Great! Company here for most of the week which makes IE difficult.

We have company this week too. It does make it a little difficult. I think ours leaves Thursday. Hope we can do better than we think.

Reading a new book, The Diet Survivors Handbook, and enjoying it Very much IE.

I will put a couple quotes from the book when I get time. It has 60 lessons that are very interesting.

It's hard for me to type from a book so here is an excerpt from the diet survivors website...same authors as the book.

Pay more attention to your fullness. The sooner you stop eating, the sooner you will get to start again.

Most people report that as they normalize their eating, they have an easier time starting when they are hungry than stopping when they are full. In the past, part of the reason you overate is because of your belief that once you stopped eating something—usually a "forbidden" food—you would not be able to have it again. Remind yourself constantly that this is no longer the case. If you eat a cookie now, and crave one again in half an hour, you will have it! This type of reassurance allows you to calm down and feel safe when you contemplate stopping. In fact, it is very helpful to remind yourself that the sooner you stop eating, the sooner you will get to eat again!

The solution to addictions, such as smoking, alcohol, or drugs, is to permanently abstain. However, food different; we all need to eat. The key to ending overeating is to normalize your relationship with food so that eating for sustenance and satisfaction is primary. The more opportunities you have to make contact with your natural hunger, the faster this will take place. When you eat beyond fullness, it takes a long time to get hungry again. The nature of compulsive eating means that you feel compelled to go to food often, so there is a good chance that you'll be unable to wait that length of time in order to experience physical hunger. But, if you can remind yourself that the sooner you stop eating, the sooner you will get to start again, you are in a stronger position to remember that another eating experience is just around the corner. Nothing is being taken away from you. You have a life full of eating opportunities ahead of you! This attitude will allow you to accumulate more stomach hunger experiences and move toward your goal of ending overeating.

It can feel difficult to stop eating at times because something tastes good. Remind yourself that if you stop, you will save the rest for later, take it home if you are at a restaurant, or get that item again the next time you crave it. Next, consider getting up from the table for a minute—perhaps to get the mail—with full permission to come back to the food if you desire. The goal here is not to control yourself, but rather to give you a short break so that you can reflect on whether you are truly hungry for more of that food.

When it comes to deciding how full is just right, you will need to focus on your own comfort level. Think about the moment when you feel satisfaction as the point to stop eating. Some people find that the absence of hunger is their signal to stop, while other people find that they like to feel a full feeling in their stomach. You may find that the place that feels most comfortable to stop varies within a day or on different days. Check in with your stomach. Are you comfortable? Visualize how your stomach will feel 20-30 minutes from now. Is that okay with you? It's always up to you to decide where the line is between tuning in to your internal cue to stop eating and eating past fullness. The sooner you stop, the sooner you will become hungry, and making those frequent connections between physical hunger and feeding yourself is the way out of overeating

carolr Thanks. I just ordered the book.

Have fun reading and let me know what you think.

I found the online articles interesting and look forward to reading the book which should be here Tuesday.

I've been really hungry again lately. Don't know if is the cold weather or not. My best friend from high school died and I haven't seen him in 20 years I think. He was my friend on facebook but didn't say much. He was a doctor and had parkinson's disease.

I'm so sorry about the loss of your friend. He isn't suffering with parkinson's now. I think that would be a difficult disease to deal with. But then I don't suppose there is any disease that is really great to deal with.

It is cold here today. Hi 59 and low tonight and tomorrow night is supposed to be 37 and Wednesday night 34. Haven't been real hungry but I am very hungry for home made soup, stews and bean type dishes which DH doesn't care for stew or beans. Beans and cornbread sound so good.

Got my book today and read the first 3 chapters. I think it is going to be helpful. I think I've been in denial and thinking maybe there is a diet out there and I could be one of those few that one would work for. I will start the lessons tomorrow. I've really been hungry tonight... couldn't find anything that really satisfied me. So maybe not hunger at all. That will be a task to learn and recognize true hunger again. I think I've forgotten how to recognize it.

I've read through Lesson 6 in the book and I think this book is going to be a big help to me because I like the way they explain the different ways you are probably going to feel. Example... They said you may be one of those people who thinks that you just may be able to find a diet that will work for you although it never has worked before. I think I am one of those people. Also I like the way that they explain that we have to be patient with ourselves as we learn to listen to our body and the fact that they warn us to beware of turning this into a wait for "Stomach Hunger diet". This is a woe that takes time of practice and learning to actually eat "normal".

I went out to eat at Cracker Barrel. I ordered the meatloaf special. I did the evaluation of how I felt after eating the food. While I felt fairly satisfied as hunger was concerned and I didn't overeat because I didn't eat all of the food mainly because i realized that it was not as good as I thought it was going to be.

Glad you're liking the book, Trish. I've been extra hungry lately. Don't know why. Today was more normal Hope it keeps up. I don't think we are going to get any rain out of this storm. Strange.

We didn't get any rain out of it either. It was east of us and missed us intirely except for the wind.