Re: New here, overweight diabetic

[Guest guest]

There will be an article about intuitive eating & diabetics in an upcoming

Diabetes Management magazine. The authors of this article are Bacon (who

wrote HEALTH AT EVERY SIZE) and Judith Matz.

Judith wrote " Diet Survivors " and " Beyond the Shadow of a Diet " .

Until then... here is a blog from that magazine:

http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/Blog/-Spero/does-your-body-know-what-\

to-eat/

May 27, 2009

Does Your Body Know (What to Eat)?

Spero

I've been reading The Diet Survivor's Handbook, by Judith Matz, LCSW, and Ellen

el, LCSW. They tell heavy people not to diet, but to learn to trust their

bodies to pick the right foods. " Eat when you're hungry; eat what your body

wants; stop when you're full " is the mantra. But would this work for you? Should

people with diabetes trust their bodies? Let's think about this…

I'm a big believer in listening to your body. In my book The Art of Getting

Well, I have a chapter called " Your Body — Love It or Leave It. " My e-mail

auto-signature reads " Love your body. Love your life. " I believe that we should

let our bodies call the shots whenever possible. And I believe that food should

be a source of pleasure, not worry. But I can see three problems with this when

it comes to diabetes and food.

First, there's so much bad food around. It's so easy to get. We may have been

trained to eat that food from the time we were children. So now we might think

our bodies like it, when really they have never had a choice.

There's also the issue of emotional eating. A lot of times we get stressed or

depressed and reach for comfort food, usually something packed with sugar or

fat. We might think that our bodies want it, when really we're just soothing our

feelings.

Matz and el spend a fair amount of space helping people deal with emotional

eating. They advise people to ask themselves, " Is this what my body really

wants? " " Can I wait a bit on this, or am I really physically hungry? "

They realize people have gotten way out of touch with their bodies. It takes

time to relearn how to be aware of the body's hunger and to hear what it really

wants. They also know that emotions will get in the way, but promise that it

will get easier with time.

Where does diabetes fit in?

But if you have diabetes, do you have time to learn this way of eating, which

they call " attuned eating? " Especially if you're on insulin, don't you need to

measure your carbohydrate intake and be careful about everything you eat? Can

you trust your body to do it for you?

I asked Bacon, PhD, author of Health at Every Size, about this. Bacon

teaches nutrition at City College of San Francisco. She said that people with

diabetes can learn attuned eating without any special difficulty. Even for

people using fast-acting insulins, matching carbohydrate to insulin isn't an

exact science anyway. Both carbohydrate absorption and insulin action vary with

physical activity, temperature, and other things, she told me.

Bacon, Matz, and el would agree that restricting your diet with numbers and

rigid meal plans gets in the way of your body trying to do what's right for

itself. You may have to restrict somewhat, but try to do it as little as

possible.

I would say that a person with diabetes might have to set more limits on

emotional eating than other people do. It might be more important to get to the

root of the stressors that drive unhealthy eating.

As Laurel Mellin, MA, RD, recommends in her book The Pathway, we might need to

get good at asking: What am I angry about? What am I feeling sad, worried, or

guilty about that is pushing me to eat this food? What would be a more realistic

way of thinking about my situation that wouldn't be so painful? That way, eating

can go back to being something we do for our bodies, something we enjoy, not a

drug to treat life's stresses.

But what do you think? Can you trust your body to pick the right foods for

itself? Can you hear your body's hunger signals, and do you listen to them? Does

following a diabetes meal plan interfere with your eating what your body really

wants? Please let us know…I'll have more to say about this next week.

[Guest guest]

Hello Donna,

I am too overweight diabetic. To avoid emotion eating is not so great. Because

later in time that will come back bite in ass. I have been done that and been

there before.

However, you may learn the timeline to eat whatever you want. Once I eat quite

a lot all day long yet my sugar stay low. It's only because I eat fresh

vegetables and stuff that would not trigger sugar rising up at all. Long as you

are able to enjoying eating the foods. Another thing when it come to feelings

as it is not good idea to shut down on that while eating because that can be

become habit would be hard to turn off.

Eliza

>

> I'm new to this group. Found out about it today when looking into IE; I just

ordered IE and a couple related mindfullness titles.

>

> I was 100 pounds overweight when diagnosed w/diabetes last year. I lost 50

pounds w/certain fear-induced changes but have now come up against my emotional

eating " stuff " & would like to find a new relationship w/food.

>

> I found with much experimentation how to control my blood sugar w/diet alone,

but I have also in the process discovered how to overeat without raising my

blood sugar too much. My insulin resistance improved dramatically after losing

the first 30 pounds, and I don't want to go back there. But my new knowledge

about eating " safely " for my diabetes puts the power back in my hands to... I

don't know. Continue to eat to avoid feeling? I guess that's it.

>

> Looking forward to learning more here,

> Donna

>

[Guest guest]

Literacygirl,

MANY thanks for this blog and link! The blog entry touched on all my current

questions and is what led me in part to order " The Food & Feelings Workbook. "

I really appreciate your input and look forward to more,

Donna

wrote:

>

> There will be an article about intuitive eating & diabetics in an upcoming

Diabetes Management magazine. The authors of this article are Bacon (who

wrote HEALTH AT EVERY SIZE) and Judith Matz.

>

> Judith wrote " Diet Survivors " and " Beyond the Shadow of a Diet " .

>

> Until then... here is a blog from that magazine:

>

http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/Blog/-Spero/does-your-body-know-what-\

to-eat/

[Guest guest]

No problem! There is another blog of the same topic on that website. I'm glad to

be back. I've been away for a few years from this group. But, I want more

support now.

> >

> > There will be an article about intuitive eating & diabetics in an upcoming

Diabetes Management magazine. The authors of this article are Bacon (who

wrote HEALTH AT EVERY SIZE) and Judith Matz.

> >

> > Judith wrote " Diet Survivors " and " Beyond the Shadow of a Diet " .

> >

> > Until then... here is a blog from that magazine:

> >

http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/Blog/-Spero/does-your-body-know-what-\

to-eat/

>

[Guest guest]

Keep us updated, Donna!

>Today my Amazon order arrived with several books including

" The Food & Feelings Workbook. " I spent an hour with it and I know this will be

the most important book I have read and worked with in years -- this is the one

I need most right now, maybe the best clue being that I am scared to really

start the writing and thinking that even the very first chapter requires. Will

post about it now and then as I work through it and need feedback...Donna