Katy Trail just recommended the IOWL podcasts to me, I haven't listened to any of them yet, and am not sure where I should post this as it looks like people in all areas of their journey would benifit, but the reviews are fantastic and the topics looks just amazing.

There are many on maintenance, and one that just caught my eye about the fear of regaining. Other topics include, finding a new best friend to replace food, making weight loss last, overcoming PMS cravings. I mean there are topics on everything. So far there are 168 episodes, I'm not even sure where to start! I'm not sure if this is what I need right now, as I am trying to refocus my life on life and not food issues, but they look too interesting to pass up. Right now I'm just downloading those that really catch my eye, but know me I'll probably hit them all.

I'll check back in later after I've listened to one for a full report. In the mean time, if you've listened to these please comment. For everyone else, here is the link http://personallifemedia.com/podcast...ut-weight-loss.

Ncuneo, I'm a huge fan of IOWL and have been listening to them since Fall 08. I cannot say enough good things about the series. And while it is helpful to listen to the topics that interest you. I would recommend starting at the beginning of the series and do the homework. I made some startling insights into why I was doing/eating what I was doing/eating. It will make this journey so much more easy for you.

So I've only listened to bits and pieces of a few episodes and have decided to go ahead and start from the begining, I'm OCD like that And like you said losermom, I'd probably benifit from the homework.

My initial reaction is that it is a combo of "The Secret" (aka, laws of attraction), The Beck Diet Solution and Geneen Roth's stuff. I will say that I've liked all of these, however, never really been able to commit to the concepts. I'm not sure why, maybe little too much effort? Anywho, I'm going to go ahead and start at the begining right now and I'll check back in with my thoughts later.

I'm excited for you and to hear your observations on it.

Renee covers many of "The Secret/Law of Attraction" concepts in IOWL. And I think she also covers the Beck Diet Solution too. I've read the book too. I think that so many people overlook the "mind" portion of the "mind/body" connection in our weight loss journey. Renee is coming our with a book soon too.

These are free?!?! Thanks!!
I found some Kathy Smith audio tapes at a yard sale that I have started listening to...I can throw these in too!

Completely free and amazing!

So here is the thing, and it's along the lines of forgetting the mind portion of the mind/body transformation. I've always thought, intuitive eating - IMPOSSIBLE for me. And that's because I've never been willing or been too scared to do the work. Making a mind transformation is 100xs harder than the body transformation. We've all done the easy work, the body transformation - calories in vs calories out = weight loss, but the mind part, I think a lot of us forgot or didn't realize that that was part of the package. That's why I think many of us struggle when we get to maintenance. While weight loss motivated me to curb my binging and overeating, I never found tools to control it for good, so now that weight loss is no longer a component of my life, I struggle to control those elements. I really don't know how to put all my thoughts into words in a way it makes any sense, but if you find that you are struggle with maintenance I would highly highly recommend this series of podcasts.

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to be a completely intuitive eater, but for now I think it's certainly worth a try a couple times a week. I did it this weekend and it was great. I felt so much more relaxed and while I still ate more than what I do during the week, I ate WAY less than I normally do on a normal weekend. So I think this would be a good weekend plan for me for now and just continue with the week days as is, since that seems to be working for me durning the week. Just like with weight loss it's about finding that balance, that plan that works best for you.

For some reason it's not letting me download these podcasts through ITunes, wonder if it's because I'm in the UK. However it appears I can listen to them online so going to give them a go as I really need some help right now.

I've just listened to the Prologue and am halfway through the first episode Ncuneo, and I think what you were saying about the weight loss having motivated you to stop overeating and binging is right, I was exactly the same, but now that we're both at maintenance that motivation is gone.
The episode is discussing towards and away from motivation and although like I said I'm only halfway through the episode, I've already realised that yes, I do have the away from motivation, never to go back to where I was, morbidly obese etc, but my towards motivation has gone now that I no longer have weight to lose! I'm not motivated because I want to see those numbers go down, or because I want to fit in a smaller size, because I know that around this weight is right for me and my body, with all it's lose skin etc, so what towards motivation do I have?! Right now that's scary, because I can't think of anything... I guess I have a LOT of work to do. But I really needed to start listening to these today because I'm struggling big time not to give in and binge.
I'm going to listen to the rest of the episode and then watch Biggest Loser from last night, and hope that they help get me through to bedtime.
Ncuneo, I hope that we can maybe help eachother through this?

That would be fantastic!

