Re: vegetables - LONG response

[Guest guest]

>

> Not long before I found the IE book, I had read a book

called " Mindless

> Eating, " which I've seen several posts about over the months and

which I

> found really interesting. There were some diety things about it

and some IE

> things about it. Overall, it advocates mindful eating, which I

think is

> really closely related to what we're all striving for here.

>

> Anyway, that book cites a " diet " which says that you should fill

half your

> plate with vegetables (and fruit?) and half your plate with your

other

> foods. That way you still feel you can have a full plate of food,

but you

> do fill up a bit on roughage and all that " virtuous " green stuff.

When I

> read it, I liked the idea and my husband really liked it and we

both sort of

> casually started to do it.

>

> I am one of those folks who actually LIKE most vegetables as long

as they

> are not the only thing I'm allowed to eat. Right? So, in the few

weeks I

> was trying to do the half plate thing, I felt GREAT. I remember

feeling

> physically good and yes, I felt " righteous " --like I was now eating

in a more

> enlightened way. Ha ha.

>

> Well, when I read IE, I stopped eating that way. In the IE book,

there is a

> similar recommendation, right? They say to work toward something

like at

> least a third of your plate with vegetables and or fruit. But they

say you

> have to work out all those food demons first before you worry about

> nutrition too much. Am I recalling correctly?

>

> Anyway, my whole point is, if I try to go back to the fill a good

portion of

> your plate with vegetables (only those I like of course) and

continue to eat

> all the other foods I like, will it be like a diet? Are my motives

pure

> enough here, that i'm doing that because it made me feel better?

Or will I

> want to one day rebel,etc. the way i do with other diets? Of

course, no one

> can really answer those questions FOR ME, but I'm interested in your

> thoughts.

>

> I'm sort of enjoying the " I don't have to eat vegetables if I don't

want to "

> thing, but the thing is, I DO want to. But I haven't been because

someone

> told me I don't have to, so I took that to mean I shouldn't. You

know how

> after so long of eating according to rules, you make the absence of

rules

> into a rule? Did you follow me?

>

> Anyway, if any of that made sense, let me know what you think.

>

Hi Ann, interesting post.

1) I loved " Mindless Eating " - thought it was fascinating look at

how big food/restaurant/marketing corporations can manipulate

consumers through psychology and marketing tricks. I like that Dr

Wansink advocates against restricting your favourite foods or any

sort of dietary extremism, and instead offers practical suggestions

about how to " re-engineer " your food life so that eating is both

enjoyable and mindful. It's kind of about fine tuning out the

unnecessary and mindless eating that many of us do without any

feelings of deprivation. I can see that some people with more

ingrained eating disorders might construe his suggestions as a

bit " diety " , but I just found it a really interesting and very

readable and entertaining presentation of his scientific research

over the years. You could take any one (or none) of his ideas on

board, and/or just read it as an interesting piece of consumer-

oriented non-fiction.

2) Ann, you're right - NOBODY can answer your questions for you. But

hey - if you LIKE vegetables and you DO want to eat them, for God's

sake, honey, just eat them. You know, no matter what you do, or how

you eat, you will most likely (a) be following somebody's rules, and

simultaneously ( be breaking somebody else's. There are just soooo

many suggestions and books and rules and diets out there, often

contradicting each other, and none of them is completely right for

all of us. So bugger it. Just take the ideas that feel right to

you. Do what makes you FEEL good, what TASTES good, and FORGET about

feeling virtuous or guilty or following rules or breaking rules.

Forget about books - IE books too, if you have to - and just BE.

Enjoy. Eat. Laugh. Feel good.

Don't turn IE into another (non)diet. Tribole and Resch are not gods

or gurus either, you know. They just make some good suggestions

(suggestions, not concrete rules) that many of us find helpful as we

search for a new way of living diet-free. For me, other writers

(such as Wansink and Kausman) make further suggestions that may not

exactly mirror all of T & R's principles, but help me think about and

adjust my eating behaviours while firmly resisting the negative,

guilt-ridden diet rules of old.

Good luck with it all! (I think you're actually way further ahead in

intuitive eating than perhaps you give yourself credit for.)

Cheers

S

[Guest guest]

Thanks Sigi.As I typed out my post, I sort of realized what you are telling me to realize--if I'm not careful I can turn what is supposed to be a relaxed way of looking at food into a stressful diety thing.

I like what you said: Just BE. That is EXACTLY what I need to do. And if I'm working really hard to do it, I'm probably not doing it. Just BE-ing should be the easiest thing in the world. Why is it hard?

Thanks also for the confidence boost.Ann