Newbie with question...

[Guest guest]

Hi all, I'm Nicky and I'm new to the group! I've been doing IE for about 2 weeks

now and although it's been a challenge I have been enjoying some successes - the

legalization of foods has been a revelation to me! This morning I really felt

like eating a pain au chocolat, which I never would have allowed myself before.

But I went to the shop and bought one, and when I ate it (slowly, making sure to

savour it), it was just the most delicious thing in the world! And I felt like

I've come so far already, as I didn't feel guilty and beat myself up over it, or

try to compensate by restricting etc.

The question I have is, do you find it much harder to do IE when you're with

certain people? I went out for the day with my friend who seems to eat

constantly (he's naturally very skinny with super fast metabolism and cannot

gain weight if he tries.) Anyway our relationship has always been based around

food, and to be honest I have always used my time with him as an excuse to binge

on forbidden foods. Like we will go to the shop and buy a huge selection of junk

food and just sit and work our way through it all evening. Or if we are out for

the day, we will keep going for coffees, snacks, Mcs, etc, and eating

sweets inbetween.

So when we went out today it was so hard to say to him 'No I'm not hungry'

whenever he suggested eating. It's like he expects me to always eat the same

amount as him, and it made me hugely anxious. I didn't binge, and I tried to

tune in to my satiety signals, but I sure ended up eating way more than I would

have if I'd been on my own. I don't want it always to be like that, so does

anyone please have any ideas on how to deal with these kind of situations? I

don't feel comfortable talking to him about IE as it would involve telling him

about my issues with food which I really don't want to do.

Thanks, (and apologies for long rambling post!)

Nicky