Re: planning versus restricting

[Guest guest]

Hello,

 

Great question!  When I am restricting, there is a strong sense of control along with a moral superiority in comparison to how other people eat. Weight obsession can also accompany this too.

 

If cheeseburgers and fries did not make you feel bad, and you wanted them... would it be restricting to plan for them? ... for me, no.... and so if you are planning for something you do want, then I would say planning is planning and not restricting.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to eat food which nourishes the body and makes you feel good. 

 

I would say it is important to look at all your motivations/feelings. Notice what comes up while you are planning, preparing, eating and of course what comes up after the meal has been eaten. When we are honest, we really learn and grow in the noticing/awareness.

 

Hi All!

 

I’ve missed being in regular communication with all of you.  My work schedule has been absolutely insane so I’ve been a bit quiet.  

 

I have been finding that when I leave my food options to chance I end up with food choices that make me unhappy because I feel like I’ve eaten less nutritious food than I want.  It’s not that I want to restrict myself from eating a cheeseburger and French fries if that’s what I want but when I let life dictate that to me that I feel like I’m eating “poorly” and I feel the negative physical side effects.

 

So my question is “planning” my food bad different from restricting it?  If what I really want is egg white and spinach wraps for breakfast is it wrong to mentally commit to myself that this is what I’m going to do and then make sure I have a bomb shelter supply of egg whites and spinach in the house so I don’t end up at the McDriveThru?

 

All thoughts welcome.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Jonathon: As someone who has avoids 7 medically diagnosed food allergens, I

almost always plan what I will eat to avoid " negative physical side effects " . I

suspect that many healthy people consider how they will feel after eating

certain foods and plan accordingly. I don't think that's restricting according

to weight loss parameters (like calories, fat grams, etc.). Choosing food

according to how you will feel after eating is conscious, mindful eating

according to YOUR body's feedback. That seems more intuitive than eating

whatever is quick and convenient. I may be mistaken, but I believe intuitive

eating is eating according to what my body tells me (hunger, satisfaction,

fullness, comfort, discomfort, etc.), rather than what my mind tells me or other

people tell me. Intuitive eating is personal choice, whereas restriction may

obey other people's dietary beliefs or theories.

SUE

>

> Hi All!

>

>

>

> I've missed being in regular communication with all of you. My work

> schedule has been absolutely insane so I've been a bit quiet.

>

>

>

> I have been finding that when I leave my food options to chance I end up

> with food choices that make me unhappy because I feel like I've eaten less

> nutritious food than I want. It's not that I want to restrict myself from

> eating a cheeseburger and French fries if that's what I want but when I let

> life dictate that to me that I feel like I'm eating " poorly " and I feel the

> negative physical side effects.

>

>

>

> So my question is " planning " my food bad different from restricting it? If

> what I really want is egg white and spinach wraps for breakfast is it wrong

> to mentally commit to myself that this is what I'm going to do and then make

> sure I have a bomb shelter supply of egg whites and spinach in the house so

> I don't end up at the McDriveThru?

>

>

>

> All thoughts welcome.

>

[Guest guest]

Yes, , I agree. For those of us that are morbidly obese, there are health issues at stake beyond the psychological issues around eating. I don't have any answers, but the questions are important.

Harry

-----Original Message-----From: IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On Behalf Of KarlenSent: Monday, March 29, 2010 10:04 AMTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Subject: RE: "planning" versus "restricting"

You touch on another thing that I’m grappling with, Harry…

I’m 330-350lb (trying desperately to not weight so I haven’t). That will kill me in not all that long. I’m only 31 so it’s not immediately life threatening (most likely) but I am very conscious of it. Last night I found myself really wondering what it is I’m doing not being in a fully immersive weight loss clinic as I was sitting on the couch with an aching knee from running around after my three year old daughter for a half hour. When you’re in this neighborhood of weight it permeates every minute of your being. It’s hard to not think about weight loss and make it the only thing that matters. But, that’s an emotional reaction when I need to be as reasonable and rational as possible.

So while I see and love all the changes that have come in myself – I really do as last week I was summoned unexpectedly to a series of meetings in New York on literally no notice and absolutely dominated in a way that I know I didn’t have in me 3 months ago – I’m still feeling like a man without a country a lot of the time.

From: IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On Behalf Of Harry LeBlancSent: Monday, March 29, 2010 9:51 AMTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Subject: RE: "planning" versus "restricting"

This is something I'm grappling with as well. I really cherish the psychological gains I've made -- I'm more in touch with my body, I listen to my hunger signals, I recognize emotional eating signals, and have gotten pretty good at addressing my feelings in ways other than food.

But.

I'm more than 200 pounds overweight, and it's seriously affecting my health and lifestyle. So I'm trying to lose weight. My first step has been to reduce my sugar intake. I found I was eating sugar every day -- in the evening, typically. So I've been substituting fresh fruit, and eliminating sugary soda from my diet (I still drink juice).

I'm not completely eliminating sugar, or making it "forbidden", but I notice that sugar kicks off an addictive cycle for me. I don't like what it does to my body, so I'm choosing to mostly refrain. Just as I mostly refrain from eating shrimp, which I love, but which cause me to break out in hives.

I don't know how this experiment will work, and I'm leery of any food restrictions. But I must lose weight.