My away from motivation is also not regaining or having to put my fat jeans on. I guess my towards motivation is holding onto the feelings I have when I eat well, exercise well, can wear whatever I want. That self confidence I have when I realize that I've acomplished something amazing and I feel good. How proud I am when I don't binge or resist a binge. More importantly my toward motivation is just a place of peace. I don't want to have anxiety anymore when it comes to food and I think that's were not counting on the weekends is going to help me treamendously. Like I said, that's not really an option for me during the week at this point, and that's ok because it doesn't bother me during week, but just having that constriction taken away on the weekend really helped me last weekend.

I like the thought of focusing on all the positives. I'm not sure what episode that is. But it's the law of attraction. If you focus on the negative that's what you'll bring to you. If you tell yourself, don't think about food, well then you'll think about food. But if I focus on peace with food then I'll attract that. So I'm working a lot on that.

So funny! I use BL to keep me focused too, but I record it and save it for Fridays when I really need it.

BTW. I can't seem to download the iTunes version either and trying to get them directly from iTunes seems to cost money. You can just download the mp3 and import those into your iTunes library if you want them on your ipod or mp3 player. Personally I'm just downloading and listening with a media player on my computer at work. That's a good thing because I can listen to a lot, but I'm afraid I'm missing some stuff because I can't fully pay attention. Hopefully the rest is going to my sub conscious

Thanks for your timely response Ncuneo, I appreciate it
The last couple of days have been really tough, fighting the urge to binge, and when I woke up this morning I still wanted to binge so felt sure that today would be the day that the switch was going to flick and I'd not be strong enough to flick it back.
But I'm so proud to say that with a few new tactics today, a new book I'm starting to read which will hopefully help, these new podcasts to listen to, and then your comment about being proud of yourself when you don't binge and how good you feel about yourself when you eat well, exercise and can wear anything, they have got me through and I'm now at bedtime having not binged for another day
One day at a time, one step at a time, but it feels so good to have got through a day today where I was actually sure I was going to binge, but didn't.

Good for you!

Right now I'm listening about IOWL's idea of the "redo". Where you redo an event in your mind that you wish you'd done differently and how you wish you would have done it. I like that idea, but what if instead of the redo it is more of a forecast. For example, today I ate my snack early, just couldn't wait. It wasn't completely hunger related, it was more mental. So my redo would be that I would have been more thoughtful about that since now it's officially snack time and I am a little hungry and I didn't "need" my snack when I had it earlier. There are lots of treats around the office today and they sound good given it's TOM, but my forcast is to have a cup of hot chai tea and mentally conquer this. I know that the tea will satisfy me and that quitting time is only a few hours away and then it's to the gym then dinner time. So I can do this. I also am excited about the next episode - Self Correcting, I think this is one of the big ticket items of the series and I think that my forcasting is what she is about to describe.

Ladies, self-correcting is awesome! You're going to love it. Ncuneo, you are ahead of the curve. Your "forecast" is actually what IOWL calls a "pre-do". It's great for preparing for events where there is lots of food around.

Ah ha! Can't wait to get there!

Self correcting is awesome, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but a still a great tool and a familiar concept. It is something that I actually already practice regularly, but I don't self correct after binges because I kind of feel like it is punishment if you know what I mean. But I guess that getting back on plan immediately after a binge is something of a self correcting action, what am I saying! Of course that is a self correction action. I guess my self correcting action before was depriving myself after a binge, but I have stopped doing that. I refuse to punish myself.

I have identified most of my trigger situations for my binging, I already pretty much knew what they were. But there is still one that I just can't seem to identify. I call it "bingy feelings". It just those days when I just want to stuff my face. I had one yesterday and as long as they occur during the week I can white knuckle it. But I'm having a hard time identifing where they come from. I thing I need to start a journal. Right now the only thing I know is that it is Day 3 of TOM, so maybe that has something to do with it. Or possibly because I've been eating a little lower cal this week because I sprained my ankle and am taking a couple days off running. Or maybe I'm stressed about the injury. So I think I will start this journal and start to write down what is going on when I get the "bingy feeling" and start to come up with a plan on how to handle those situations. Also, stopping to identify what I am feeling will hopefully make me think before I eat and know that I am not eating out of necessity or hunger but some other outside source and that if one bite or one something doesn't curb the craving or feeling nothing will until it's too late. My other No. 1 trigger situation is when I'm home alone with my son with not enough stuff to do in the evening. That one I'm working on.

On to today's episodes! I read something interesting that she has a 75% success rate with bingers! That is super impressive!