|
Quote:
So I'm going to try to focus on my hunger status, and eat SENSIBLY, and watch those portion sizes. I am considering doing Phase I of SouthBeach again, just to jumpstart me. Of course, I will let you all know how it works. The support I get here means a great deal to me! And not just the responses to my questions, but the general camraderie. Love y'all!!!! :D |
You know, this thread has got me thinking... I don't think I could ever intuitively eat. Right now I am sticking to about 1500 cals. Most days I go over by a tiny bit, but I'm okay with that. Every now and then I will be under. It seems to me that on the most random days I will feel as if I have eaten a TON and I will just feel HEAVY... but then the next day, I will have dropped some weight. It is not clockwork like I have just described, but it just seems that I am not able to judge how much I have eaten. I definitely have a lot of respect and admiration for those of you who do!
Sorry to be a bit OT, but I felt like adding my 2 cents. |
Quote:
And if I recall correctly she definitely did NOT mean to eat off plan ALL day. She meant it as ONE off meal DURING each of those 36 days. Aww, shucks. And without a doubt, intuitive eating most definitely DOES NOT work for me. If I listened to my body, I'd be eating garbage all day long. All night long too - for the most part. Sure I love the healthy stuff I'm eating now and I am satisfied, but nevertheless, my "body" often tells me to eat, eat and then EAT some more. And I gotta tell you - it's not exactly telling me to eat fish and vegetables all the time. It's telliing me BAAAAD things. ;) |
I have upped my calories from 1200 to 1300-1400 a day. I have reached a plateau and I read if you do that you may start losing again. I actually lost 2 pounds this week doing that and I don't feel so hungry.
betty |
Quote:
But like you, I really wish I could eat intuitively. It seems as if it would be a lot easier than counting calories. |
Quote:
Normally, when I get a hankering for something sweet or salty (i.e. candy or chips) there's usually something else going on. Such as major stress, boredom, I see somebody else having it & then I want it too, etc. I rarely want it because I'm truly craving it. (except for that TOM.... :p and we all know that what you do during that time doesn't count, because we must keep sane & not kill people. Right?) I think that really listening to your body takes some practice, tho. After all, it's drilled into us that we MUST eat breakfast & we MUST eat lunch, and we MUST eat before we go on that trip, and we MUST eat what is served, etc. I think it takes time to re-train our thought-pattern... to really ask ourselves "Am I really hungry right now? Or does Pizza just sound so good...?" |
That's just the thing BeachPatrol. I have a hard time distinguishing between what my body wants/needs and what my head wants/needs. And quite frankly I don't have the patience to figure it out. Or the need to. That intuitive eating thing is just not for me. I've tried it and I know it's not the answer. But that's okay. I have figured out what works for me. I'll stick to my planning and scheduele and calorie counting. Yes, my body definitely feels better now that I am feeding it healthy foods, but my body never told me to eat that stuff. Now it's my HEAD that's telling me to eat it. You'd THINK that my body would be smart enough to figure it out after all this time. But my body's not so swift. Luckily I have my head to fall back on. :)
|
Quote:
I don't know how to add another quotation to my post, so I'll just cut and paste these words from Beach Patrol: "I think that really listening to your body takes some practice, tho. After all, it's drilled into us that we MUST eat breakfast & we MUST eat lunch, and we MUST eat before we go on that trip, and we MUST eat what is served, etc. I think it takes time to re-train our thought-pattern . . ." I completely agree with this--especially as it concerns the three meals a day thing. I know that some people swear by 5-6 meals a day, too, but that has never worked out well for me. I mean, I do lose weight, but I never feel satisfied, and I feel as if I'm constantly thinking or preparing food. I've known many people who never had a weight problem and do not follow much of the conventional wisdom concerning weight maintenance (e.g., my husband regularly eats 2 meals a day, and he's never had a weight problem). |
TYPO: I meant to say I lose two pound a week... lol... not a day!
|
Just to let you know how I'm doing, since you're thinking about intuitive eating...
I've been doing it the past few days and I've felt less worry about dieting lately and I've felt good and content! I've just started but I've been dropping about a pound a day. I eat every 5 hours cause that's when I get hungry and I have a snack if I need it. If I don't need it I don't have it. I've finally found my eating style! I don't like diets cause...what do you do after the diet!? I just want something I can do everyday without stopping to think, "Is this what I'm supposed to be doing?" I have enough control to be aware and eat one portion and choose good things...but not enough control to count without going crazy!! Go figure? |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I'm with Robin -- my head has to tell my body what to do. Otherwise, I'd still be carrying that 97 pounds around, for sure. |
I don't think our body let's us get fat. I think WE let ourselves get fat. I used to think hungry was when I wasn't full. I have cravings to eat and feel "hungry" between my meals. But that's not hunger. It's my old habits wanting to be done.
