Re: Re: Comfort Zone Issues

[Guest guest]

hi Judy Ann,I'm glad you wrote.i'm wondering about the phrase you used " jump start an IE program. " this sounds worrisome to me... like a diet mentality... especially in conjunction with the fact that you want to lose 50 pounds.

diet mentality tends to lead to restriction and then rebellion... and more weight GAIN, in the long run if not the short run as well.i think IE works best if you can start slowly and gently. pick ONE thing that you want to work on, and start with that. maybe it will be eating when hungry, stopping when full, or eating consciously. 

when you feel confident with that step, then you can pick another from the IE smorgasboard. i caution you against focusing on your weight loss goal. if you focus on that, it will be extremely hard to eat intuitively. with time, you may lose weight as a side effect of learning to eat intuitively. but let your body guide that... while you just work on getting the rest of you in order! 

best,abbyIE since 11/08

[Guest guest]

Alana,Thank you so much for this post....I think one of the most wonderful things about intuitive eating is that we have a tool where we can evaluate whether particular foods serve our bodies and which ones then make our bodies have to struggle harder. It is much much different to choose not to eat something because your body knows how eating that food will make it feel......than thinking with your head...."I shouldn't eat that because it's not good for me". It seems like splitting peas but it is really two totally different things. One feels like serving ourselves the other feels like depriving ourselves. One is using our heads and our "knowledge" about what other people have said are good foods/bad foods.....the other is using our own bodies feedback about which foods make it feel it's best. I have eaten mostly greens, fruit, vegetables and nuts and seeds for the past 3 years not because my head says so but that is what my body craves 95% of the time. Over the 15 years of tuning in....this is what my body says right now today. Who knows what it will say tomorrow. Last month it went through a period where it really needed red meat about every 3 days. Now it feels like whatever nutrient it needed from the red meat has been satisfied for a while. Intuitive eating to me, seems like the absolute best way of eating possible because we can tune in to what our bodies need at different times. It's way healthier than picking a certain way of eating and sticking to it so strictly that the body's needs are totally ignored. I was a strict raw foodist for a while but my body started screaming like I said for red meat. This further confirmed to me that all bodies need different things at different times. The more in tune we get to our bodies....the more we will be able to tell the difference between a true physical need for a food and an addiction. My body cannot handle processed sugar and quickly gets physically addicted to it. The feeling of physical addiction is very different for me than true hunger. I think with as much as is going on with our food supply as far as big companies looking to make a profit at getting people addicted to their foods......it seems imperative to learn the difference between an addiction and true hunger. Eating intuitively is WAY easier if there are no chemical addictions going on as those messages just make it so much more confusing.For someone else processed sugar may not be physically addicting- I don't know- I have only been one person all my life. I have heard of many people feeling the same thing about processed sugar but then I also see other people who don't feel that way. The only way for us to tell is to continue listening and decoding our own body's messages.

I don't think the urge to eleminate a certain food out of your diet for health reasons is not necessarily diet mentality. Or at least it doesn't need to be. I think it all depends on your out look of things. That outlook stems around good/bad, right/wrong thinking. If you work on eleminating say sugar from your diet because you know it doesn't serve your body well and with the attitude that you will do your best to not eat sugar, but then occassionaly you do have some sugar, it is important to not make yourself bad or wrong for having something with sugar. But if you beat yourself up and make yourself bad and wrong for eating sugar, then you end up in diet mentality.

I have really experimented with this. I eleminated gluten from my diet for a year. I did it because I was having digestive issues and wondered if I might be gluten sensitive. As I eleminated it, I realized I felt better. So I kept it out of my diet for a year. Then I started experimenting with adding it back in but in the most whole grain/natural way possible. I have found that I can eat gluten, but there are times I prefer not to.

I have also worked at eliminating sugar. And again, I feel so much better when I don't eat a ton of sugar. But I occassionaly have ice cream or some chocolate. And I don't make myself bad for doing so. I think my brain has finally made the connection to my body that I don't feel good eating these things and so I am more able to stop and really question wether I want that food item or not. My brain now can say, "no, that won't make the tummy feel good, so we dont' really want it. Let's find something else". I think my brain finally made that connection because I quit having the negative talk when I did.

I also quit "depriving" myself. If I really wanted it, I did, but I really stopped and asked myself if I really wanted it and for what reasons.

Am I making any sense?

Alana

>

> > **

> >

> >

> > hi Judy Ann,

> >

> > I'm glad you wrote.

> >

> > i'm wondering about the phrase you used "jump start an IE program."

> >

> > this sounds worrisome to me... like a diet mentality... especially in

> > conjunction with the fact that you want to lose 50 pounds.

> >

> > diet mentality tends to lead to restriction and then rebellion... and more

> > weight GAIN, in the long run if not the short run as well.

> >

> > i think IE works best if you can start slowly and gently. pick ONE thing

> > that you want to work on, and start with that. maybe it will be eating when

> > hungry, stopping when full, or eating consciously.

> >

> > when you feel confident with that step, then you can pick another from the

> > IE smorgasboard.

> >

> > i caution you against focusing on your weight loss goal. if you focus on

> > that, it will be extremely hard to eat intuitively. with time, you may lose

> > weight as a side effect of learning to eat intuitively. but let your body

> > guide that... while you just work on getting the rest of you in order!

> >

> > best,

> >

> > abby

> > IE since 11/08

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

,It totally makes sense that our bodies need different things at different times. In Montreal we have 4 seasons. In the summer the temperature can go up to 35C with very high humidity. Last summer we had 3 heat waves (over 30C for 3 consecutive days). There is a real danger of heat stroke and death. The city administration keeps libraries and pools open later so that people can cool off. In the winter the temperature can go down to -30C, can be damp or dry, sometimes very windy, exposed skin can freeze in 30 seconds. So...........How can our bodies possible have the same nutritional needs under both these condition?! They can't.CaroleTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Sent: Fri, July 15, 2011 3:40:19 PMSubject: Re: Re: Comfort Zone Issues

Intuitive eating to me, seems like the absolute best way of eating possible because we can tune in to what our bodies need at different times. It's way healthier than picking a certain way of eating and sticking to it so strictly that the body's needs are totally ignored. I was a strict raw foodist for a while but my body started screaming like I said for red meat. This further confirmed to me that all bodies need different things at different times.

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[Guest guest]

,It totally makes sense that our bodies need different things at different times. In Montreal we have 4 seasons. In the summer the temperature can go up to 35C with very high humidity. Last summer we had 3 heat waves (over 30C for 3 consecutive days). There is a real danger of heat stroke and death. The city administration keeps libraries and pools open later so that people can cool off. In the winter the temperature can go down to -30C, can be damp or dry, sometimes very windy, exposed skin can freeze in 30 seconds. So...........How can our bodies possible have the same nutritional needs under both these condition?! They can't.CaroleTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Sent: Fri, July 15, 2011 3:40:19 PMSubject: Re: Re: Comfort Zone Issues

Intuitive eating to me, seems like the absolute best way of eating possible because we can tune in to what our bodies need at different times. It's way healthier than picking a certain way of eating and sticking to it so strictly that the body's needs are totally ignored. I was a strict raw foodist for a while but my body started screaming like I said for red meat. This further confirmed to me that all bodies need different things at different times.

__._,_.__