes, it is important to lose weight. Not only for my health but I've got 10yrs before I start facing menopause and I just know that weightloss then will be even harder. I'll be 40 next year and I want to enjoy this decade, my 30s were a crapshoot. Sorry to be such a downer.

I hear you Palestrina. I'm also going to be 40 next year and I want to be healthy too. I have been feeling discouraged lately too. I haven't weighed myself but I know I have gotten bigger. The problem is, I can't think of a single diet that I could actually do and be successful at. It's frustrating for sure.

Thank you! Will get it for my Nook!

No problem! I hope you get a lot out of it. I have read it at least 6 times and I learn something new every time.

Just the thought of restricting food for weight loss had me eating half a bag of chocolate pieces today. I don't ever do that. So... No. No diets. I did weigh myself and I have gained 6 pounds. Oh well, I am not giving up on IE. I know I still eat when I'm not hungry so there is room for improvement.

I have already read the first Chapter. I am trying to make it a point to stop any negative self talk! It is hard to do. And I do joke about my weight but I want to curb all of that. I am "fasting" from the scale. I do not know when I will be able to give it up entirely, but I have given myself until the end of September not to weigh and then I will try till the end of October and so on and so forth until I no longer have a desire for that "monster"! Have a blessed day.

Just to be clear I'm not giving up on IE and I'm certainly not starting a diet. It's just that I've come to terms with the fact that IE isn't helping me lose weight. I have to find a way to lose weight without falling into the diet trap.

Yes the stopping negative self talk is hard to do! Im glad you are getting something out of the book.

That is good to hear Palestrina, Im glad you are not giving up on IE.

So, today I was sitting there thinking about my life lately and food and I realized that the programming goes deep. In these past two weeks, an old friend committed suicide leaving behind his 3 young children. He was very close to my husband and we have both been having a very rough time dealing. Also, my paranoid schizophrenic (in denial) mother is now homeless because she can't stay anywhere for long because "they" are after her and I had to deal with that coming to a head today. I had to disconnect, lay down boundaries and tell her what I could and could not do to help her. So, all in all an insanely turbulent emotional couple of weeks and what am I thinking about? My body size and how unhappy I am with it. The fact that I gained 5 pounds and how to take it off. In the meantime, I am just emotionally eating all over the place but totally ignoring that.

I think that is what is tricky about emotional eating for me is its not as black and white as oh I feel upset, I want these cookies and darn the torpedos. No, its more like I just am eating a lot more and I don't know why. Even though logically I can see that IM going through a lot. I guess because I was feeling my feelings about my friend, crying a lot, feeling my feelings about my mom, talking to my family I didn't think that I would continue to eat for self care. But, I still have been.

Today I randomly started doodling and drawing and it felt really good. I haven't drawn in years. NOt that I am good at it but I hadn't realized what a valuable emotional outlet it was. Also, for the first time in weeks, I have no desire for dessert. It's pretty weird. So, that is me. As always, hoping relaying my experiences can help someone out there.

Hello everyone. so glad I found this forum. I had read The Weigh Down Diet book back when it first came out but for a number of reasons, I didn't follow it. Recently I re read it and it really seemed to click this time.

The concept seems so basic and logical to me now. I like the term Intuitive Eating. It really sums up the WDD.

Anyway, I started Intuitive Eating this week and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. As someone else mentioned, It's difficult waiting for hunger because it sometimes takes a while. This is so true. Before, I was eating every couple hours. Now I can go several hours before actual hunger happens. For instance, I get up at 6 am every morning and first hunger doesn't hit till 9 or 10! I was always eating by 7am before whether I was hungry or not. I'm diabetic and waiting till hunger hasn't affected my blood sugar. I think it's helping.

Because I'm not eating all the time, my house is much cleaner. lol. Every time I think about eating, I just get up and do something. A cleaner house is one good thing to come out of it so far. It's only been a few days and I already feel "lighter". Prolly haven't lost anything yet but I feel better already.

Hi Ladies! Glad that this thread is still going because I think I'm ready to join in.

I've tried oodles of diets and eating approaches in the past and each one has just led me deeper into my binge eating habit. I actually did try IE a while back when I first read the IE book and Overcoming Overeating and really enjoyed it but I got back into the diet mentality and the diet trap. The last few months have been some of the worst I've experienced. My dad was diagnosed with cancer and I was dealing with a lot of stress from that and also from the realization that I had let my health really slide, not just with weight gain but also with tapering off on exercise (thank goodness I don't have a car so I have to walk to the store 2-3 times a week or I'd never get any kind of physical activity, since I work from home). I'm 45 and it kind of shook me up that I need to do something about getting myself healthy now before the big health issues that usually start to show up around that age do to me too. I have been very lucky so far with very minor health issues (chronic migraines, rashes) and nothing major like high cholesterol, heart disease, etc.

But my panic led me swiftly into the diet mentality again and I was basically eating "good" to the extreme (counting calories, eating only whole plant foods, adding no fats) for the first 3 days of the week and then binge eating on junk food all day the last 4 days.

I was set to do that again this Thursday when I started to explore resources on being body positive and ran again across intuitive eating. I am now rereading the book and looking at resources and what started out to be a binge long weekend is turning out to be an intuitive eating weekend. Yes, I still have the junk food in the house and yes, I am eating it. But I am not binging on it - I'm eating it as part of the rest of my food, when I feel like it, how much I feel like (which is surprisingly in smaller portions than you would expect) and stopping when I've had enough.

One thing I'm discovering this time around with IE is that when I gave myself permission to eat low quality food (I know IE doesn't believe in categorizing food but I think that describing Oreos, Doritos, and Hershey's Kisses as low quality food rather than "bad" foods isn't categorizing exactly - since, literally, they are low quality foods), I also gave myself permission to eat high-quality foods that I love (like whole wheat pasta and baked sweet potatoes). That's a big change in thinking for me. Before, I thought about it as all or nothing - either I ate all high quality food or all low quality food. But when I gave myself permission to eat both kinds of foods, I suddenly enjoy both very much and I don't feel like anyone is forcing me to eat something because it's healthy or that I'm rebelling against being told what to eat because it's healthy and I need to lose weight (which has been a huge part of why I started binge eating in the first place).

I still do have concerns about whether I will be healthier in the long run with IE but I figure that I will most definitely NOT be healthy if I continue restrictively dieting 3 days a week and then binge eating 4 days a week. So since what I was doing was making me unhealthy anyway, trying IE isn't going to ruin my health. I believe it will make it better, regardless of how much weight I lose (and I know I will because I did the last time I did this).

Djuna