Harry

-----Original Message-----From: IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On Behalf Of KarlenSent: Monday, March 29, 2010 9:05 AMTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Subject: "planning" versus "restricting"

Hi All!

I’ve missed being in regular communication with all of you. My work schedule has been absolutely insane so I’ve been a bit quiet.

I have been finding that when I leave my food options to chance I end up with food choices that make me unhappy because I feel like I’ve eaten less nutritious food than I want. It’s not that I want to restrict myself from eating a cheeseburger and French fries if that’s what I want but when I let life dictate that to me that I feel like I’m eating “poorly” and I feel the negative physical side effects.

So my question is “planning” my food bad different from restricting it? If what I really want is egg white and spinach wraps for breakfast is it wrong to mentally commit to myself that this is what I’m going to do and then make sure I have a bomb shelter supply of egg whites and spinach in the house so I don’t end up at the McDriveThru?

All thoughts welcome.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I don't think planning is the same as restricting at all... as long as you leave yourself to deviate from that plan when you need/want to. (I don't have any idea how to define the difference between need and want).

We will never have all the possible choices available to us that we MIGHT want... we have to plan by guessing what we might want. And I, for one, and much more likely to make healthier choices when those healthier choices are just as convenient as less healthy ones... and that means planning ahead!

As far as losing weight and focusing more on nutrition as a way to do so... I think that is totally fine as long as you can avoid making strict rules about it. I think your attitude towards sugar, cutting down where you can but not totally eliminating it, sounds great. Skip it where you can, but if you really want it, have it (if you restrict in that situation it'll boomerang back at you, anyway). IE (the book) calls this " gentle nutrition. "

Good luck,

Abby

 

Yes, , I agree. For those of us that are morbidly obese, there are health issues at stake beyond the psychological issues around eating. I don't have any answers, but the questions are important.

Harry

 

 

 

 

>> RE:...

>  >> You touch on another thing that I’m grappling with, Harry…>> I’m 330-350lb (trying despera...

[Guest guest]

This is me exactly, Jon. Exactly. My weight issues stem completely

from my binges, and generally speaking I eat very well when I'm not

binging--and I completely hear you on the pitfalls of making food

choices in a hurry. What I do is try to have some meal components that

can be thrown together fast. So for example, some brown rice, an

avocado, pico de gallo, and a little cheese (my current dream meal,

lol), or yogurt, frozen blueberries, raisins, and nuts. It does help

to have some "core" meals that I know I always like and are easy to put

together. If there isn't even time for that, I have easy-to-grab

things that I use to calm my hunger down for a couple of hours until I

have the time to make a real meal. Those are things like cheese

sticks, apples/peanut butter, boxes of raisins, sunflower seeds,

grapes, etc. I very often have a chocolate hemp shake for breakfast

because it's fast, fills me up, and satisfies the morning thirst that I

usually have. I have to make it easy on myself because if I'm in a

hurry I don't have a lot of brainpower to focus on food. I need the

choices to be pretty obvious.

Sohni

Karlen wrote:

And “being pretty

quiet” is not something I do either often or well.

I think the thing of

the matter for me is that I actually like

nutritious food. If I lived in a grocery store I think I’d be able to

eat

intuitively and be a very nutritious person. I’m morbidly overweight

because I’ve

struggled with compulsive overeating my whole life but with the proper

support

I’ve learned to get that somewhat in check but outside of binging if I

had my

choice between “healthy” and “unhealthy” most times I’d pick healthy.

I love

fruits and vegetables and fresh and nutritiously beneficial foods. But

the

problem is I don’t put myself in the best position to eat the foods

that make

my body feel better. When you have to make food choices in a hurry and

late at

night the options that are available to you are not likely to be in the

healthy

column.

From:

IntuitiveEating_Support

[mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On

Behalf Of jeanniet58

Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 9:19 AM

To: IntuitiveEating_Support

Subject: Re: "planning" versus

"restricting"

Hi Jon,

Nice to hear from you. I was just thinking last night you'd been

pretty

quiet.

I think this is a stage on the way to finding a balance between what

your head

vs. mouth want. I was doing something similar pretty often when I was

really trying to figure that out. The problem is that you have to be

fair

with yourself and make sure that once you're hungry in the morning,

what you

still want is those wraps. I found that I might have said, "Hmmm,

this sounds really good for dinner, so I'll have that" at 3:00 in the

afternoon, and then by 7:00 when I was hungry, something entirely

different

appealed to me. So be sure to honor that. I don't think it's

realistically possible to not do *some* meal planning.

And relax. Making choices is a lot easier when you don't have too much

"stuff" bouncing around in your head.

Sohni

Karlen wrote:

Hi

All!

I’ve

missed being in regular communication with all of you. My work

schedule

has been absolutely insane so I’ve been a bit quiet.

I

have been finding that when I leave my food options to chance I end up

with

food choices that make me unhappy because I feel like I’ve eaten less

nutritious food than I want. It’s not that I want to restrict myself

from

eating a cheeseburger and French fries if that’s what I want but when I

let

life dictate that to me that I feel like I’m eating “poorly” and I feel

the

negative physical side effects.

So

my question is “planning” my food bad different from restricting it?

If

what I really want is egg white and spinach wraps for breakfast is it

wrong to

mentally commit to myself that this is what I’m going to do and then

make sure

I have a bomb shelter supply of egg whites and spinach in the house so

I don’t

end up at the McDriveThru?

All

thoughts welcome.