Re: Re: The Line Between Intuitive Eating and Bingi

[Guest guest]

Me, too, Seth. Probably that adds to the anxiety I feel when I keep a

log. Right now I'm really working on keeping food in the moment--not

thinking about it until I'm hungry, then eating what I want and not

thinking about it once I'm done. So if I binge or eat too much, I can

leave it behind instead of keeping it with me and letting it fester.

Sohni

WoodsedgeQH@... wrote:

For me keeping a journal is almost like

giving me an excuse to sabotage my efforts. Instead of seeing it as

having something to work on I see it as a failure when I binge or don't

eat the things I should or the way I should i.e. when I eat when I am

not hungry. If I journal it is there in black and white that I failed

so my irrational mind says what the heck you failed drown your sorrows

in comfort food. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Anyone

else have this problem?

Seth

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life

so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."

Native American Saying

In a message dated 2/4/2010 1:14:43 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,

gillianhealthieroutcomes writes:

But as you said, the journal is

strictly about awareness, not judgment. I usually say that the worse

you think it looks as far as what and how much you ate, the better for

us to have things to work on.

[Guest guest]

I'll have to check that one out--thanks for the tip!

Sohni

followyourbliss50 wrote:

Off Topic PS. I recently have fallen in love with the very cool program

OneNote. It comes for free with most office/word programs, but most

people don't even know about it. It has cool "tags" and various

features (such as quick access and side notes; it also automatically

saves your writing) which might be helpful for journaling, making

charts, various pictorial tags, check off lists, etc.) I recommend

checking it out.

>

> Seth,

>

> I understand your concern. That's why I believe it's a very

individual

> decision whether to use a journal or not. And it's not all or

nothing, you

> can always use it if and when you think it will be helpful. I can

tell you

[Guest guest]

I'll have to check that one out--thanks for the tip!

Sohni

followyourbliss50 wrote:

Off Topic PS. I recently have fallen in love with the very cool program

OneNote. It comes for free with most office/word programs, but most

people don't even know about it. It has cool "tags" and various

features (such as quick access and side notes; it also automatically

saves your writing) which might be helpful for journaling, making

charts, various pictorial tags, check off lists, etc.) I recommend

checking it out.

>

> Seth,

>

> I understand your concern. That's why I believe it's a very

individual

> decision whether to use a journal or not. And it's not all or

nothing, you

> can always use it if and when you think it will be helpful. I can

tell you

[Guest guest]

I'll have to check that one out--thanks for the tip!

Sohni

followyourbliss50 wrote:

Off Topic PS. I recently have fallen in love with the very cool program

OneNote. It comes for free with most office/word programs, but most

people don't even know about it. It has cool "tags" and various

features (such as quick access and side notes; it also automatically

saves your writing) which might be helpful for journaling, making

charts, various pictorial tags, check off lists, etc.) I recommend

checking it out.

>

> Seth,

>

> I understand your concern. That's why I believe it's a very

individual

> decision whether to use a journal or not. And it's not all or

nothing, you

> can always use it if and when you think it will be helpful. I can

tell you

[Guest guest]

Hi Gillian,

This is helpful. I'm still really hesitant about writing anything

down, but at least now I'm willing to think about doing it at some

point. I'm not trying to be stubborn about it--it's just that I've

realized how negative the logging I was doing was *for me* and I'm

nervous about going into it again, especially because I really feel

good *not* doing it. But I'll take what you said into consideration

and see how I feel after I try the exercises about bad/good thoughts.

Sohni

Gillian Hood-son wrote:

Seth,

I understand your concern.

That's why I believe it's a very individual decision whether to use a

journal or not. And it's not all or nothing, you can always use it if

and when you think it will be helpful. I can tell you as a long time

veteran of IE and a coach for many years helping others with IE, you

are not the only one. This is very normal. That's why I think you need

to trust your instincts and decide if you would really benefit or not

from writing things down.

