Has anyone ever heard of intuitive eating? (using hunger and fulness) What do you think?

for an intuitive eating plan that's going to start on Tuesday. I read a book over the holidays called Thintuition, I first saw the guy that wrote on the local news. He runs the class at the healthclub next door to my building and the other day I found a postcard in my cafeteria at work about Thintuition and a study and free and I immediately emailed. I'm excited because of course, it's free, I get a free membership at the health club for 60 days. I'll let you know how it goes after the initial meeting.

were do you have to be to sign up for it? if it is anywere can I get some info lol thanks so much!!!

This is sooo crazy! I haven't been to 3 chicks for a while, but decided to come back today to find support for intuitive eating! I began working with a nutritionist about three months ago. She has been helping me ease into intuitive eating (without telling me what it is). I by chance saw an article about it and realized what we were working on. I went and bought the book and am going to continue the journey. If anyone else is interested in the process and would like to continue this thread, I'm all for it!!
Kay

I sure hope this would countinue also because I am very interested in it. Someone just wrote today about eating smaller portions and I left a note that I had asked this question. This place (3 chicks) is so big I think it is kind of hard to get people together to keep a topic up unless it is a well known topic like WW. How do we get people to join in on this discussion?

I would like to join your group. I've been interested in intuitive eating for quite some time. I do have a lot of books on the subject, the newest one, The Rules of "Normal" Eating by Karen R. Koenig. I'll have to dig it out and start reading it.

Ali

I am working from the book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I guess we could just keep posting here, and if we get big enough we could get a subheading like some of the other groups...(I don't really know how they decide what goes where)
I thought I might go ahead and show one big breakthrough I've had. I used to think I was addicted to chocolate. I would sneak and buy pounder bags of almond m&m's and eat the whole thing at least once a week. The rest of the week I would obsess over chocolate. If chocolate was offered to me, I would eat all I could. I would also often sneak and buy chocolate other days of the week. I had a hard time accepting that it might actually be okay to eat chocolate, so I switched to dark chocolate to make myself feel like I was getting something a little healther. (The whole food acceptance thing takes a while) At first I was eating a large bar of chocolate every day. Then I found that I could eat a few squares and feel satisfied. Now I don't feel the need to eat chocolate every day. I've had a half eaten bar in my fridge for over a month, I don't obsess over chocolate anymore, and I haven't "binged" on chocolate in two months. Negative thoughts try to creep into my head when I decide to eat chocolate, but I am being gentle and nurturing. I actually enjoy chocolate more now when I do eat it because I try to be totally conscious of what I am doing. There have been a few times when I felt like I ate more than I was comfortable with, but now I don't beat myself up. I am able to examine why I did it and take it as a learning experience. Today I thought I wanted some sweets, but I realized that I didn't have enough protein with breakfast(I only had toast and milk). I decided that I might actually need to go ahead and have a healthy lunch a little early. If I decide I would still like chocolate later, I am going to go ahead an have some. After eating some chicken and rice, I feel satisfied. I like that I am taking the time to ask myself what I need and honoring my hunger. I feel so free.

is meeting in Chicago only I believe. I think there are four different places.

Here's the text of the email I just got with my instructions...

"This study will evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative weight loss program, called thintuition®, that Lakeshore Athletic Club believes is the future of weight loss. The thintuition® weight loss program involves natural eating and weight loss and is built on the foundation of six basic principles:

1. Distinguish appetite from hunger: An appetite is thoughts about food, while hunger is an actual physical sensation in your body telling you to eat.

2. Eat to satisfy physical hunger: The goal of eating is purely to satisfy those physical sensations of hunger and not for any other reason. And other reason for eating is consider overeating, which contributes to weight gain.

3. Eat the foods you desire: Before sitting down to eat, you determine what food(s) will satisfy your hunger, and those are the foods you eat.

4. Savor each and every bite: Take time to enjoy the food you are eating. This means tasting the flavors, smelling the aromas, experiencing the textures, and appreciating how great the food looks.

5. Regard food as fuel: Understanding that food is not comfort or love is an important step toward following your thintuition®. Food is what you put in your body to keep it running.

6. Stop eating when hunger disappears: There is a moment when your hunger disappears. The feeling is like that of no longer being thirsty. It is a place where you feel most comfortable and when you should flip the “off switch” and stop eating.


In addition to the on-line program, daily emails and other materials, there is an optional exercise component that will begin in the second month of this study. At that time, you will receive two free passes each week to use at the Lakeshore Athletic Club you registered for. We will give you more information about the exercise component and when you can begin using your passes a little further into the study."

And his name is Rob Stevens and his book is called Thintuition. I'll let you know how the program looks, I'm a bit disappointed because I thought we would be having meetings but from this it doesn't appear that way. Now my problem is that before I heard about this program starting, I signed up for weight watchers at work and gave them a check (which hasn't cleared yet) so I may have to do both? I'm not sure if that's entirely possible. What to do?!

Linda

Wow, this is great!!!!!!! I hope you all keep posting. I have been trying to figure weight loss out for 20 yr. and am finally feeling a little peace with food. At times, when I couldn't take thinking about weight loss anymore I noticed that I lost about 3lb a month. If I could have just kept it up. But there was always another diet around the corner that looked so promising.

This is a fascinating topic. Please keep us updated and let us know if this is working for you. The topic has come up many times in the past, but we've never found anyone that was successful with it. I'd really love to be able to say otherwise some day

Good luck!

I did it and lost 25 lbs. several years ago. It is an awesome way to lose weight, unfortunately for me, I did not keep up with it and have since not found the strength of mind or body to get back to it. It is a wonderful thing, though, and I fully recommend it. As soon as I can get my mind set going that way, I'm going to do it again!

I think the key to this program is patience. You have to reintroduce yourself to forbidden foods one at a time. I usually overdo it the first time I eat a new food. My nutritionist has said that it may take a year for me to really become an intuitive eater. It really is a process. One big step is not weighing. When I used to weigh, if I gained I would hate myself and binge. If I lost weight, I would have a celebration binge. I won't be able to gauge my success on pounds lost because I know that I can't weigh myself. I have decided to let my nutritionist weigh me periodically (and not tell me the weight) so she can keep an eye on things.

What interests me is how the appetite changes from day to day even when you are past menopause. Some days I will hardly be hungry at all and the next day really hungry! I still make mistakes but those times are evening out. I know you have to be patient doing this but I firmly believe that most of my problem losing weight has been dieting. One thing that spoke to me was that when I started doing a lot of fasting my weight problem worsened. That was 25 yr. ago and now I can hardly fast at all. It is kind of neat, too, that when you allow yourself to eat any food, those things you thought you loved just don't seem as exciting anymore. So good to hear all your experiences with this.

This is a great thread. I recommend any of Geneen Roth's books, which are about trusting yourself around food and not using food to compensate for emotional wounds and deprivations. She stresses eating mindfully, eating what you're really hungry for, enjoying food and not weighing. I love her books and have been successful with her methods as long as I stay mindful, which is easier said than done. It really is a retraining process.

The other day I was physically hungry and thought of what I wanted. I was craving some chocolate cake. I had a small piece and when I was finished I was totally satisfied and did not want anymore. That surprised me because in the past I would have gone back for 2nds or even 3rds. This was a small victory for me.