Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Make peace with food



Chapter 7, principle 3:
My first meeting with J, she had me read this chapter. Making peace with food was going to be easy, I thought. J had me make a list of my "challenge" foods or at least the snacks that I've been craving. I did this and when I showed J my list, she made me add to it. What about candybars? What about chocolate pudding? What about hostess cupcakes? Then she told me to go out and buy all this stuff - so I did. I have to admit I was a little embarassed as I was checking out at Smiths - but then I didn't really care what the check out lady thought anyway. J also told me to order multiple sides when going out to eat - variety is key. Order more than I know I can finish so I can get used to "not cleaning my plate". Don't worry about waste, don't worry about money. Focus on the taste - only eat what I really want to and don't eat anything I don't want to.

It works - I swear. I still have lots of frozen treats in my freezer and "junk" (J would be mad at me for calling it that) food in my pantry. I may be eating foods that aren't "good for me" but I'm eating a lot less. For example, today I've eaten one Ego waffle with butter and syrup, 2 pieces of pizza, a cupcake and left over Thai food. After the Thai food, I wasn't satisfied so I dished up a bowl of ice cream and ate only half of it. Never before have I ever stopped half way through a bowl of ice cream. Because I know I'm never going to diet again and ice cream is never going to be off limits, I could stop.

WARNING: You must experience these things. From page 87: "The only way you will come to believe that you will be able to stop eating is to go through the food experience, to actually eat. This is not about knowledge of food, but rather rebuilding experiences with eating. You cannot have an eating experience through knowledge; rather, you need to go through it, bite by bite,"

Making peace with food is not as easy as I thought but I am learning by doing - Hmmm that reminds me of John 7:17.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

To weigh or not to weigh


To weigh: Weight Watchers does - every week. If you are a lifetime member you have to stay within a small range of your goal weight to remain a lifetime member. I used to weight myself everyday... naked. I was obsessed. If I was dieting, I'd watch the scale go down if I was not dieting I'd watch the scale go up. I used to call Rachel every Wednesday night after my weigh in and report. We bonded over my weight watchers experience.

Not to weigh: Intuitive Eating says to lose the scale. I threw mine away. I'm committed to becoming an Intuitive Eater but I have a few relapses. Last week at the gym I weighed myself - the scale was right there in front of me and I let my curiosity get the best of me. I was exactly what I thought I was - what I was when I last weighed myself two months ago.

This morning I woke up feeling trim - well at least not fat. I've been trying to eat intuitively for awhile now and I'm starting to catch on. I wanted to weight myself to see if I really am losing weight. NO! Respect your body - reject the diet mentality. If I weighed and I had lost weight, I'd start to become obsessed with the scale again. If I weighed and I hadn't lost weight then I'd be sad and the happy good feeling I woke up with would be gone. It's all about how you feel.

Rejecting the diet mentality will take sometime - they say that breaking up is hard to do. Will I ever step on the scale again?
Probably

Friday, July 27, 2007

Here goes ...


So maybe I'll start a blog about trying to eat intuitively. I'm supposed to trust myself, listen to my body and eat whatever and whenever I want to. Reject the diet mentality.

The book: Eat when you are hungry and stop when your full.
Me: No duh sherlock
Me after trying: Help

(I stole the above formatting style from my little sister's book, "This is What I Did:"- buy it and read it, you won't be sorry)

Here is what I've done so far ...

1. I've Read the Book - converted, didn't even have to pray about it
2. Live the book? - nope, but I hired someone to help me with this one ... more posts to follow on this