As I mentioned a couple posts

ago, if you think writing things down would help, you can choose what

you want to record. You don't have to record your food if that's a

trigger for you. You don't have to record your hunger or fullness

numbers if you are going to get upset when you overeat. Some people

find benefit in just writing down any thoughts, feelings, moods, "a-ha"

moments, etc. that happen around eating. You could even just write

without there being any diary. Just write down what you're feeling, or

your fears, positive moments, or whatever helps you be more aware. Do

what comes naturally - I've seen people use blogs (which can be made

private), notebooks, voicemail, and even daily emails to record

whatever it is they want to keep track of. It needs to work for you, no

one has to conform to what someone else says works for them.

One thing I will tell clients

who are concerned about using a diary, especially if they are going to

send it to me for review, that all I want it for is "data collection".

Imagine I'm a scientist that isn't allowed to have any opinions, I

simply collect and report facts. And that's what I do, I use it to look

for patterns, places where we can look for solutions, and many other

things that will help with the IE process. But I make it very clear

that I will never, ever judge anyone based on what or how much they

eat. I don't care, I care about why and how we can help the person put

an end to the suffering so they aren't eating to cope anymore.

Bottom line, try to remove the

black and white in your thinking. Stay in the gray areas. I like to

visualize a photographic gray card. When a photographer is trying to

get just the right light and exposure of a subject, he or she will

often use a gray card that has many different shades of gray on it to

help get the exposure right. It's not either completely bright white,

and it's not black, the right exposure is somewhere in between among

the infinite number of shades of gray. If you're a visual person, that

may help you see it in a different way.

Keep asking questions, it gets

easier and better over time.

Thanks!

Gillian

Gillian Hood-son, MS, ACSM

Get your report, "The 6 Steps to Guilt-Fr*e Eating" at http://www.HealthierOutcomes.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood

From:

IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ]

On Behalf Of WoodsedgeQHaol

Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 10:38 PM

To: IntuitiveEating_Support

Subject: Re: Re: The Line

Between Intuitive Eating and Bingi

For me keeping a journal is almost like

giving me an excuse to sabotage my efforts. Instead of seeing it as

having something to work on I see it as a failure when I binge or don't

eat the things I should or the way I should i.e. when I eat when I am

not hungry. If I journal it is there in black and white that I failed

so my irrational mind says what the heck you failed drown your sorrows

in comfort food. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Anyone

else have this problem?

Seth

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life

so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."

Native American Saying

In a message dated 2/4/2010 1:14:43 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,

gillianhealthieroutcomes writes:

But as you said, the journal is

strictly about awareness, not judgment. I usually say that the worse

you think it looks as far as what and how much you ate, the better for

us to have things to work on.

[Guest guest]

Hi Gillian,

This is helpful. I'm still really hesitant about writing anything

down, but at least now I'm willing to think about doing it at some

point. I'm not trying to be stubborn about it--it's just that I've

realized how negative the logging I was doing was *for me* and I'm

nervous about going into it again, especially because I really feel

good *not* doing it. But I'll take what you said into consideration

and see how I feel after I try the exercises about bad/good thoughts.

Sohni

Gillian Hood-son wrote:

Seth,

I understand your concern.

That's why I believe it's a very individual decision whether to use a

journal or not. And it's not all or nothing, you can always use it if

and when you think it will be helpful. I can tell you as a long time

veteran of IE and a coach for many years helping others with IE, you

are not the only one. This is very normal. That's why I think you need

to trust your instincts and decide if you would really benefit or not

from writing things down.

As I mentioned a couple posts

ago, if you think writing things down would help, you can choose what

you want to record. You don't have to record your food if that's a

trigger for you. You don't have to record your hunger or fullness

numbers if you are going to get upset when you overeat. Some people

find benefit in just writing down any thoughts, feelings, moods, "a-ha"

moments, etc. that happen around eating. You could even just write

without there being any diary. Just write down what you're feeling, or

your fears, positive moments, or whatever helps you be more aware. Do

what comes naturally - I've seen people use blogs (which can be made

private), notebooks, voicemail, and even daily emails to record

whatever it is they want to keep track of. It needs to work for you, no

one has to conform to what someone else says works for them.

