'Intuitive Eating' drop out - really struggling!

tannadine
tannadine Posts: 115 Member
in Getting Started
Hi everyone,

I've been a member of MFP for a while, though I've yet to have any long runs of unbroken recording. As the title of this post suggests, for a while I dabbled with the tenets of intuitive eating (you know the drill, eat when hungry, eat what you want, stop when full) - I listened intently to all the different messages bombarding me about how dieting didn't work and that if I only listened to my body's natural cues I'd end up svelte and healthy.

Um... either I haven't been doing it properly, or I've just seriously messed up my headspace. Now, all I can think of is being stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm damned if I diet, and damned if I don't. It's almost like I'm setting myself up to fail - I indulge in last supper eating, fall off the wagon, and all the time I'm telling myself, 'see, this is because diets don't work'. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to kick this harmful mental habit? I want to stop binging and buckle down to healthy eating, but it's like a compulsion. I think I need some willpower (or a swift kick up the *kitten*!) :)

Replies

  • focusedfitness123
    focusedfitness123 Posts: 73 Member
    Love your profile picture! If you are tracking what you eat on here feel free to add me and I can see what your diet looks like. I'm not an expert but I do not that eating doesn't have to be complex to be effective.
  • Onaughmae
    Onaughmae Posts: 873 Member
    Set your goals (realistically...say .5-1lb/week), log everything, measure everything, and get some sort of activity in as often as you can. Thats really about it. Only you can find your willpower. Deep deep and find it! You can do anything you want to do. Don't let that food demon control you...you control it. It is not necessary to starve to lose weight. Just make better choices. You are right....diets will fail. It has to be a lifestyle change. Best of luck!

    Feel free to add me if you like! :flowerforyou:
  • jessspurr
    jessspurr Posts: 258 Member
    For me "eating healthy" sounds an awful lot like a diet. What has worked for me is just counting calories. Eating what I want, when I want as long as I am in a calorie deficit at the end of the day, it's all good! As far as the binge cycle thing goes, I don't have a lot of advice. I think I would maybe just try getting rid of the "all or nothing" mentality.
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
    DIets dont work. Changing behavior does. For me, the trick is to log everything and to take a slightly longer view of calorie goals. Meaning, I look at my calories as a weekly number, not a daily one. My daily number is 1840, so 1840x7=12880, so my goal is to stay under 12880 for the week. That way if I want a donut but it will put me over today, i have it and work it out over the week. That also helps me know if i need to do some extra work to burn a few extra calories.
  • tufchic
    tufchic Posts: 10 Member
    I'm on here to really hone my diet also. I emotional eat sometimes and then blow off my diet. Whats been working for me is finding something I really like to eat for breakfast and lunch thats not a lot of calories. I have been eating cereal for breakfast and a huge salad for lunch. Then basically eating whatever I want for dinner (i.e not fast or fried food) but for example I had bbq chicken last night. Tracking it all of course. The huge salad has been really helping me not get too snacky.

    Good Luck
  • amosessamuel
    amosessamuel Posts: 1
    Hang in there and keep using MFP and look for trends. Use the notes section to note how you feel. You have come this far!
    Congratulations on your weightloss.

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