It was recommended reading for me, and I think the book , so far, has some great principels but it recommends that you have all the food that you love to eat around and stock pile it. I can not do this. Has anyone tried this method? I can see myself gaining 20 lbs more. The book seems to say you need to accept yourself as you are right now even if you never loose another pound, I don't want to be this size forever , I want to be able to walk and play with my kids. Anyone have any experience with this book, that they can give me? Thanks Cheryl

I haven't read that book in particular, but I have heard of the stockpile theory. I'm sorry, if I filled my kitchen with the stuff I loved, I scarf it all down in an instant. I never really understood that theory. I'd also be interested if anyone understands that or has tried it.

That stock piling thing would be a hard one I think. For me, I sometimes have had stuff that I probably should stay away from in the house ~ on some days, it could sit there and I would have no desire to touch it ~ then on other days, I couldn't leave it alone ~ it just depended on what was going on in my life I guess ~ some days I am stronger than others.

I've read it, several times, but have never followed it. Some of the ideas work for me and some don't. One that doesn't is the foundation of the program--the stockpile theory. The reason it doesn't work for me? I believe that there ARE some "bad foods".

In our food supply now, as it has evolved, there are components and foods that our bodies just aren't equipped to handle. HFCS is a good example. The body doesn't know what it is or what to do with it, so preferentially stores it as fat. Sure, the body can 'handle' it, but it handles it as an unknown. Trans fats--they're linked to an increase in heart disease. Do I want that in my body? I'm trying hard enough to avoid heart disease without shooting myself in the foot by giving my body the BUILDING BLOCKS for it!

So, yeah. I DO believe there are bad foods, and I'm not willing to have them in my house. But then, I guess that since I don't crave them, they're not triggers and not something I should be stockpiling. But certainly, when I started this journey and before I knew about how bad these components are for my body, foods containing HFCS and trans fats would have made it into my stockpile. So who's to say? I don't really crave things anymore...I don't remember the last time I had a huge craving for anything. I get hungry, certainly, but cravings, since I cut out sugar and [most] white flour, don't really happen.

Other ideas in the book, like carrying your food with you, work for me. I plan the night before and pack my bag so that I know I have just exactly the foods I want and need with me the next day. But again, those aren't trigger foods--unless you consider lowfat string cheese and celery with peanut butter trigger foods. And I like the idea of parenting myself--taking really good, nurturing care of myself.

I guess it's like any program--take what works for you, leave the rest.

I've heard of the practice too -- the theory is that you might gain a bit at first, once you realize you can have anything any time you want to, you start to eat for your body's needs instead out of compensation for deprivation (famine mode, eat what you can, while you still can).

I never would have believed it would work, especially as I have 200 lbs to lose, I obviously cannot be trusted with eating any time I WANT to, or so I thought.

Hubby and I joined WW 6 weeks ago, and we decided we would change what we were eating, but would buy one or two snack foods that we would portion out ahead of time into 3 point bags. Before we would often sit down with a can of pringles or a 10 oz bag of chips, and finish it while watching tv (and not necessarily sharing). We had a kitchen drawer we filled with all of the little ziploc baggies, and without realizing it, we have stockpiled quite a stash. Mostly because we still buy a bag of snacks at the grocery each week, and portion it out, but only eat one or two serving. So after 6 weeks, I had to find a bigger storage spot for the little bags because we're not eating them. I told hubby just the other night, we need to stop buying snacks until we eat what we have (which at the rate we're eating them will be about 3 months or more). I never would have believed we could have snack foods like chips, nuts, and crackers around, and be able to control our selves.

That's a great idea, kaplods. I'm going to borrow it, ok???

I did something like that once where I decided to buy a whole bunch of foods that were in the top of my favorite "bad" foods. What did I do? I binged and then discovered I didn't really like them as much as I thought I did. I think if you constantly keep them in your house, its a bad idea but if you give yourself a time period to eat them by "ok i can buy this stuff but it has to be out of the house by the end of the weekend, one way or another", you might grow disgust for the stuff. Not that I'm advocating binging and I'm a strong believer that you'll eat was is in your house so keep it out of your house.