One thing I will tell clients

who are concerned about using a diary, especially if they are going to

send it to me for review, that all I want it for is "data collection".

Imagine I'm a scientist that isn't allowed to have any opinions, I

simply collect and report facts. And that's what I do, I use it to look

for patterns, places where we can look for solutions, and many other

things that will help with the IE process. But I make it very clear

that I will never, ever judge anyone based on what or how much they

eat. I don't care, I care about why and how we can help the person put

an end to the suffering so they aren't eating to cope anymore.

Bottom line, try to remove the

black and white in your thinking. Stay in the gray areas. I like to

visualize a photographic gray card. When a photographer is trying to

get just the right light and exposure of a subject, he or she will

often use a gray card that has many different shades of gray on it to

help get the exposure right. It's not either completely bright white,

and it's not black, the right exposure is somewhere in between among

the infinite number of shades of gray. If you're a visual person, that

may help you see it in a different way.

Keep asking questions, it gets

easier and better over time.

Thanks!

Gillian

Gillian Hood-son, MS, ACSM

Get your report, "The 6 Steps to Guilt-Fr*e Eating" at http://www.HealthierOutcomes.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood

From:

IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ]

On Behalf Of WoodsedgeQHaol

Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 10:38 PM

To: IntuitiveEating_Support

Subject: Re: Re: The Line

Between Intuitive Eating and Bingi

For me keeping a journal is almost like

giving me an excuse to sabotage my efforts. Instead of seeing it as

having something to work on I see it as a failure when I binge or don't

eat the things I should or the way I should i.e. when I eat when I am

not hungry. If I journal it is there in black and white that I failed

so my irrational mind says what the heck you failed drown your sorrows

in comfort food. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Anyone

else have this problem?

Seth

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life

so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."

Native American Saying

In a message dated 2/4/2010 1:14:43 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,

gillianhealthieroutcomes writes:

But as you said, the journal is

strictly about awareness, not judgment. I usually say that the worse

you think it looks as far as what and how much you ate, the better for

us to have things to work on.

[Guest guest]

,

This is a wonderful suggestion, I love the idea of playing with colors and other markings to really see your progress plus making it fun. And you're absolutely right about using it as a way to see your progress. So much of the progress, especially early on, is not easy to see, especially when you aren't all that aware of your thoughts or your body. It's easy to say, "this isn't working for me", when you don't see physical changes. It's so important so see how far you've come and what you are no longer doing, it's quite surprising to people I work with when we go over the changes I can see are happening.

Thanks for the reco of OneNote! That is a cool program and I've never heard of it! I've tried to use EverNote for months with no luck because I don't want to take the time to learn it. This is much easier!

Thanks!GillianGillian Hood-son, MS, ACSM

Get your report, "The 6 Steps to Guilt-Fr*e Eating" at http://www.HealthierOutcomes.com Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood

From: IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On Behalf Of followyourbliss50Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 5:53 AMTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Subject: Re: The Line Between Intuitive Eating and Bingi

Seth,The point for me with the journal or chart is to build on positive baby steps. If I have had a really difficult period, I wouldn't want to rub my nose in it, either. (However, I do recommend free writing for those periods.) Sometimes, with difficult periods when I am trying to pick up the tiny threads of the positive, a chart or calendar can be helpful.On the calendar or chart I might just put a horizontal line through the days/weeks where I was not (perhaps) even paying attention. Then I might put colors or checks (you can work out any system you want; play with it; use gradations) for positive baby steps. The chart/wall calendar creates a concrete, tangible picture of one's process.)The point of all this is the exact opposite of a saboteur. It's to give that part of you which is working so hard, some ammunition to use against the critic which wants to tell you--that you're getting nowhere and your efforts won't matter.Good luck.Off Topic PS. I recently have fallen in love with the very cool program OneNote. It comes for free with most office/word programs, but most people don't even know about it. It has cool "tags" and various features (such as quick access and side notes; it also automatically saves your writing) which might be helpful for journaling, making charts, various pictorial tags, check off lists, etc.) I recommend checking it out.

