Before I respond to the article, Greg, I might suggest that (either now, or in the future) that when you post article links, that you pull out what you think is interesting, or controversial, or worth discussing. It's a pretty long article, and its message can be challenging to extract.

Just a suggestion.

I participated on the intuitive maintenance thread back in the day. Honestly I always thought of myself as having "memorized" the program and the portions rather than it really becoming intuitive. Nothing truly intuitive or automatic about it in that sense.

I also subscribe to the idea that "self-control" is more about managing ones environment rather than "staring down the devil" with a "just say no" idealism. When tested it turned out that kids and adults do much better by changing the argument or visualizing something else rather than getting a mind grip. When we exercise some planning and changing our environment we may do better.

I am not sure folks were following a particular program per se. I think that several were not journaling or counting points at the time, myself included. I believe that most of the folks were also eating primarily Simply Filling Foods or CORE foods which are similar to many of the "free" foods of today. As part of that many folks were listening to their bodies for the "just right" filling of satisfaction and not full or over full. In my case I don't have much of satisfaction meter so I do better eating amounts from habit. Also in my case not counting points works much better for maintenance than losing weight and I didn't stop counting for about a year after reaching a reasonable goal (except when away in foreign lands).

I agree that the tenets as explained are a bit removed from "intuitive" in my book. They are very much like the tenets of the old "CORE" program in WW and also the simply filling technique or SFT. I guess the one obvious difference was that folks counted points for items that weren't on the CORE or SFT list.
Some of the tenets make some sense to me.

#1 Reject the diet mentality in the sense of looking at food as virtue or sin (the old "good food" "bad food" talk. I too down play this as it isn't a moral choice and we aren't morally depraved for eating a slice of pizza.

#2 Honor Hunger. Very difficult for me as I am not hungry by nature, and it is difficult to use cues to eat the right portions because of that. A good thought though. With me it is more about so-called "hedonic hunger" where I want it if I see it (apple fritter for example) and not because I am truly physically hungry. I liked the old idea of true hunger where eating broccoli or perhaps brussels sprouts might help.

#5 Respect fullness. Similar to #2. I know when I am over full or stuffed but not so good in recognizing "just right".

#7 Honor feelings (instead of rewarding feelings with food). I am ok with this and compared to some others not really so much of an emotional eater per se.

#9 Exercise. I am glad the author got away from the old idea of traditional military style stuff and talks more about activity. Honestly my body doesn't know if I am spinning circles on a gym bike or toodling to the store outdoors to get groceries. Same thing with walking or gardening. I much prefer to talk of being active.

steve0mania wrote: »

Before I respond to the article, Greg, I might suggest that (either now, or in the future) that when you post article links, that you pull out what you think is interesting, or controversial, or worth discussing. It's a pretty long article, and its message can be challenging to extract.

Just a suggestion.

I totally agree, and this is not to single you out Greg. I rarely bother to read an article that's linked. I must say though that I do appreciate that you commented on it. A link on here, facebook, or anywhere else, without an explanation from the poster, is really annoying. Just my two cents.