Sorry, I forgot to answer your other question.

I personally do not like the full/stuffed feeling. However, I don't always know when I am satisfied so there are times when I suddenly realize that I am starting to feel full and seemingly have missed the satisfied signal for some reason. So I have to use that feeling to help me know that I need to stop. I haven't really noticed if eating until that feeling happens if it helps me stay satisfied or not. I agree though that it would be good to observe and learn from it. So thanks for sharing.

One of the lessons in the Diet Survivor's Handbook that might help you is to write down what you ate when you have that experience and make note of how your stomach feels and also write down how long it was before you were hungry again. Doing that you will also find out if what you ate is really what your body wanted or not. Hope this helps.

Let me tell you about lunch yesterday hehe. I decided to make some pasta with cream sauce. It's something I was craving for a couple of days. I NEVER allow myself to eat it because... well you know - the carbs, the fat, the cheese, the calories!!! Plus hubby doesn't like cream-based sauces so it's not something I've had for a very long time. Usually for lunch I make a salad or something else quick. But no, this time I took the time to slice the mushrooms and the garlic, like real proper cooking! I made a big bowl of it and sat down and ate it like a proper human being. Savoring each bite. I was really tucking in to it. Then at some point I very abruptly put my fork down. I thought maybe I was eating too much and said to myself that I'll take a 2 minute break and if I still want some at the end of the 2 minutes I'll continue eating. Well, it turns out I was full so I didn't eat the rest of it.

The best part was that after I ate it I felt... Happy!! I didn't feel guilty, I didn't feel angry with myself, I didn't feel like a failure, I didn't feel like I needed to punish myself. I even went on to describe to my colleague later that day what an awesome lunch I had. The rest of the day I didn't feel hunger. I skipped dinner, I felt perfectly satisfied with that big lunch. I did have some mouth hunger which I satisfied by eating a couple of peanut M&Ms and that's all it was "they hit the spot."

Being free of guilt is kind of major. Thanks for listening.

Im always working now numbers 3 and 9

I have been trying to stay away from too much food talk, too but I just wanted to applaud Wannabe for enjoying her lunch! Perfect! It feels so good when it works it is really motivating for the next opportunity. Talk about making peace with food. YES.

I've been doing really great and I almost hate to talk about it for fear I will jinx it or overthink. One thing that helps me is having the fixings ready for a couple recipes that sound good so you are ready and can mentally go through the options. I ordered a wok off amazon for $27 it is incredibly nice and I've started to play with stir frys. What a great way to eat a ton of veggies. Today it was shrimp with bok choy, mushrooms, et al. Yummy.

I've been doing the yoga and it started because I had aching shoulders but I think it is helping me on the mindfulness level, too. They always tell you to set your intentions and my manta is

Presence (it's only about right now for the next hour)
Pride (as in glad I hauled myself to class I'm doing it)
Patience (one day at a time just keep doing what you are doing)
Peace (happy for all that is good, satisfaction)

When I feel good, IE is well easy, intuitive. It just flows from taking care of myself. Sounds crazy but man it's working at least for today.

Thanks Cindysunshine. I completely understand people don't want food talk and I apologize if anyone is upset by it. I guess I'm at the stage where I really am trying to make peace with food, for me I have to stop villainizing food and maybe this is the first step for me - allowing myself to eat the foods I've been disallowing myself. I've been psychologically addicted to low-carb and I started hating myself for it. It made my cravings so intense and unavoidable and I haven't been able to shake off a pound because of it. It's like being addicted to a bad-boy ex boyfriend. You hate him but you always manage to hook up with him lol. That's how I am with carbs. I hate carbs and then I'm always sneaking around eating chips and bread. It's pathetic really, I'll just have some bread right out in the open, get my fill of it (which is much less than I expected) and get it over with. I guess I always thought I was addicted to chips and I certainly can't deny that I love them. But just the thought that I'm allowed to have them takes away their irresistibility for me. I haven't thought about pasta since I had it the other day, normally when I ate pasta I considered it "cheating" and then it would inevitably lead to a binge. But since now it was "allowed" I haven't wanted it since. Craving satisfied, it has no hold over me anymore.

Great accomplishment!!! The book I'm reading tells us to do and keep doing exactly what you did. Write down what you experienced in your stomach and how you felt emotionally. As you build on and remember these things, you will become stronger and stronger and more successful at what you are doing. You are doing a great job!!!

CONGRATULATIONS for finding your way for IE to work for you. I don't like thinking about or talking about food a lot either as I just don't want it to be the center of my life any more. I'm happy for you. And I agree, we must look at this "one day at a time".

Ladies a quick suggestion. Have you ever looked at the website summertomato .com? I discovered it about a year ago and just like the vegetable recipes and things. This gal just wrote a book, too.

