Re: Appetite Awareness Training

[Guest guest]

Hi Jo: I loved the 'Appetite Awareness' book. I never used the workbook journal

pages. I just embraced the ideas about letting my stomach cues of hunger and

satisfaction tell me when and how much to eat. I also committed to stop at

moderate fullness no matter, when, why, what or how much I ate. Then I practiced

those principles as I ate and observed how I felt physically and emotionally.

Then I made informed choices from my experiences about whether I wanted to

continue using the appetite awareness approach.

The AA approach can't make you do anything. It describes the tools, such as

recognize hunger and fullness, eat when hungry, stop when full, choose foods you

enjoy, especially use antideprivation eating, maintain a moderate fullness

boundary even when eating emotionally, etc. However, I had to use those tools to

observe the benefits. Just as you noticed, I didn't eat mindfully when I watch

tv. Then I often ignored my fullness cues and overate. So I had the information

to help me make an informed choice about how I wanted to eat. If I wanted to

avoid feeling too full, but not feel deprived, I needed to eat mindfully and

enjoy what I ate. That meant I needed to eat without distractions.

Rather than analyze why you overeat, AA gives you tools to practice eating

differently, according to hunger/fullness cues. So you can begin to practice

eating differently, even before you understand why you overeat. As you practice

eating differently, you can observe how you feel physically and emotionally and

then decide whether you want to continue eating according to appetite cues.

SUE

>

> I know there are some that have tried the above workbook and I was just

wondering what were your thoughts and how once you gathered this information how

you were able to make changes and have success in normal eating as that's all I

really want is to eat the way I know I want and can. I have been logging things

for a few days and have noticed a couple of important things that I do and times

that I do them - eating mindfully is a big one. If I eat in front of the TV I

know I don't eat mindfully. Just wondering once I've gathered this information

what I'll be able to do with it all. Awareness is one thing; action is another.

Even though I'm not quite there yet I'll keep working at normalizing my eating.

I saw someone the other day that reminded me of the misery of dieting and I

never want to go through that again. I'll have to keep my distance from this

person as she seems obsessed. Actually it's not just her it's everywhere. I

must say I'm excited about going back to boxing tonight I feel fantastic

afterward, however, I have not been able to go since Nov. as I was ill for a few

months.

>

> Thanks,

> Jo.

>