Fears of exploding at the seams
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dwn2erth
Posts: 144 Member
I don't ever remember 'trusting' my body to know what it wants and to stop when it's full. I keep getting a vision of my waistline continuing to enlarge and exploding at the seams. I want to know that 'I' 'can' trust my body... It's so foreign it seems impossible and very scary to consider. (Especially when I'm the largest I've ever been and my health ; joints etc can't take much more weight) It's frightening?
How so you deal with this... Or is it in the book.. I'm still reading.
How so you deal with this... Or is it in the book.. I'm still reading.
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I have a lot of difficulty knowing what my body is feeling, because I'm on the autism spectrum, and I can easily get overwhelmed with lots of feelings and not know which one means what.
For me personally (and I have no idea whether this fits into what the books says), the way I first became in tune with what my body wanted was by doing a kind of partial fast. I actually did it for faith reasons, to focus on prayer - I had no awareness that it would also help me get in tune with my body too, and also make me feel healthier. I decided to eat just one meal a day for five days. Even within that period, I became aware that my body wanted fresh food (I'd grown up with processed food and had no knowledge of healthy eating). I was actually underweight at the time, as I never knew when I was hungry, and often forgot to eat, and the fast actually helped me be aware of hunger, and helped me eat more healthily.
That was almost twenty years ago. A lot more recently I've been kind of overweight - I say 'kind of', because I've been within my healthy BMI (just), but for me I've been too big, because my frame is tiny, and I've felt uncomfortable. I'd been constantly overeating, and had lost any sense of being full or hungry. Again, I did a partial fast (this time I was very aware that my body wanted to do this) and have since become much more aware of what my body needs, and being hungry and full, and have got back down to a weight that feels healthy for me.
So for me, the way to be aware of what my body needs and wants is to do fasts now and then. Rather than assume my body needs the same amount of food every single day, I try to listen to my body and sometimes it is telling me it needs a rest and to stop eating for a little while. But equally, when it is hungry, I will give it an extra meal, rather than insist on staying within a certain calorie limit. I was interested to see the BBC programme on intermittent fasting, and learn that this is now being recognised as a healthy way of doing things, rather than being purely a quirk of mine!
I have no idea whether this fits into intuitive eating, but I'm assuming what's intuitive must be different for each person, as each person's body and mind is very different. It's very intuitive for me.0 -
Opuntia You have no idea how much I needed to hear that... Especially this am. I've steadily gone up in my weight to my 'all time high of my life' of 197 with my waist at 38.5 I've never in my life been this big.
I've been thinking about a 2 day fast for just that reason you've described. I woke up (before I got on the scale) saying I'm going to trust my body today and it felt great.. Than realized after the scale .. I have no idea how to deal with hunger? Do I ever 'really' feel biological hunger? Am I afraid of feeling hungry? It wont kill me to feel hunger. Usually when I forget to eat I've just totally ignored those feelings and suddenly I'm in a huge panic..
I think making friends with that feeling of hunger my be the right way to start... getting to know biological from emotional.
Thank you so much for your input!!0 -
You're welcome - I'm glad it was helpful. :-) On the first day of your fast, you might find yourself feeling restless and irritable and having a headache, and you might think that is hunger (at least, that is what happened with me) but when you feel actual hunger, it's a very calm, simple feeling - not at all horrible. Just your body telling you it wants some food. I think it would take a long time for hunger to become a horrible feeling and turn to starvation. It couldn't happen in a couple of days, or even a week. Good luck with your fast - I hope it's a good experience for you.0
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I have the same fears about truly giving into Intuitive Eating, but I have to remind myself that I have gained ALL of my weight while dieting. So not only do I know that dieting isn't the long term solution to losing the weight, I also know that even if I initially gain a bit while learning to trust myself, learning my true food preferences, and giving myself unlimited permission to eat, it won't be much, and it will be temporary.
I've been dieting since age 11 or so, and have yo-yo dieted my entire adult life (including some disordered eating, which I was treated for at age 20). I'm ready to really learn to listen to my hunger and satiety signals. I know that they are pretty much lost to me now, because I have been ignoring them for so long. It will take hard work to learn to listen to my body, and trust myself with my own decisions regarding food and exercise.
But, I know in my heart that IE is the way that I will LOSE the excess weight and find my happy, normal, healthy weight. Even if I initially gain a bit, and even if it takes a lot longer than counting calories would.0 -
Good for you Buffy Maybe we can do it together?0
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Good for you Buffy Maybe we can do it together?
Absolutely! :drinker:
Also, I plan to blog all about it if you want to follow my journey: kindlifeofleah.blogspot.com0
