New Member

[Guest guest]

Hey folks,

I'm a new member here. Just a little about me, how I found intuitive eating, and

what I hope to get out of the support group. My name is Terry. I am 47. My

username is nukehomer because I work in the nuclear field, and also because I

once bore a very embarrassing and striking resemblance to Homer Simpson. I am

retired from the US Navy. I served from 1985 to 2005 on Submarines in the Navy

Nuclear Power field. My problems with food were created while I was in the Navy.

The Navy has height/weight standards, and every 6 months they would weigh us all

in. I effectively spent my life yo-yo dieting in 6 month increments. By the time

I got out of the Navy my weight had ballooned to over 300 pounds. When I retired

I went to work at a nuclear facility. I started taking better care of myself,

stopped the 6 month cycles, and actually lost weight, and got down to 188

pounds. I did this by following the weight watchers diet and by working out. As

I see now, I was very obsessive about it, and my working out was excessive. I

kept the weight off for a year, which was very surprising to me, since I stopped

restrictive dieting. I was actually following a form of intuitive eating, but

didn't really know it at the time. After that year my work schedule had changed,

and I started back to School to get my Master's Degree, and my poor eating

habits returned. I saw my weight slowly over 2 years return to 270 pounds. I'd

attempt diets, and have limited success, and once again that seesaw would

inevitibly swing higher. I just couldn't understand how I could have been so

successful before, and not now. I purchased the Intuitive eating book over a

year ago, and started to read it, but as I started reading and seeing that it

wasn't a diet book, I put it down. I wasn't looking for a real solution. I was

looking for my next diet. That magical one that would finally work. Well, a year

later and I weigh more than last year. I never found that diet. I picked up the

book again a few days ago, and read the entire thing. I was finally ready to

find a solution to my issues with food. I really enjoyed the book. The part that

I found interesting was how they accurately described all of the odd little

things I do when I'm dieting. The all or nothing mentality I had, the binge

eating etc..... Pretty much everything they described I could relate to.

Everything they said about intuitive eating just made sense too. Ironically it

just seemed intuitively obvious. I'm looking forward to learning all I can about

intuitive eating. I figured the best way to do that is to talk to the people

actually doing it. I look forward to sharing ideas with you all.