As far as portions go, that is awesome. I'm still working on portion control. I decided I wanted a snack to keep at work so I found those 100 calorie bags of popcorn. They are about half the size of a normal popcorn bag and they are really helpful for when the cravings hit you and you don't want to face temptation. When I first started buying them, I was eating 1 a day, now I eat one once a week, if that.

I am someone who has actually done the stock up plan, and for me it was life changing. My whole life I never trusted myself with food. If there was something sweet and yummy around, I would eat it. Not only would I eat it, but I would be consumed by it. From the moment I knew it was in the cupboard – whether I put it there or I found that someone else had bought it, I would think about it. It would constantly haunt me until I broke down and ate it. It was a horrible feeling and I felt completely out of control. When I read the book, my first reaction was NO WAY. I could never control myself. I would eat everything twice and go back for more.

But after finishing the book (and reading several others) I decided to give it a try. I bought anything and everything I wanted – mostly junk, and mostly chocolate. I let myself eat it whenever I truly wanted it, and yes, at first I ate more than I probably should have, but it didn’t last that long. I started to feel comfortable having stuff in the house. It no longer called out to me. The big thing was that I learned how to trust myself around food. Believe me, it is possible. It can be really scary, but for me, once I faced my fear of myself I discovered I could actually trust myself. Also for me, whether or not I lost any more weight, it was so worth it. To be freed from that constant battle in my head has been so amazing. It is also so true what other people have said - you realize that many of the things you craved weren't as good as you thought they would be. So much of it was the mental anticipation and the lure of forbidden foods.

Now this worked for me because of many of my motivations to eat. A big one for me was based on denial when I was a little girl. I was always heavy and my parents restricted what I ate all the time. So whenever I got any chance at all to have something, I would eat it whether I really wanted it at that moment or not because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. That mentality followed me into adulthood even when it was me buying the groceries. Allowing myself anything, rather than grasping on to what was available freed me to actually choose what I want. The thing is I don’t want everything when I really think about it.

This may not work for everyone, and I can say it hasn’t helped me too much to lose weight. Part of my problem there was that shortly after I went through this I got together with my BF and my eating patterns changed all over again. Having done the mental work I am now ready to actually lose weight and I am incorporating this (somewhat) into what I am doing. I can still eat anything I want whenever I want. I have no restrictions. I do however have to log it in my daily calories, and I am trying to average things out over a week’s time. At the same time, if I eat something, I eat it. It isn't the end of the world.

Often what will happen is, for example say someone at work has cookies. I look at the cookie and say to myself – “you can have that cookie. In fact, you can have any cookie you want in the whole world. If you had to choose any cookie available, then would you choose that one? No? Then wait and have the cookie you really want. I will even get it for you after work if you really truly want it. No? OK then, next time.” No more eating because it is there – only if I really want it. Also, because of this my loss may be a bit slower than other people, but that is OK with me. I trust that I will get there in the end, and if I need to make changes along the way I will find a way to do that.

I've never read the book, but I've done something along similar lines. The word "stockpile" suggests vast quantities, to me, and I haven't gone that far, but I have reintroduced "banned" foods with some success.

That's exactly what I always did when I had my fave foods around. Butter, [certain types of] cheese, chips, crisps, fried , nuts, ribs.... I went daft on any and all of these until there were none left, and then I'd buy more to start all over again. So when I decided to get my weight off once and for all, these foods were banned from the house. Every now and then I'd buy a bag of Munchies to see if I could eat a single portion, and virtually every time, I immediately scoffed the lot.

Then, after Christmas, and three months on from the last time I'd properly worked my plan, I acknowledged that the whole "counting kcals" thing was no longer right for me, and I needed to try something different. I was starting to feel deprived. Even though there was nothing physically stopping me from spending kcals on unhealthy food, it was obviously a psychological thing that made me binge on them whenever they were around. I figure if I'm ever to have a healthy relationship with food, I have to take back the power I've allowed food to have over me.

