Intuitive Eating: August 2014

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  • Hello Gang! I thought I'd start our August thread!
  • Thanks Jensassy! I was totally coming here to do this, thanks for starting it!

    I have nothing cool or exciting to report.

    It was a good weekend. We got long john silvers for dinner and it really didn't taste good at all to me. Way too greasy and bland. Long John Silvers used to be a favorite of mine. I ate very little and then had ice cream and oreos for dessert. Its weird but at dinner time, I feel like I usually want things like desserts or a bowl of cereal rather than traditional dinner food.
  • I have been binge free for 2 weeks today. This is the longest I haven't binged since I was a young child.
    I get urges after lunch and dinner that persist for up to an hour. Has anyone's urge gone away completely?
  • Welcome Brooke. I am virtually binge free. I still get urges to binge now and then which I see as a cue that some inner turmoil is not being dealt with effectively. Sometimes I indulge in these urges but it's nearly impossible for me to physically overeat in that manner anymore.

    Which leads me to this question: is it possible that our stomach shrinks? I'm eating such little food these days. I can't even stomach the thought of eating 3 eggs for breakfast which used to be standard for years. I can't finish anything on my plate and I'm turning down favorite dishes left and right. It's so confusing, is there any merit to the shrinking stomach?
  • Quote: Welcome Brooke. I am virtually binge free. I still get urges to binge now and then which I see as a cue that some inner turmoil is not being dealt with effectively. Sometimes I indulge in these urges but it's nearly impossible for me to physically overeat in that manner anymore.

    Which leads me to this question: is it possible that our stomach shrinks? I'm eating such little food these days. I can't even stomach the thought of eating 3 eggs for breakfast which used to be standard for years. I can't finish anything on my plate and I'm turning down favorite dishes left and right. It's so confusing, is there any merit to the shrinking stomach?
    Yes, your stomach will shrink when you begin to eat less food. Your stomach when shrunk to it's proper size is about the size of a clenched fist. But good for you for eating less!!!
  • So far today I have done well. I try not to eat by the clock, but with diabetes it's a delicate balance of hunger and dropping blood sugar, so I try and eat so that I am hungry every 3 hours so as not to get my glucose too low. It is real hot down here! Am "off" today, which means I am running from here to there, laundry done, dishes done and spaghetti on the stove. Now onto paper work. Have a blessed day all.
  • I don't really feel a binge urge anymore. Sometimes if I get really really hungry in my head I think Eat ALL the things!!!! And I tell myself I can if want to but usually I end up needing to eat about 1/4 of what I had planned to eat. I think that is a big difference for me. I used to feel deprived so when I was really hungry I would keep eating even though I was full. Now, I don't feel deprived and so when Im not hungry anymore, I generally stop. Emotional eating is a bit different since Im not hungry at the time, but I still eat way less than I used to. I don't think I could classify it as a binge. I usually just pick a treat to eat like a bowl of ice cream with a brownie and eat it and then Im done.
  • I'm not sure I can say I haven't binged... But I can't say I have, either. I did have a couple of handfuls of potato chips tonight after dinner when my hubby was snacking on them. I didn't eat the whole bag or anything like I usually would, but I should've stopped with the one handful. But, for the first time I've eaten anything "non-diet-approved" since I recommitted to the healthy lifestyle, it certainly wasn't as bad as it could've been.

    Tomorrow's another day. I'll start fresh in the morning
  • Quote: I'm not sure I can say I haven't binged... But I can't say I have, either. I did have a couple of handfuls of potato chips tonight after dinner when my hubby was snacking on them. I didn't eat the whole bag or anything like I usually would, but I should've stopped with the one handful. But, for the first time I've eaten anything "non-diet-approved" since I recommitted to the healthy lifestyle, it certainly wasn't as bad as it could've been.

    Tomorrow's another day. I'll start fresh in the morning
    I feel this eat a lot. I don't really binge but sometimes I look at what I ate and think "I could've stopped eating a little sooner." It's a learnin process for sure.
  • So I had been doing really super well with no binging for quite some time and really didn't feel the urges unless I was not feeling well and even then I'd just have a few of the items that I wanted in the past.

