Re: Re: difficult first steps

[Guest guest]

hi Sue,thanks for your email and show of support.i will try to be patient with myself...thanks, jenSubject: Re: difficult first stepsTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 3:54 PM

Hi Jen: I remember my first unsuccessful attempts to eat intuitively. I did NOT trust myself to know when, what and how much to eat, especially after believing all the 'healthy eating' and diet hype for so many years. Fortunately I finally learned the intuitive eating approach of ThinWithin, a Christian support group. They taught me that God created my body to self-regulate or maintain a healthy weight if I only learned to recognized and obey my body cues about when, how much at what to eat. I didn't trust myself, but I had a strong faith in God. So I tentatively began to listen to my body, eat when I felt hungry, any food that appealed to me, and stop eating when I felt comfortably full.

As I allowed myself to freely eat anything I wanted, I soon noticed that some foods tasted better than they felt in my body. I also realized that some foods tasted good, but didn't really satisfy hunger very long. They actually made me hungrier within an hour. Through long trial and error, I eventually learned to trust my body cues to tell me when, what and how much to eat. I struggled with the 'how much' longer than any other cues, but eventually I learned to eat without distractions so that I could listen to my 'comfortably full' sensations.

Have patience with yourself. Learning to eat intuitively may take you awhile, especially if you let the 'diet mentality' dictate your eating habits for many years.

SUE

>

> hi everyone,

> well i have started the IE book and am really learning a lot and trying to take it all in.

> my first attempts have not worked out so well!

> so i hope for so wisdom from those who've been there and done that.

>

> i'm finding it much harder than i thought to give up calorie counting and weighing myself...i think i use those activities to soothe anxiety and help feel in control. but they are the tools of the "diet mentality" i've just learned about and they need to go. why is this so hard?

>

> i realized observing myself that i am using decaf coffee, which i guess has small amounts of caffeine, to fill up on during the day. i did read in IE that this is quite common.

> i'm eating breakfast and lunch, but small amounts. and drinking quite a lot of decaf coffee all thru the day and evening. i get hungry but feel safest drinking decaf..,i'm afraid i'll eat all day too much!

>

> so that's where i'm at in my first few days.

> any feedback is welcome.

> thanks for listening!

> jen

>