It was scary at first, because I didn't know what to expect. I thought I'd go crazy, and put on a load of weight, but the opposite happened! I've averaged more than a pound a week since the New Year, and it doesn't feel as though I'm trying.

I've done away with counting kcals, and instead eat proper portions of [mostly] healthy food. I've decided that no food is off limits. If I really fancy it, I'll have it, but keep control of the portion size. So, I went out and bought all the things from my "absolutely love, but can't have around me" list (except the fried chicken which has lost its appeal to me now), and guess what? The crisps are still in the cupboard (unopened), the nuts I eat in 1-1½ oz portions, I've used one tblsp. of the butter, and the Munchies I opened 7 weeks ago are probably stale by now....

I couldn't have done this last year, but the months I spent readjusting my diet have taught me how much I enjoy eating well, and how much better I feel when I do. I can still have my "treats", but knowing that too many of them will leave me feeling bloody awful afterwards, tends to stop me from overdoing it. When I do go OTT (wine is still a weakness of mine), I put it behind me, and try to remember for next time that 2 or 3 glasses is sufficient.

Like NotTheCheat, I've found the whole thing to be immensely liberating. I can be around all manner of food now and not be driven to shove it in my gob simply because it's there. It makes me feel powerful, and I love it! My self-esteem is on the rise, and I'm sure some of my other obsessive-compulsive behaviours are easing up too.

I go through stages. Sometimes I can carry a chocolate bar round with me for days without feeling the need to eat it, sometimes I just open my kitchen cupboards and eat whatever's there. OK, it's now usually healthy stuff in there, but believe me, I can binge on vegetables or nuts or fruit if there's nothing "naughtier" available.

I prefer the first me, but I just can't seem to control which side of me comes out at any one time. At the moment I'm dealing with that by trying to only buy the food I need for a weeks meals rather than having too much stuff lying around begging to be eaten.

Maybe one day I'll manage to find the key to keep that first side of me on top of the binger, but I'm not there yet.

Years ago I did do the stockpiling. I had boxes of old fashioned glazed doughnuts and when one box would get low, I'd buy another. I'm sure I gained some lbs doing this. It didn't last long though (no matter how much I liked glazed doughnuts I did reach a saturation point, heh heh). I was so happy I tried this because I would have the problem of not feeling like I could stop if I started a bag of chips, opened a carton of ice cream (pint), opened a box of doughnuts, etc.

Doing that changed my thinking about food and now that panicky feeling of needing to finish something is pretty much gone. For me it worked. It was further down the line for me getting into a healthy eating pattern and starting exercise. That was one of my early steps of getting over binge eating.

I don't believe in bad and good foods, I believe in healthier foods and better choices. I don't have banished foods, I have foods that I rarely eat, and even some foods I'd rather not keep around because they're so yummy I eat too much and the calories are too high.

The way that I understood it, accepting yourself the way you are doesn't mean that you can't lose weight or change yourself for the positive. It means saying I love myself at whatever size I am.

I read a great post here, I'm sorry I can't remember who wrote it, a lady was writing how we (especially, but not only women) see our self worth as being so dependent on how we look (she put it better). I think for that reason, if you're overweight there's a feeling like you can't say you love yourself, because being overweight means you're not attractive, if you're not attractive, then it automatically means you're not as good, and how can you love yourself if you can't accept that you're not as good?

I know a lot of women feel the incentive to lose weight because they look in the mirror and hate what they see. Well, another way of looking at it is I love this person I see (physically as well), but I'd like to see a healthier body.

I hope that makes sense.

I'm in awe of people who can keep their favorite high-calorie trigger foods in the house and not eat them. Unfortunately, I'll need a brain transplant before that will ever work for me. I've accepted the fact that I'll always have issues with certain foods -- and it doesn't bother me a bit that I'll never eat them again. Kudoes to you who have overcome your food issues!