Re: A question or two...

[Guest guest]

I'm new to this two, so this is just a thought, but it seems to me like whether

or not you choose to journal depends on what you're planning to journal and what

you're trying to learn.

For instance, do you really *know* you're not hungry and you're trying to figure

out if there are particular emotions that are driving you to eat? Then, yes,

journaling the feelings might be helpful. But if you're just planning to

journal your hunger level and you really know you're not hungry, I guess I'm not

sure if that gives you any information that you didn't already have and how that

would be helpful. If you're trying to figure out if it's some combination of

the two (i.e., am I truly hungry and if not what am I feeling), then keeping

track of both is probably not a bad idea.

Personally, I have kept a journal on occasion the past couple of weeks because I

find I'm having a hard time figuring out when I'm hungry *enough* to eat. So,

occasionally, I've waited too long and have been ravenous and have overeaten.

But anything less than that, I'm not sure if it's the right level of hunger, so

I'm trying to get more intuned with gentle hunger that symbolizes that it's the

right time to eat. So for that, recording what I think my hunger level was when

I ate and the physical signals I was experiencing at the time(stomach rumbling,

gnawing feeling, etc.) has been helpful for learning to recognize the different

levels of hunger(though I'm still working on it).

However, I've had a couple of instances when I knew that I was eating without

being hungry. So, judging my hunger level isn't helpful then, because it

doesn't matter much whether it's 5, 6, 7, or whatever. I already know that the

eating is not about the hunger. In that instance, I try to focus on what I'm

feeling because what I have to figure out what it is that's driving me to eat.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that in my case I've been testing the boundaries

a bit. Seeing if it really and truly is okay for me to eat what I want when I

want.

I also have been struggling a bit with whether or not I'm eating too much. When

you're so used to eating tiny diet portions, it's hard to trust whether you're

really hungry enough to warrant a portion that seems so big by comparison. So,

sometimes, if I'm pretty comfortable that I'm really hungry enough to eat, I

measure my hunger level *after* eating to try to figure out if I'm really eating

too much or if it's just right.

That's hard, too, though, because while I haven't felt really full, I also am

not sure if I should be less full than I am. For example, today I ate an entire

turkey sandwich for lunch. I stopped at half and still felt hungry, so I

finished it. Then I waited a few minutes, and felt like I was still a little

hungry, so I ate the bag of chips I'd gotten with it. Afterwards. I felt full,

but not uncomfortably so. But I wondered if it was *too* full. I never would

have eaten an entire sandwich when I was dieting (all that bread, plus mayo and

cheese! Horrors!), so I was a bit worried that it was too much food. But if I

was truly satisfied afterward, that should be okay, right? But can I be *too*

satisfied even if I'm not uncomfortably full? I don't know.

These are all tough questions. I can't wait until I take my IE workshop in a

couple of weeks because I hope it will help me fine tune some of the things I've

been reading in the books.

Josie

>

> I'm new to IE and have just started to stop restricting myself. I still feel

like I'm eating a lot and sometimes still eating when I'm not even hungry. Have

any of you found ways to best manage eating only when hungry? I'm wondering if

I need to do some journaling every that I eat and log my hunger on a scale and

also log any emotions that I'm having. Any thoughts? Thanks,

>

> Tai

>

[Guest guest]

I've struggled with that same thing over and over again. I just don't know how full I should feel. I have come to realize that it takes me a good while to feel how full I actually am, so I have learned to slow down my eating somewhat and stop before I do actually feel full.

Rhonda

From: bcpeditor@...

Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 9:49 AM

To: IntuitiveEating_Support

Subject: Re: A question or two...

I have some of the same struggles Josie mentions with fine-tuning assessing hunger levels, and at those times I wonder whether this is not simply another face of obsession with food. But if I get loosy-goosy with the assessment I wonder if this isn't just my permitter having a field day. Arghhh!

Laurie

Josie wrote:

>>>That's hard, too, though, because while I haven't felt really full, I also am not sure if I should be less full than I am. For example, today I ate an entire turkey sandwich for lunch. I stopped at half and still felt hungry, so I finished it. Then I waited a few minutes, and felt like I was still a little hungry, so I ate the bag of chips I'd gotten with it. Afterwards. I felt full, but not uncomfortably so. But I wondered if it was *too* full. I never would have eaten an entire sandwich when I was dieting (all that bread, plus mayo and cheese! Horrors!), so I was a bit worried that it was too much food. But if I was truly satisfied afterward, that should be okay, right? But can I be *too* satisfied even if I'm not uncomfortably full? I don't know.<<<