Intuitive Eating

whitebalance

Intuitive eating is technically easy once you have a good idea of your calorie intake and that you can separate your emotions from your food. I've done it before and for a good while it worked fairly well until I fell back into my old habits.

QFT. Having measured food and tracked calories makes it easier to assess what you're eating vs what your body needs.

"Intuitive eating" sounds so natural and easy, but consider how many people eat what they "feel like" eating without paying much attention to their intake and are unhappy with their weight. I've found that when the sweet tooth (or the habitual mind) wants what's not good for the rest of the body, without measuring intake, it's all too easy to rationalize and to underestimate amounts... and then it's easy to blame the heat cycle on the dryer when clothes start getting snug... and then "suddenly" you're 20, 30, 40 pounds overweight and wondering how it happened and how you'll ever take the weight back off. The measured approach IS mindfulness -- monitoring and paying attention to what goes in. It works.

gmallan

After logging for a while I'm trying this. Haven't read the book but at the moment I'm just eating when and what I feel like while keeping healthy eating in mind. I just want to be able to get to a place where I can just eat, not think about food constantly and have enough energy for life and my workouts.

Truckergirl922

Intuitive eating is technically easy once you have a good idea of your calorie intake and that you can separate your emotions from your food. I've done it before and for a good while it worked fairly well until I fell back into my old habits.

QFT. Having measured food and tracked calories makes it easier to assess what you're eating vs what your body needs.

"Intuitive eating" sounds so natural and easy, but consider how many people eat what they "feel like" eating without paying much attention to their intake and are unhappy with their weight. I've found that when the sweet tooth (or the habitual mind) wants what's not good for the rest of the body, without measuring intake, it's all too easy to rationalize and to underestimate amounts... and then it's easy to blame the heat cycle on the dryer when clothes start getting snug... and then "suddenly" you're 20, 30, 40 pounds overweight and wondering how it happened and how you'll ever take the weight back off. The measured approach IS mindfulness -- monitoring and paying attention to what goes in. It works.

Intuitive eating isn't eating what you want, when you want it, however much you want. Intuitive eating is discovering what you NEED, when you NEED to eat, and how much you NEED. Your body will tell you what you need. Your mind/emotions tell you what you want. Separating the need from the wants is the success of this lifestyle. I hope no one feels I am "pushing" this, I was just asking if anyone else had been successful or tried it. I appreciate all your responses/opinions and wish you all love and joy in whatever brings you success and happiness.

9thChakra

Trucker...don't worry if other people don't "get it." You have found something that you realize can help you along your journey.

I've listened to this audiobook and I'm becoming much better at intuitive eating. It's very difficult because for so long eating (particularly sugar) has been a coping mechanism of mine from childhood.

Learning how to check in with myself, rate my fullness/hunger, not settle for something I don't want, and learning how to really pay attention to what is driving me to eat (real hunger vs. emotional need) has been difficult and amazing.

There are times when I eat beyond fullness but not as much anymore.

There are times when I find myself in the kitchen/store seeking comfort and I do sometimes still eat mindlessly...but it's like I'm watching myself now...I can actually see myself doing it and I am much more aware of when this is happening. Unlike in the past when I'd eat emotionally and never realized that's what was going on.

I find it really, really difficult at times to get the "diet mentality" out of my head (not that I ever liked or "did" dieting...but I grew up with a yo-yo mother). This is particularly true for me if I go on a streak of junk or even just have one thing that just makes me feel sick. This causes me to want to go "extra-healthy" just to counteract...not because I'm listening to my body...but because I think I "should" "fix" the junk food intake.

Like the idea teaches, I've found the more I truly tune into my body the more I naturally take in whole/unprocessed foods.

I have made lots of changes over the years. I used to be able to eat (in reality it was more like unable NOT to eat) a whole pound bag of Twizzlers. At some point I developed the awareness that this was not food and it was hurting my body. I slowly started subbing dried fruit for twizzlers (papaya and mango worked for me). I did this with more and more crap "food" - subbing in real food instead. Over time my tastes changed. I no longer can eat chocolate that is highly processed with a bunch of filler. I get good quality dark chocolate (85%) and my taste buds no appreciate the quality. Not to mention I can actually eat this slow and be satisfied with less.

I grew up with very little exposure to different foods and the choices I did have were extremely weighted in the sugar/processed foods and meat side of things. Fresh veggies/fruits and foods that were not meat and potatoes were unheard of. My palette has grown...but even now I find that when I shop I tend to buy more fruit and less veggies just because of the sweetness factor. It's not that I don't like veggies...it's just that my body has a hard time knowing and/or I have a hard time hearing that my body wants veggies.

Sounds funny but I sometimes I'll feel strange and I'll go through the cupboards looking for something to eat to make me feel better. Then it dawns on me I have nothing salty in the house...only sweet. Or I have a bag of potato chips that have been there for a month, unopened. So I eat them or go get something with salt or steam some broccoli and add a little salt and I feel so much better. It's just a flavor I never comforted myself with when I was younger so I don't eat it...but it's also an essential mineral my body just needs sometimes.

Anyhow...I really hope you continue to learn from the book. I just went for a walk yesterday and was listening to it again. Every time I listen I tune into something new or I hear something that is important to me and I'm glad I heard it again as a reminder.

Take care!

9thChakra