Welcome Joycelyn!

Here's another vote for The Overfed Head by Rob Stevens. Very simple and to the point. I have Intuitive Eating but like this better.

I just finished The Overfed Head after ordering it from Abe Books. It was really helpful -- more in the way he motivates you to trust yourself, rather than in offering any advice. After all, as he himself puts it, how should he know how much I'm supposed to eat, or when?

Yesterday I had about two bites of cereal for breakfast and decided it wasn't what I wanted, and I wasn't really hungry, then my Mom took me out for Japanese before she left on vacation. I left part of the meal alone completely when I realized that the rice tasted stale/overcooked, but the fresh fish was delicious and I got enough tempura after a couple of bites -- ditto the chicken. My mom seemed surprised that I'd stopped so early -- normally I polish off the whole thing and walk around stuffed for most of the day.

Then I met my boyfriend at the bar where he got the appy sample rather than two big meals because neither of us were full-meal-sized hungry. I got to have bites of nachos, hot wings, celery, carrots, shrimp and yam fries without feeling bad or leaving stuffed.

Here's my one question -- the one that has been bothering me:

I've noticed that I've been drinking less non-water drinks. Normally I polish off three or four green teas, but this time I just sipped the one or two I had (when they refill it every 5 seconds, it's hard to keep track). My boyfriend wanted fast food after shift, but I just decided to have a small Fruitopia because I wanted something sweet, but I didn't really want any heavy food.

But I didn't see anything in the book about drinks -- alcoholic, sugary or otherwise. Whereas most diet books basically lecture you that anything other than water is the devil. Is the lesson that drinks can make you feel full, too, so choose wisely?

One thing I've really learned is that I love grazing. I think a big problem for me in the past was that diets would dictate that I sit down to three full meals, so I would -- but I still wanted to snack. Now it feels like I just snack throughout the day. I think it's because I love a lot of different tastes. So I just eat until I physically no longer feel hungry and wait for the next pang. It's kind of awesome. I've just learned to serve myself very small portions so that I don't feel wasteful because I've never liked re-eating foods that have been put in Tupperwear.

Last question: my boyfriend struggles with his weight, and I find that I'm unconsciously passing any uneaten food over to him, which he'll dutifully eat because he was raised in a clean plate household. I'm worried that if I just start serving smaller portions in general that he'll think I'm putting him on a diet/calling him fat. He's been talking about going back on Atkins, which we did together for limited success a year ago, but both put all the weight back on. So it feels a little lose-lose. Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Having a husband is sort of the same.....he like different things and eats at different times. But I've noticed that he hardly notices how much I take. He wants to eat together at least at night. He's a veterinarian and has always had weird hours. Now that we are older and his practice is slowing down he is around more. But he farms, too, so is always busy. He's a semi intuitive eater but is a little overweight. As for drinks, I've read you can drink what you want with other food but don't substitute drinks for food through out the day. The will kill your appetite for other food. But as Rob Stevens says, if you eat sweets and nothing else for 3 days in a row you will crave other things. I don't worry about drinks but really now I prefer water. I've never been a pop drinker but my husband is. I stopped drinking milk much a few years ago when I had a high blood calcium problem. Everyone is different.

Carol, the reviews were for the second edition.

Blues, thanks for the welcome.

Blues and Vik, seems like The Overfed Head is pretty popular here!

So, are you guys having success with intuitive eating? Losing weight?

Lost 40 and kept it off but still have 30 to go and stuck for awhile. Been reading The Overfed Head again and thought I'd share a few lines.

The first reaction for many overweight people, is that if they always ate what they really wanted, they'd have ice cream or cheesecake or French fries or whatever else they have been forbidding themselves for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's a fantasy born of deprivation. When allowed to express their desires freely, most bodies demand variety. Eat ice cream at every meal for a couple days, and pretty soon you're likely to lose interest in it and develop a yen for whatever your body is craving.

Just google The Overfed Head and you download the PDF for free. Enjoy!

The thing that really hit me about The Overfed Head was his more complete hunger scale. While I'm still having trouble really determining fullness (hunger has gotten a LOT easier, than goodness), I tend to stop a little earlier than I might want to and then resume if I'm hungry again in 10 minutes.

I don't know how much weight I've lost, because that's not my favorite method of tracking, but I can say I've lost about 1.5" on each of my "body zones", despite the fact that I've been doing this for a month and fell off the wagon for two weeks of that.

Ironically, the more you start eating this way, the less you think about weight loss. You become somewhat inured to the idea that the weight will just come off because your body isn't meant to be this heavy, but you become less obsessed with setting particular weight goals.

A lot of the obsession with particular goals or particular weights comes from the same wrong-headed thinking as dieting: that someone else knows your body better than you do.

I have Paul McKenna's books and Dvd's forgot about them, thery are good also. I am on the IE forum also and on the Eden Diet forums as well.

CC, is that the Yahoo IE forum?

No, ith's the Intuitive one put on by the ladies who wrote the book Intuitive Eating, it's intuitive eating community

Thank you all so much for your responses! Thank you for the pdf tip on The Overfed Head. I read it!

I've been spending much of my time reading, reading and reading some more on this subject. I'm having a hard time logging into the Intuitive Community forum on the other website, so I think I'll sign up with another username.

I'm convinced I'm on the right path here. And I'm in no rush. Carol, I agree with you about our bodies needing variety. It happened to me. I deprived myself of peanut butter for so long that I started eating it...by the spoonful. I had as much as I wanted every night for about two weeks, which was about two big spoonfuls a night (and I'm talking HEAPED tablespoons, not tiny teaspoons). Now I can't even look at it, I'm so sick of peanut butter.

I am definitely getting the third edition of Intuitive Eating when it's published.

Thank you so much for sharing your stories. I just can't diet anymore.

Joycelyn I sooo understand! I had been in TOPS and had reached my goal and due to too busy of a schedule I quit the meetings and I had deprived myself of EVERYTHING that was not diet related for so long that when I started eating it, there was just no control or stopping it! Hence the weight came back on and more that I had lost but I am doing IE and it is slow, but at least I am not deprived. Just the thought of going on another diet makes me angry on the inside

Just the thought of going on another diet makes me angry on the inside[/QUOTE]

I feel the same way!