Re: Hardest part of IE for me right now

[Guest guest]

, my mother was a good cook, even though she worked and came home and prepared meals for me and my father. She cooked simply, and you're making me think about what she made, because I usually enjoyed her cooking! :-) We ALWAYS started with grapefruit, isn't that strange? My job was to cut the sections of the grapefruit before she came home, LOL. :-) Sometimes we would put sugar on it if it was too sour, but I learned to love grapefruit, and now it's one of my favorite fruits. I can have it for starters for breakfast, or I put a few pieces on my dinner plate. I don't cut the sections, I just cut up the grapefruit with the rind and eat it as I would a section of orange. Then she would serve a salad, meat or chicken (hardly ever fish for some reason), a cooked vegetable,

and, if I remember correctly, a potato. I was young, thin, and very active, would go bicycling after school in high school, I always did exercise in my room in the morning and the evening (I think those days are gone), sometimes after dinner I would take some ice cream. Thanks for reminding me, and I will think about what she cooked because as simple as it was, I always enjoyed her cooking! Tai

To: IntuitiveEating_Support Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 5:28 PMSubject: Hardest part of IE for me right now

The hardest part of IE for me right now is figuring out what I want to eat. It's weird to me that after years of craving and obsessing over foods, most of the time when I'm hungry I cannot figure out what I want to eat. Sometimes it is really maddening! I will go through lists of foods and I will settle on something and it's ok. But often the food is disappointing or not satisfying. Has anyone else experienced this?Feeling my hunger has become pretty easy for me, especially since most of the time I don't overeat so after a few hours it's predictable when I feel hunger pangs. Along with that, knowing when to stop is so much easier for me. The missing piece right now is choosing foods and feeling satisfied (mentally). When I was a child, I was always told what to eat and had no choice about it. It didn't matter if I wanted or liked those foods. I also always had to finish my plate. I think I realize now that

I never became skilled at choosing my own foods- after I left my parent's house, I always followed a diet or ate whatever was available. I have been the ultimate "convenience" eater. Taking pleasure in eating takes more effort and concentration. On some level, I think I resent the responsibility of having to take care of myself and plan for when I'm hungry and feed myself. I just want someone else to tell me what to eat and for it to be easy.It comes down to choice- IE isn't easy but it's worth it. With freedom from dieting comes a lot more thinking and effort- you can't just sleepwalk your way through food.Thanks for listening, Becky