How's everyone doing?

I know quite a few of you have mentioned you are reading the book, and I'm sure we are all in different places there. I don't know about you, but I'm finding that it is ALOT of info to take in all at once, much less apply.
So trying to break it down Into weekly chunks. I'll also try to get on here and there and check in.
The challenge for this week is honor your hunger. Basically, eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. This seems really easy. But for a lot of us who have been hard working at managing our weight, I think we may live more in tune with our calories for the day than our hunger/fullness cues!
Since I've been trying to put this into practice, I've noticed I often have a hard time discerning this.

“Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust with yourself and food.
 
Steps for this week:

1. Begin to listen to the smallest noise or feeling that indicates that you are experiencing hunger, such as a growling or grumbling stomach, a slight headache, a lack of mental focus, grouchiness, lack of energy, etc.
2. As soon as you recognize your biological hunger, make the time to eat.
3. If you neglect this most basic signal and get over-hungry, it will be very hard to identify what you really want to eat or when you’ve had enough.

While I was reading through this I kept thinking about intermittent fasting. Seems like this is a popular thing right now and I've experimented with it some myself. I really don't like breakfast that much and our mornings are crazy rushed around here so it seemed a good fit for me. However Somedays I catch myself being soooo hungry. Also I think my reasons for IF are tied to the diet mentality.
The book has some really great things to say about limiting carbohydrates which I found really interesting. Seems like they are kind of the dietary scapegoat right now.

I think my biggest challenge has been and will continue to be really evaluating why I want to eat, whether it is true hunger or not.
I am still pretty much trying to eat every 3-4 hours and include protein, fats and carbs at each meal. Seems to be kind of in line with this advice:
“If this is difficult for you to gauge, a general guideline is to go no longer than five waking hours without eating. This is based on the biology of fueling up your carbohydrate tank in the liver, which runs out every three to six hours. We have observed that clients who go longer than five hours without eating tend to overeat at the next eating opportunity.”

One last note:
“A common mistake with our newer clients is that they initially embrace the honor your hunger concept in the form of a diet mantra, “Thou shall eat only when hungry.” The problem here is that this rigid interpretation can leave you feeling as if you have broken a rule, or failed, if you eat for any other reason than hunger. When you feel like you have broken a rule, you can get “pulled right back into the diet mentality. It’s important to recognize that normal eaters don’t always eat just from pure hunger, yet they maintain their weight.”

Excerpts From: Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch. “Intuitive Eating, 2nd Edition.” St. Martin’s Press. iBooks.

I definitely experienced this yesterday. I had what I was wanting to classify as a "bad" day- too many carbohydrates, lacking in protein and too many treats. There were times I ate for reasons other than hunger and ate beyond the point of fullness. I have been having a hard time feeling like I failed and can't do this! Instead, I think it's important to just look at it objectively and ask how we can learn from our experiences. For me, I know that skipping breakfast led to being overly hungry later in the day.