But check out under the Habits tab 'How to eat half a donut' article. It's rather about intuitive eating.

One other tidbit. We've been told so much about mini meals and nibbling, but at least for me it works better to get hungry and then eat to a reasonable level of satisfaction. Then I am comfortable and feel energized and stop thinking about eating so often and much. But whatever works for you and maybe this is just a personal thing.

Cool site! I read the donut article and a couple of things stuck out

"For me, delicious food is a given. So when I encounter yet another tasty food, it has less pull over me."

"Even when I find a truly spectacular donut it doesn’t take much willpower to stop myself from overdoing it. I know from experience how much flour and sugar my body can tolerate before feeling sick...Why would I subject myself to multiple hours of discomfort when I get most of the pleasure from the first few bites anyway?....Besides, cauliflower has never treated me this way."

Funny thing happened yesterday (spoiler alert: this is about food so skip ahead if you're avoiding food talk)

I had a mindful breakfast and then set about planning a binge. This is nothing new to me, I've been a life long binger and eating in secret is a habit that has been particularly difficult for me to break. So binging in secret goes like this - I say that I'm running out to go shopping/errands or whatever. Then I go to a restaurant by myself and eat way way way too much. Then I come home and have dinner. Ok? pathetic I know. So yesterday I set about to do just this, out of habit, out of stress, I don't know. I decided to approach this without guilt since I've been really enjoying eating without guilt lately and haven't found it hard. I went to a steakhouse. I ordered what I usually would have ordered: a steak, french fries and a salad with ranch dressing. They usually bring bread and butter too but I didn't want any, like none at all I sent it away as soon as it came. Odd, usually I polish that off too. I ate very mindfully despite my intention to just eat. I ate slowly, stopped when I was full and when I looked at my plate when I was done I'd barely eaten any of it. But I was completely full. What I was seeing and what I was feeling were at odds with eachother. I took it to go. Suddenly the manager appears and is looking very concerned. He asked me if everything was alright, was there something wrong with the food and if there was a problem with the steak he'd be happy to fix it. I guess he was surprised at how little of it I ate too. I left and had a bit of a cry about it, not because I was sad but because I've never sidestepped a binge like that before, especially when I wasn't even intending to.

I'm not silly enough to think that it will always be this easy but so far this has been easy, and that steak is still in the fridge and I haven't had the slightest inclination to eat any. I've lost 2.5lbs in a week and my diet has included pasta, chocolate (daily!), bread, potatoes, dressing, meat, I even had a bowl of cereal the other day. And I'm not hungry. And I'm not out of control. And I'm not cheating... well there's nothing to cheat on come to think of it. And I'm not upset or deprived or overly full of emotions. I'm a little freaked out.

You know when you hear skinny people say they love chocolate, or donuts or french fries? I always thought they were lying. Seriously though I couldn't figure out how someone who weighs 120lbs "likes" french fries. I used to think "I like french fries and have the thighs to prove it." But now I get it. They like it, they eat it, and then they stop lol.

Wannabe terrific! And while challenges of course are ahead soak up these positive experiences to recall as a powerful motivation in weaker moments.

You know I used to really love donuts and would buy 2 or 3 eat them all to feel terrible all day. I finally just got it that all that sugar especially on an empty stomach was an experience I no longer enjoyed at any level and I just quit doing that.

Duh.

It's called excitement!

Let it be exciting...

I never have problems with donuts. I think the fact that I had a diet doctor who always told us that eating a donut was equivalent to eat a whole loaf of bread. I have since learned that isn't exactly true, but when I see a donut, I still see a whole loaf of bread. I still would eat one if I wanted it, but I find that I don't. In fact, they have them at church before service and also at the ladies meeting we have once a month. At our last ladies meeting, there wasn't much to choose from so I took a donut hole and only ate 2 small bites (about 1/2) of it and had no desire for more.

When I was younger, my family would get together and we would eat until we were miserable. One night I was so sick all night and I prayed and promised God and myself that if I lived through that night that I would never eat so much that I would feel that way again and I don't. That is why I always say that I like to eat until I feel satisfied. I still have not perfected that in IE and sometimes I feel like I'm starting to feel full, but I never let myself eat until I am miserably full. So I don't let me get to that point. I promise you that it is a miserable way to live.

When I was thin, I actually loved french fries every once in a while. As I've thought back to those days, I realized the difference in then and now. Back then, I didn't think I had to have anything other than an order of fries. I would go out with my friends or boy friend. They would order what they wanted. When it was my turn to order, I usually would only have a regular drink. However, if I wanted just fries... that was ALL that I ordered. I didn't think I had to have them with any other food unless I really wanted other food and I don't remember thinking that I had to eat it all because most of the time I could never eat all the food when I ate in restaurants. Makes me wonder why and when I changed.