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Hello everyone!

I am finally, finally posting this, because I simply needed to let

ALL of you know who immensely beneficial your

posts/thoughts/practices of IE are for me on a daily basis.

I have been on this journey for several weeks now and am definitely

going through a process of changing my mind and attitude towards food

and my body. After dieting for nearly 20 years, off and on and

struggeling with my being overweight, this is pretty hard to embrace,

like it seems for all of us, and continue on, through all experiences

we have with IE. I am avoiding the words 'sticking to it', because

that simply leads to failure in my mind and this is not something to

stick to, if we/I allow it to be a natural process. So, here are a

few things I have found:

I did put the scale away several weeks ago and really enjoyed my

food, but really had trouble with the eating when hungry concept, as

I tended (and sometimes still do) to wait too long with resulted in

overeating.

I started feeling my body, rather than looking at a number on the

scale, and I started to feel not so great in my skin (please read

just as that). No, I don't mean that I am beating myself up, but

putting the scale away has resulted in really getting tuned into my

body. So, right now, at being roughly 40 pounds overweight I indeed

do not feel very comfortable. At the same time, I have acknowledge

this and realize that where I am today is the immediate result of my

actions in the past, and I feel wonderful that I have found my body's

voice and that the scale is no longer telling me a number that I then

interpret as 'not so bad'. I used to have good or bad days depending

on the scale, now, I tend to have days depending on the things that

happen in my life and I LOVE letting my body and mind connect.

Finally! So, I may carry that extra weight around with me, but to

me, it's really okay right now, because I realize that if I let my

body and mind communicate I will find peace with food. I hope this

all makes sense to you all. It's pretty hard to put into words.

Basically what I am trying to say here is that I am starting to feel

connected, body, mind, soul and then my surroundings, and I am

enjoying every single day.

Another thing that has happened is that I have not excercised for a

while, simply because I have been busy and probably also, because it

just was not a priority for the past weeks. Here during the last

week or so, I am craving excercise and now I am trying to find ways

to move and not because of 'diet', but because my body is telling me

it needs some activity. So, even though it's 10 degrees outside, I

am going to bundle up in a few minutes and go walk for just 10

minutes and have some fun. (That's how bad I want it!!! grin)

You know something else that's really nice? I no longer decline

invitations to go out to lunch/dinner, because I am no longer afraid

that I'll 'ruin the diet', which has in the past lead to eating

frenzies. Now, I still have days, and expect to continue to have

these, where for some, mostly emotional reason or another, I eat when

I am not hungry, however, I do not find myself any longer finishing

off something, because I am no longer labeling days as good or bad

eating wise. Instead I have let myself eat, and have found that if I

at least try to stay in tune with my body, the food intake tends to

even out and I'll eat less later in the day or the next day. Not by

trying to, but because at that point, I am back to listening to my

body and eat when I am hungry.

Sorry for the very long post, but this is what has accumulated during

the past weeks and I really wanted to share and let you know that

this group has many a day brought me help and I am sure will continue

to do so.

All, have a wonderful day,

Katja