    Then this weekend, I went to GS camp. Which really in itself should be enough said but I did not get to pick anything that I wanted to eat at all and then since I had to be GF, my options were even less and not always that good (though they tried really hard). When I got home on Sunday, I ate the remaining 1/3 of a bag of peanut M&Ms. I heard the voice that told me to stop when I had, had enough but I was feeling so deprived that I just kept going telling myself that the weekend drove me over the edge.

    At the end, I have no guilt about it. I wasn't taking care of myself because I couldn't while I was at camp and I'm learning new things about myself all the time. I'm so new to IE, that this form of deprivation really pushed me over the edge once I had options. I was also super tired (lack of sleep) and overexerted (20K steps in one day!). Hopefully NEXT year, I will not have this reaction but for now, it happened - no guilt, moving on.

    It has felt good though NOT to binge for almost 2.5 months. The key for me is eating whatever I want when I'm hungry for it - or sometimes not because I just want it. No Deprivation = No Binging for me.
  • I totally agree Jensassy. Deprivation totally equals binging for me as well. Thats hard to be in a situation where you can't eat most of the food. I would have felt deprived too. It sounds like you did great and learned from your experience AND that you are being compassionate with yourself. I think that is seriously the most important thing.

    So something I noticed last night. Nighttime tends to be the time I want to eat when not physically hungry but lately I haven't had the urge. I notice now that at night when I am sitting and in a tense situation or my husband and I are talking about something stressful I am automatically lowering my shoulders, unclenching my jaw and breathing more deeply. When I stress I tend to tense up my shoulders and clench my jaw. Anyway, I noticed that I was doing that while driving today, and its becoming a more automatic habit to release tension in this way. So my nighttime eating has pretty much dropped off entirely for now. I didn't start trying to relax so I wouldn't eat, it just happened that when I felt more relaxed, I didn't think of food automatically, and when I feel tense or stressed I think of trying to relax my body automatically instead of getting a hunger signal automatically. Its honestly kind of amazing. Its like a different pathway is being forged in my brain.
  • I'm truly amazed at how much being AWARE of what I'm eating has changed my perspective. Up until a month or so ago I would have been able to pass a lie detector test that I ate fairly well-- yes, I eat too much at times, but for the most part, I was pretty healthy.

    BWAHAHAHAH!

    Now, I see that even though I rarely ate a ton at meals, I ate ALL DAY LONG. And drank a butt-ton of calories (Mountain Dew obsession here). It was CRAZY. Like, meal-wise I was pretty much eating 1500-1800 calories which isn't bad. But, TBH, I was probably eating twice that much in grazing/drinking. So this is a new place for me, mentally. To be aware. To be honest... And... I like it.

    I feel confident that if I work at it, I can succeed!
  • Ladies,

    I've had some troubling health news of late. I've been having female troubles for some time and I'm getting an ultrasound on Tuesday. The doctors think it might be PCOS. The main treatment weight loss, healthy diet, and exercise. Staying away from sugar and super processed carbs is important. Basically I need to lose a lot of weight as quickly as possible in order to ward off some of the scary diseases associated with this syndrome (diabetes, heart disease, infertility). I think I'm going to go back to calorie counting for now until I get closer to my goal weight. I know that this is not an ideal way to treat my mental issues with food, but right now I've got to look out for my body. At this point it's not vanity pounds for me but most likely really serious health issue. I'm sorry to have to discontinue IE for the most part- although I'm still going to try to honor my tastes and hunger in the best way that I can.
  • Locke I'm sorry you got some troubling news, you must be frightened but don't be discouraged. You've learned a lot on this IE journey and although you have to place some restrictions you can still honor your hunger and practice mindful eating. Think of the freedoms you do have with food and remember that while you focus on weightloss that it doesn't have to be immediate and too rapid. Your immediate health is of utmost importance and that may mean that letting go of a few food options is necessary. Think of it as an allergy. There are some folks around here that deal with diabetes and other restrictive illnesses that are still happy to practice IE and I hope they chime in because t is possible. Don't drop out of the support here at IE, I think you can do this without steering your mind completely to restriction!
  • Thanks Wannabe! It's going to be difficult but I think it will turn out okay in the end. I'm using calorie counting to inform my eating patterns but I'm also still using everything I've learned in IE to honor my hunger, too. I think this is doable as long as I don't restrict too much.