I first heard about the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch at BYU's Ed Week a year or two ago (or 3?). The idea sounded interesting, but my local library didn't have it. I finally ordered it through interlibrary loan a few weeks ago and have been reading it. I like it so much I ordered a book (used) from abebooks.com ($1 for the book $2.95 s&h). They have a brand new edition that just came out earlier this month, but I didn't go for that one...I went cheap.
The authors of Intuitive Eating have a website. Here is the page that gives an explanation to their 10 basic principles :
http://www.intuitiveeating.org/content/10-principles
The principles that I think I most need are honoring your hunger, respect your fullness, discover the satisfaction factor, and honoring your feelings without using food. I eat even when I'm full sometimes just because my mouth wants something. I eat when I'm not hungry but am bored.
Of course, I haven't had a real chance to try out what they teach and I'm still reading the book, but it rings true to me. I guess we all gravitate to things that sound logical to us. I believe God created this world and that He wants us to spend our time on better things than exercising excessively and obsessing on food. I figure there has to be an easier way to take care of my body.
So that way is to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full enough (they also advocate exercise and good nutrition, but I don't think I have a problem in those areas). God made our bodies to take care of themselves--hunger and feeling full is how our body communicates with us as to when and what and how much to eat. Wow. Can't wait to try it.
Though I have never been a dieter like a lot have, I have struggled with my weight since I was about 13 or 14. I have never been thin and have only been a normal weight a few times.
I knew yo-yo dieting was very bad for you. I tried to eat healthily and get a little exercise, but being overweight made me very self-conscious to play sports or exercise in public. I was 150s-160s all through high school and college. While in college I tried the Cambridge Diet, which was a liquid drink that gave, I think, about 300-500 calories a day. I went into weight counseling on campus and the dietician let me know that was not good for my body. I sort of knew that, but needed her to tell me.
Back then, I was taught that a calorie was a calorie and it didn't matter if you ate a Big Mac once a day or spread out your calories with good food all day long. We now know that is incorrect. I didn't lose any weight there.
I finally lost weight in my mid-twenties when I was out on my own, couldn't afford snacks, and was too busy to be home to eat anyway.
I was about 142 lbs when I married at age 27--it was my lowest weight since I was on my way up 14 years earlier. After giving birth to my first child, I got back to that weight by using Weight Watchers. Then I got pregnant with my second child and I've been overweight or obese ever since. My body mass index (BMI) is currently 30.0, which is the last obese spot before I hit 29.9 and am considered just overweight--when I lose just 1/2 a pound, that will bring me down to 29.9! (though BMI isn't necessarily the best way to do things, it's better than nothing). BMI calculations: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
But the Intuitive Eating program doesn't like us using scales.
But I will still watch and see when I get down to 177.0.
Anyway, no foods are tabu since outlawing something leads to craving it which leads to binging. If you've been dieting a lot, then you might gain weight before your body stabilizes and then lets you lose weight. I'm thinking I have a lot of the bad habits they talk about...I simply overeat...so maybe I will not gain weight first. I'd like to hope for that anyway.
So, I will continue to read and I will give it a try.
