Re: Thank you to the group!

[Guest guest]

Bravo for you and thanks for sharing your IE journey too. I found it inspiring

and also helped me to better understand and accept that lurkers do get help here

without being in the 'thick' of things too. You really have made progress and I

can just sense the calm and acceptance you now have for yourself.

Best to you, Katcha

IEing since March 2007

>

>

> Hello IE friends,

>

> I rarely post on here, but I read the recent posts about once a week or so,

and it never fails to encourage me. Often I think about responding to certain

ones, but I am a frazzled, single mom of two preschoolers and there is so much I

never seem to get around to doing!

>

> Today I am feeling reflective so I would like to share and hopefully encourage

someone else. I converted to Intuitive Eating over a year ago and found this

forum, and I would like to thank all of you in this group. Reading the

struggles, questions and advice here has re-enforced this concept and kept me on

track so many times. THANK YOU!

>

> I am certain that IE has been one of the best decisions of my life. Even if I

had gained 50+ pounds after adopting the IE mindset, I still would have been

healthier than I was before. I've shared in other posts, but I found IE while

going through a long divorce and struggling with depression, and I believe IE is

a huge reason that I can say now that I am no longer depressed. Sure, I have

bad days, but I no longer feel that hopelessness. Because of the IE book and

Women, Food and God, I have found other ways to manage my stress, accept myself

and my life and allow myself to FEEL my emotions instead of burying them with

food. Also, I have rather recently given up the destructive habit of binging

followed by laxative abuse. Ironically, IE is what convinced me to make that

change when other arguments never worked. I was never addicted to laxatives,

but I wonder if IE would help others with eating disorders? The self-love of IE

really is a stark contrast to so many self destructive habits.

>

> So many other healthier things followed that I haven't expected. I found

forms of excercise that made me feel good and I did them because of this and

focused on this. In the past I always did crazy killer workouts the same day I

started my diet so I was underfed and over worked and MISERABLE and that lasted

two weeks at most. I can say now that I have consistently but mildly moved my

body for the past year because I enjoy it. This has actually become a way to

relieve stress and feel good, instead of something torturous. I have lost

weight since starting all this which wasn't even on purpose. I don't know how

much because I got rid of my scale. The one time I stepped on a scale in the

past year at someone else's home really had a negative impact on me and so I

really avoid them. I think the main reason I lost weight is quite simply

because I stopped binging FINALLY. My previous routinue honestly was that I

would count calories all week and then lose control and eat 20,000 calories in a

weekend. When I was in an All-U-Can-Eat weekend, I could never get full. Now,

I can feel satisfied. It's really wonderful.

>

> I love chocolate and now probably eat it every day. I have frozen chocolate

bars that I break off a piece, and I savor it. Yesterday, I was at a bbq at my

sister's. I knew I wanted dessert, so I had half a cheeseburger and half a corn

on the cob and smaller other helpings, and so I fully enjoyed the carmel pretzel

Klondike bar that I had been craving. Sure, some people made a comment about me

not eating a full burger but I said, " If I am still hungry, I'll eat the other

half. " They couldn't really argue with that logic. This is such a difference

compared to how I used to take family bbqs as an opportunity to pig out and feel

guilty later.

>

> This process has been far from easy and has had many ups and downs, but I just

wanted to share the progress I have made and how today I see so clearly how much

healthier IE has made me!

>

> I have another question for the group, but I think I'll put that into a

separate post.

>

> Thank you all again

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>