Thanks for that, Pama. I had 10 kids so I was doing good to get regular food on the table let alone dessert! My Dh likes to cook, though, especially desserts! I've been reading a lot about whole foods, too.

So since july I just haven't been as motivated as I was before. I would be really focused for about a week or 2 and then "fall off again"...I would gain and lose the same 6-10 lbs...So this weekend I decided I am in maintenance..or maybe i should call not thinking so hard what I eat or the scale ..re-learning to enjoy food and not be so pressed about what the scale says. so back to only weighing twice a month. It was a little hard at first, but its back to being an oversized paper weight in my house. I still watch how many calories, but it is more a total at the end of the day then not eating something of how many calories it has.

Keep at it, Obie. You'll make it.

Hi everyone, i love the boards and meeting everyone. so fun. Carol i reached my goal in 2003 and have not gained any back now for 4 years this december. have loss 12 more lbs now since first of year. i had a goal and then found out i am a diabetic and so she said lower goal. so i am finally losing again. so going for one. have loss 45 lbs in all. so happy with me. need to get with my exercise again. have a good week to all. LaDean

ok, I was lured away and went back to dieting(ww) for a few weeks, cause I found when I ate what I wanted I ate ALOT. So I ran out and got all the "diet foods" and the scale is still going up. I know my problem is stress eating and its very hard for me to control.....Im staring down a divorce possibly next year and eatting everything in sight worried about being able to support myself and my daughter.

At least I know where I an going wrong with this and can work on it. So Im starting with breakfast and going from there. Only to eat when Im hungry

Glad to see you posting, Nancy. Seems like stress causes weight gain. When I first started taking prednisone 2 yr. ago I gained 30lb quickly. Now I've lost about 20 with 40 more to go. LaDean, Did you just count calories? How old are you? Seems like it gets harder the older we get. I'm 58.

I read through some old posts and i think this is the right way to become healthy and learn new habits. I have tried diets only to fail over and over again. I think it will be hard for me to get rid of the "good" and "bad" food thinking. I always get discouraged because even if i had not eaten much i had eaten "bad" things that i shouldn't have and i would lose all my motivation. Right now i am just writing down when and what i eat and why i am eating it. I know i am emotional eater and so i am trying to spot triggers and work through it without food.

Cherryautumn, I'm off to see my DIL and grandkids but just wanted to say hi.

What a great thread! I just ordered Naturally Thin, but it sounds just like IE.

I am so sick of dieting. I have 15 to 20 extra pounds that I can't seem to lose and now I am going to just plain eat.

Hi all, loss 2.6 lbs this week and a happy girl i am. just watching my eating and trying to eat right. good luck to all. LaDean

I just started reading Mindless Eating, a book about why we eat what we eat. It is interesting. I know there is a review on here somewhere, I think in the maintainers forum. It's by a guy who does research like that for a living. For example, if you buy a large bag of something you'll eat more than if you buy a smaller bag. If I find any thing interesting I"ll pass it on.

I had kind of a fun thing .... I downloaded a product called "Weight Commander" onto my computer a month ago and I really like it .... it's a one-time download and costs $9.95 (forever a one-time fee). It's a graph where you enter your weight every day and it gives you that graph along with a trend line, which is nice. It also monitors your weight loss and for instance, on mine today it said "Be Careful". So I clicked on the link and it took me to a graph that showed each day of the week and showed that Saturday morning my weight has been traditionally up, so that today, Friday, I needed to be particularly careful. It showed a graph of days of the week and how much I lost on each of the days (I've only been tracking for a month so the data is based on four weeks). I just think it's pretty cool.

On a side note -- I've followed MRC (only my first week on the beige program) to the letter and have been at exactly the same weight for four days in a row. I know that it will let go one day, but week one is a little early for a pleateau!!!! LOL

P.S. .... The buffalo man's company is Anderson Buffalo -- I don't know that he's online though. He is from North Dakota.

If you thought there was something different about those last 2 posts it is because the person accidently posted in the wrong thread. That' ok...we forgive you.

Hello everyone,

I've read through many of the postings and articles on this thread and am intrigued that it's possible to lose weight while eating intuitively. It makes sense. Diets don't work in the long term for so many reasons. But I have some questions regarding how one gets on track to eating intuitively in a healthy way.

I've been "eating intuitively" for a little over a year. Really, I was tired of diets and just stopped. I was tired of counting calories. Of measuring portions. Of tracking macronutrients. Of avoiding special-occasion foods because they weren't on my list of approved foods. Of not going out to eat with family and friends for similar reasons.

So I stopped dieting. And of course, the weight I lost came back. I should state that I fractured my foot about that time, so I stopped all exercise too. For me, once the exercise habit is broken, it's hard to get back and I am struggling with that. I am happy to report, however, that the weight gain has stopped and I'm holding steady at 186-188.

My biggest question has to do with the fact that I have a very hard time resisting fat-sweet foods like ice cream, cake, donuts, junk like that. How do I balance "eat what you want, when you want" with eating primarily healthy foods? Is this something that takes time? Do you eat what you want, when you want with the hopes that eventually you'll get over the craving? Or do you deny the craving? I've been overdoing the junk foods (sweets, eating out a lot, prepared foods to save time) and I don't feel so good as when I eat more whole foods and cook mainly from scratch. But I'm still craving those junk foods.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated!