Glad to be here

[Guest guest]

Hello-

My name is Kathy from South Florida, I am 42 and the mother of two daughters. I am new to the group and so happy to have found you. I have enjoyed/benefited from reading the posts. I relate to so much of what is being said.

I feel like an 'addict' when it comes to food, specifically carbs. I eat sweets to manage my emotions - anger, stress, boredom. It has gotten progressively worse over the past fifteen years. I have dieted off and on but always regain the weight. I am now heavier than I've ever been (5' 7'' and 165 pounds - about 20 pounds over what is comfortable for me). While I'm not morbidly obese, I feel out of control around food. In the past I've have success managing my weight with Weight Watchers, but my obsessive thoughts about food (what I ate, what I was going to eat, what is 'bad' to eat) were still there.

I read Intuitive Eating about 3 years ago and decided this was the only effective way to address my issues with food. It kind of ruined Weight Watchers for me because IE made WW seem anti-intuitive (I was controlling food using something outside of me - not my internal cues). I've now read several books on the subject, but have only experienced success for limited periods of time. Typically, I read and practice the principles for about a week to ten days, then slowly relapse into my old ways.

For me IE is like regular exercise. When I'm doing it I feel so good, my head is not cluttered with obsessive thoughts...it's like I finally have some peace. However, when life gets in the way and I stop for a period of time, I find it incredibly hard to begin again. When I feel like I failed, it makes me eat more. It's a vicious cycle.

I am hoping this group will be away to stay active with IE. Although I have been doing better with waiting until I'm hungry to eat, my challenges are eating in the middle of the night and eating beyond comfortable fullness. I know I'm full, I just WANT the taste of whatever I'm eating, so I say 'screw it' and keep going. This is followed by feeling overfull and remorseful. I also need to incorporate more water into my daily routine. I really want to maintain the IE this time for more than a short period. Any suggestions/thoughts are welcomed.

Thanks again,

Kathy