Re: Today's thoughts on IE

September 21, 2009

Diane, that is a tough but at the same time wonderful insight for yourself. It

really does take time and sticking with the 'process' to remove diet mentality

and the food police from one's life. After over 2 years with this myself, I

still find myself in diet mentality moments. The good news is that these have

become much shorter and more easily recognized (and dumped too!). Continue on

with the work you can do and let the rest (principles) 'process' as they can. IE

is for LIFE isn't it?!? Its not a 'life sentence' like dieting is!

Kudos to you - Katcha

IEing since March 2007

>

> Yesterday I refrained from going out to social atmosphere because all the

clothes I have for going out do not fit right. I knew that if I went out with

those clothes - I would feel that I have to go on a diet. So I didn't go out.

I made a phone call to a friend instead to tell her about what i was feeling. I

started rereading parts of the IE book and came across Principle 10 - which

speaks about Gentle Nutrition. 90% nutrition and 10% play food. This morning I

decided to get on the scale to face the " number " . It was about 20 pounds more

than my " starving " diet number. Surpisingly it did not depress me. Instead I

realized that I can choose to eat healthy - waiting for my hunger honoring it-

stopping when I am satisfied and if the desire for play food comes into the

picture - first see if there is something that can substitute that won't make me

feel deprived butif not to go ahead and eat it and challenge the food police. I

believe that I had to go through the stage of making peace with food to see that

I can stop. Also I had to give up the diet mentality. I do not need to starve

to get to a number on the scale - I can eat healthy - do my exercise to feel

good about myself -not beat myself up if I eat something higher in calories - go

out to restaurants and enjoy myself. I know that I don't feel good with these

extra 15 pounds. I know that i hated my body 20 pounds ago and could not accept

it unless I was at that exact number. So now I am working on getting to like my

body as it is now but at the same time understand that physically I do not feel

good at this weight. I started this journey because I googled - How can I stop

hating my body - and found that the way to that is by IE. Which makes complete

sense. It puts me in control of myself. Not some outside source. It takes

alot of being in the present to work this process. (of course it used to sound

easier to just go and join a diet club - but now I know as I did then - that

that made things worse for me.

>

> Diane

>

September 21, 2009

Hi Diane,I can so relate to that feeling of clothes not fitting and being so focused on that and desperate to lose weight. I often resist buying new clothes because I don't want to spend the money but I know it does help me when I have clothes that fit.I like what you said about realizing that you don't feel good at this weight rather than beating yourself up about it. It's similar to what I recently experienced on vacation when I started to eat some chips that I wanted but then realized I didn't want the crappy feeling that usually came with eating them early in the day and the lack of energy and ambition that would follow. Good luck on your journey.SharonSubject: Today's thoughts on IETo: IntuitiveEating_Support Date: Monday, September 21, 2009, 9:16 AM

Yesterday I refrained from going out to social atmosphere because all the clothes I have for going out do not fit right. I knew that if I went out with those clothes - I would feel that I have to go on a diet. So I didn't go out. I made a phone call to a friend instead to tell her about what i was feeling. I started rereading parts of the IE book and came across Principle 10 - which speaks about Gentle Nutrition. 90% nutrition and 10% play food. This morning I decided to get on the scale to face the "number". It was about 20 pounds more than my "starving" diet number. Surpisingly it did not depress me. Instead I realized that I can choose to eat healthy - waiting for my hunger honoring it- stopping when I am satisfied and if the desire for play food comes into the picture - first see if there is something that can substitute that won't make me feel deprived butif not to go ahead and eat it and challenge the food police. I

believe that I had to go through the stage of making peace with food to see that I can stop. Also I had to give up the diet mentality. I do not need to starve to get to a number on the scale - I can eat healthy - do my exercise to feel good about myself -not beat myself up if I eat something higher in calories - go out to restaurants and enjoy myself. I know that I don't feel good with these extra 15 pounds. I know that i hated my body 20 pounds ago and could not accept it unless I was at that exact number. So now I am working on getting to like my body as it is now but at the same time understand that physically I do not feel good at this weight. I started this journey because I googled - How can I stop hating my body - and found that the way to that is by IE. Which makes complete sense. It puts me in control of myself. Not some outside source. It takes alot of being in the present to work this process. (of course it used to sound easier to

just go and join a diet club - but now I know as I did then - that that made things worse for me.

Diane

September 23, 2009

This is really useful, thank you.

Maybe I had to get to this point in order to realize I can choose to eat better.

I feel so uncomfortable at what I weigh now. It's not just external pressure.

Now that I've given myself permission to eat literally everything, maybe I can

stop now.