I'm hungry ever 5-6 hours. That's when I'm genuinely hungry. And it doesn't take much to satisfy me. I know in my case, I LET myself get fat because I made excuses for myself. I made excuses all the time for why I ate and why I wasn't eating normally. I don't have excuses anymore, and I listen to my body. When it has cravings and is "hungry" between meals, I know that it's wrong. "Am I genuniely hungry? No. Okay, then. I don't eat." That's what I'm understanding now. I'm also seeing that I AM in control. It's like this way of eating has been waiting for me. I don't feel bad about food like I was feeling bad. I find it very easy to eat when hungry and stop when satisified. This is my thing, of course, it might not be someone else's. |
Gamerchick, after reading your post, I kind of think there's really no difference in what you and Robin and I are doing. We're just calling it something different. When you tell yourself you're not actually hungry, you say it's your body you're listening to. When Robin and I do it, we think we're listening to our heads because we think our bodies actually want the food. It all ends up the same, it seems. I agree with you that our bodies don't let us get fat -- our heads do. And my head is what's getting me AWAY from fat. Once I allowed my body to get obese, though, it craved more. My head had to take over.
It's all semantics, though. Whatever we call it, it all comes down to consuming less than we burn so we can get rid of the excess weight. And that's what we're doing, so yay! :) |
Quote:
And I'm glad you have your "head" to fall back on. ;) :D :D :D |
Think about it......for thousands of years people didn't diet or knew about food values, nutrittion, etc. What did they go by? Hunger and satisfaction. How did they know what was good for them? There bodies or heads or whatever told the.
|
Quote:
Nutrition is a modern concept that comes from abundance. |
Yeah, for thousands of years people ate what was available and that was it. They find that if you take people currently living in subsistance cultures and eating according to hunger and food availability and bring them to the US, they will get obese just like most Americans.
I agree with the people who said intuitive eating just doesn't work for them. If at some point in my past (maybe as a child?) my body knew intuitively what to eat, that part of me has stopped working after years of eating from emotions, boredom, cravings, etc. My intuition is to eat all the time, load up on salty fatty foods and and top it off with ice cream! |
But if you make it a rule to eat only when you're genuinely hungry, you're not going to be eating all the time. Only every few hours.
|
Quote:
I find if I wait until I am hungry then I definitely overeat, I definitely eat too fast, and I risk just "grabbing something" non-nutritious just because it's faster than making something healthy. For me, the only thing that has ever worked was eating 5-6 times per day. It rocks! It has virtually stopped my cravings, I can actaully slow down and enjoy food now, whereas before when I waited until I was hungry I would be shoveling in the food to get full..it keeps the blood sugar steady, it makes me feel better. At first i was a total non-believer but I thought I owed it to myself to at least give it a shot. Boy, am I glad I did! The first few days it felt as if I was always eating, lol but once you get into the routine of it it's not a hassle at all. I plan to keep this routine forever. |
Quote:
I must say, however, that I'm getting a bit closer. Even though I count calories, I still try to wait until I'm hungry before I eat my first meal (i.e., I don't eat just because it's breakfast or lunch or dinner). The only difference is that if I cave in and eat when I'm not hungry, I still have the calorie counting to fall back on (whereas when I was just trying IE, I felt defeated if I'd eaten when I wasn't hungry). Perhaps I'm still eating for emotional reasons at times, but when I do, I end up not gaining weight because I'm still restricting my calories. However, for those of you who haven't tried IE and would like to know more, there are some good books out there (I've read many of them). A couple that come to mind are Seven Secrets of Slim People and Intuitive Eating. |
To summarize: Do what works! If calorie counting works, do that! If intuitive eating works, do that! And don't do something that doesn't work--at least not once you figure out it's not working.
That said, it's important to give a weight loss method a fair try before giving it up. For me, calorie counting is the way I best know where I'm at. I kinda fail at intuitive eating because I don't have a good sense of when I'm genuinely hungry. Keep going on whatever is working for you! Jay |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:00 PM. |
Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.