Sunday, September 30, 2007

IE Meeting #1 - Respect Your Body

The meeting went well. I brought cheese fries and onion rings from the Training Table. M brought chicken tacos from Del Taco, M brought vanilla oreos, and Ann Dee brought chocolate milk and spinach dip. The four of us sat around and talked about body image - chapter 12. It was emotional for some (ok just me) but nonetheless it was therapeutic. Next month we'll discuss the "feel your fullness" chapter.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Yahoo Group posting

I am a member of an Intuitive Eating yahoo group. They are very active and I seldom post anything but enjoy reading everyone else's posts. Today someone posted something that I could totally relate to so I responded. Here is the original post and my response

ORIGINAL POST:
Well, I've been embracing Intuitive Eating for about two months, and have been making my peace with cookie dough, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, potato chips, salty nuts, bleu cheese dressing, Chinese spareribs, Fritos, and Nutella. I've been trying to stay positive about the process I am in, and mostly it's been working. But today when I went to buy new fall clothes myweight gain was undeniable. I have gone up TWO pants sizes. It's hard not to be depressed over this, and hard to go shopping when my selection of clothing is that much more limited. I'm trying not to let it get me down, but I could use some encouragement.

thanks,
Lena

MY RESPONSE:
I have had almost the exact same experience. After about four months of making peace with food, I planned a shopping trip with my friends for my birthday. I was so upset to find that I had also gone up in size. My whole life I have told myself that I would never let myself gain enough weight that I had to shop at the "plus size" stores. I have gotten close before and that is when I would start a new diet and lose some weight. This time I bit my lip and walked in those stores and I was so pleased to find many clothes that FIT and LOOKED GOOD. Now when I get ready in the morning, I am actually excited to get dressed. I am still discouraged that I am gaining weight but I know that making peace with food is a necessary process. I remind myself often that I have dieted and over eaten my whole life - I can't expect to learn this new way to eat in just a few months. Because it might take years, I have to accept myself and RESPECT my body. This is easier to say than to do. Good luck and thanks for your post - I can totally relate.

Katy

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Hunger/Fullness Chart

I am now going to promise that I will post on this blog at LEAST once a week. Please keep reading. Now I'm doing this for me and not for you but knowing someone is counting on my posts will give me motivation.

So awhile back I posted about eating every time you are hungry - honor your hunger. This is all true and good but I forgot that I should wait until I actually was hungry. I'll explain later ...



In the book on page 72 and page 127 is a chart for tracking your hunger and fullness. J gave me a more descriptive chart and then told me to create my own with my own descriptions of each level. Here they are:

J's chart:


My chart:


Ideally you should eat when you are at a 3 and finish when you are at a 7. I tend to stop at a 7.5 and sometimes an 8. Stopping at an 8 is ok - REMEMBER this is a learning experience!!!

A lot of times people skip breakfast and then don't eat a mid-morning snack so by the time they eat lunch they are at a 2 and they stop eating lunch when they are at an 8. Or they will eat a light lunch - still not getting to a healthy fullmess level and then are at a 2 again before they eat dinner. This is a hard habit to change. J had me chart my hunger and fullness for a week - I also wrote down what emotion I was experiencing as I ate. The pattern I found was that if I ate at a 2, I would stop when I was at an 8. But if I ate at 3, I could stop at a 7. This was very enlightening. So I figured out that I should not let myself get to a 2 - no problem. That led to my next problem ...

I've been eating before I get hungry - like I thought I could talk myself into it when I was at a four or a five. I was looking at the clock and deciding I should be hungry so I'd eat. Let me tell you that if you eat when you are not hungry it is really hard to stop when you are full because there is not really a contrasting feeling - do you know what I mean? I was eating at a 4 or even a 5 and then having a hard time knowing when to stop. Here is part of the problem for me: I'll be coming home from work and think - what am I going to have for dinner? Then I'd have to figure out some place to pick up some food on the way home cause I knew I didn't have much at home. Well I wasn't hungry but I didn't want to go home and then have to go out again. It finally occured to me that I should go to the grocery store and buy food to prepare for when I was hungry. It is so key to have good food on hand so you will have something you want to eat WHEN you are hungry. So I know now I should WAIT until I am at a 3 to eat.

You only learn these things by experience - I can't stress that enough. Keep at it - who's in for the meeting? We're going to read the chapter on respecting your body (chapter 12)

Sunday, September 9, 2007

First Meeting

Ok so we are going to plan the first meeting. So far it is just me and Ann Dee and C Jane - the three of us will have a great time. Dan you can come if you don't fart. If you don't want to comment that you are interested, email me at katy_knight@mac.com and we'll get you the details. I'm thinking Thursday, September 27th or Saturday September 29th. I'd like to talk about the chapter on respecting our bodies or the chapter on honoring hunger because those are the principles I'm working on right now. Any other suggestions? Let me what you think.