[Guest guest]

,

This is a wonderful suggestion, I love the idea of playing with colors and other markings to really see your progress plus making it fun. And you're absolutely right about using it as a way to see your progress. So much of the progress, especially early on, is not easy to see, especially when you aren't all that aware of your thoughts or your body. It's easy to say, "this isn't working for me", when you don't see physical changes. It's so important so see how far you've come and what you are no longer doing, it's quite surprising to people I work with when we go over the changes I can see are happening.

Thanks for the reco of OneNote! That is a cool program and I've never heard of it! I've tried to use EverNote for months with no luck because I don't want to take the time to learn it. This is much easier!

Thanks!GillianGillian Hood-son, MS, ACSM

Get your report, "The 6 Steps to Guilt-Fr*e Eating" at http://www.HealthierOutcomes.com Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood

From: IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On Behalf Of followyourbliss50Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 5:53 AMTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Subject: Re: The Line Between Intuitive Eating and Bingi

Seth,The point for me with the journal or chart is to build on positive baby steps. If I have had a really difficult period, I wouldn't want to rub my nose in it, either. (However, I do recommend free writing for those periods.) Sometimes, with difficult periods when I am trying to pick up the tiny threads of the positive, a chart or calendar can be helpful.On the calendar or chart I might just put a horizontal line through the days/weeks where I was not (perhaps) even paying attention. Then I might put colors or checks (you can work out any system you want; play with it; use gradations) for positive baby steps. The chart/wall calendar creates a concrete, tangible picture of one's process.)The point of all this is the exact opposite of a saboteur. It's to give that part of you which is working so hard, some ammunition to use against the critic which wants to tell you--that you're getting nowhere and your efforts won't matter.Good luck.Off Topic PS. I recently have fallen in love with the very cool program OneNote. It comes for free with most office/word programs, but most people don't even know about it. It has cool "tags" and various features (such as quick access and side notes; it also automatically saves your writing) which might be helpful for journaling, making charts, various pictorial tags, check off lists, etc.) I recommend checking it out.

[Guest guest]

,

This is a wonderful suggestion, I love the idea of playing with colors and other markings to really see your progress plus making it fun. And you're absolutely right about using it as a way to see your progress. So much of the progress, especially early on, is not easy to see, especially when you aren't all that aware of your thoughts or your body. It's easy to say, "this isn't working for me", when you don't see physical changes. It's so important so see how far you've come and what you are no longer doing, it's quite surprising to people I work with when we go over the changes I can see are happening.

Thanks for the reco of OneNote! That is a cool program and I've never heard of it! I've tried to use EverNote for months with no luck because I don't want to take the time to learn it. This is much easier!

Thanks!GillianGillian Hood-son, MS, ACSM

Get your report, "The 6 Steps to Guilt-Fr*e Eating" at http://www.HealthierOutcomes.com Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood

From: IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On Behalf Of followyourbliss50Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 5:53 AMTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Subject: Re: The Line Between Intuitive Eating and Bingi

Seth,The point for me with the journal or chart is to build on positive baby steps. If I have had a really difficult period, I wouldn't want to rub my nose in it, either. (However, I do recommend free writing for those periods.) Sometimes, with difficult periods when I am trying to pick up the tiny threads of the positive, a chart or calendar can be helpful.On the calendar or chart I might just put a horizontal line through the days/weeks where I was not (perhaps) even paying attention. Then I might put colors or checks (you can work out any system you want; play with it; use gradations) for positive baby steps. The chart/wall calendar creates a concrete, tangible picture of one's process.)The point of all this is the exact opposite of a saboteur. It's to give that part of you which is working so hard, some ammunition to use against the critic which wants to tell you--that you're getting nowhere and your efforts won't matter.Good luck.Off Topic PS. I recently have fallen in love with the very cool program OneNote. It comes for free with most office/word programs, but most people don't even know about it. It has cool "tags" and various features (such as quick access and side notes; it also automatically saves your writing) which might be helpful for journaling, making charts, various pictorial tags, check off lists, etc.) I recommend checking it out.