Discussion Board

Thanks RAS - although I dont always put everything into action, I have learned a lot the past few months.

That is certainly true. I've been watching my true hunger more and more every day. As well as other body signals and how I react to them. Yet hunger is the one I want to satisfy at the first signs, or at least did. That is the conditioning of years. The fear of feeling hungry - the belief that I'll pass out or get faint or something bad if I do something else before I eat. ???? That is learned behavior, and I can unlearn it!

In a similar vein, I had a casual lunch the other day with a couple friends at one of their homes. What impressed me was how little either of these women ate. I've noticed this before with other people in the past when watching 'normal people's' eating habits, but this time coupled with watching hunger, and delaying eating,
I was reminded of it again.

So now I'll add that to my current eating 'practice exercises'. Now, I will notice true hunger, and wait longer before I eat. And when I eat, I'll serve myself less, and eat it with enjoyment. And wait. If I am still hunger in 30 minutes or so, I'll eat more. If I am not, I'll wait till true physical hunger returns. I am not intending to starve or deprive myself, just to eat less in general and at the same time feel comfortable.

I have always had a tendency to eat past satisfaction and on to mostly full. (Thankfully not to 'stuffed' anymore.) This morning I prepared one of my favorites - glorified steamed veggies, etc, but only served myself 2/3rds of my usual. I ate slowly and with relish - and it was enough. I was satisfied.

I did not get truly hungry again till a number of hours later. And the rest of that veggie mix (including legumes) is what I had for lunch, plus some fruit. And a nice cup of cocoa. And I was not hungry again till dinner.

For years I watched how naturally thin people ate to decode 'the secret'. I learned things but was unable to implement them all since I still had eating issues. But I am thinking I am ready, and now is my time. I'll just have to concentrate more than they do since it does not come naturally to me. Yet.


Dendra reaches comfortable satiety after eating lunch:

Just enjoying a nice late breakfast of not-your-mama's mixed veggies, and am pausing to experience how good it feels in my body to eat when truly hungry.

I'm not at satisfaction yet, but there is no hurry. Unlike limiting diets of the past when everything had to be measured or counted, I know I'll be able to eat till I get there. And eat when I am physically hungry again, basically eliminating any sense of deprivation. It makes so much sense. Thanks again to people like Geneen Roth and the other 'intuitive eating' programs that got me here.

Umm, yummm, another contented bite....

I'm still working on staying with real hunger longer. Sometimes it works well, other times I just forget, or just want to eat more than lose weight.

Still sticking with my version of 'this way of eating', though it decidedly is leaning more Fuhrman these days. I just don't do well on starch for several reasons, in part because I love it so much and it triggers over-eating for me. You'd think after all these years I'd would have learned that. Congrats to those for whom ample starch works. I don't totally avoid it, but I just don't eat very much of it anymore.

In general I'm doing very well. Still feeling so much better than before eating this way. It's been just over 5 months now, and I don't much think about it anymore. I'd still love to be able to eat more animal products, but in truth I eat less of them as I go.

So now to tackle 'enough'. Again. In addition to being taught that feeling hungry was a bad thing, I was also taught that at every meal I needed to eat 'enough'. And 'enough' in my family was more than enough, meaning 'full'.

My current goal is to incorporate not eating as much at meals with waiting longer to eat. Sounds spartan, but I'm trying to find what works best for my body instead of the default of always slowly gaining weight when not paying attention. I'd prefer the equation to be backwards - to slowly lose weight when not paying attention.

This is the current plan: To continue to wait longer, to let natural hunger mature and build stronger (but not to ravenous and out of control). And coupled with that, to initially serve myself less, to totally enjoy eating it, then wait to see if this smaller initial serving is 'enough' after 20-30 minutes. If it's not, if I'm still hungry, I'll eat a bit more and see if that is 'enough'.

At no point do I intend to starve myself, to eat unpalatable food, to be always uncomfortable or feel deprived. I'm just learning lessons I missed growing up in a family of food pushers. (They meant well. Food was love. ). I'm learning how to eat more healthy, to relish feeling hungry, and now to eat smaller portions. I'll let my body's signals be the final judge instead of pre-conceived, ill-learned beliefs from childhood.


Kitties like Dendra do not recognize seasons.

Still doing well. Very well in fact. Just wanted to check in and vent a wee bit.

On the 20th of this month, it will be 6 months since starting this phase of my life. I'm liking it very much, and have benefited greatly physically.

Nothing new of note, other than I really dislike it when I take my time to write a thoughtful post to this board, ...and it gets deleted. Let's see if this one survives.

If I continue posting to the board out of this journal area, I guess I'll just have to make copies.

Here's a good article on mindful eating.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/dinin ... ought.html

It's been another month, and over half a year since switching to a plant-based diet. While there have been a few bumps in the road, there really haven't been too many, and nothing that caused a total derail.

Weight loss is going slow, but have lost 2-3 more pounds recently. Still lots to go. It will just take longer than I would wish. So be it. Better to gravitate downwards than upwards.

I'm still experimenting with hunger, staying with it even longer, and that is getting easier. I no longer take the initial stages of real hunger as a signal to eat. I know the physical feeling of hunger will go away if I ignore it. It will of course return with greater intensity, then eventually I eat with great enjoyment. And staying hungry longer is not particularly an ordeal since I know I can eat whenever I really want, if I want. It's more a matter of accepting and just getting used to it. And this is why I'm losing again.

Dendra skates on...

Wow, more than a month and a half since I've updated this. I could say almost exactly what I did in my last message - still plugging away, complete with slips here and there. But nothing majorly bad.

Still working on remaining with healthy hunger longer (alla geneen roth) and that's becoming more second nature. I often forget about it, and find myself thinking 'gee, I'm hungry, but it's so soon after eating..' Only to look at a clock and see that hours have passed and it long past regular meal time. Who would have thunk it?

So in general I must be eating less, and am still losing weight, but at a slow clip. But it's the right direction, and never in my life have I ever 'drifted' lower before. Though I am working on eating less. Just no weightloss diet or anything.

There are two things of note. I have great kale in the garden right now, and I'm drying it, crumbling it finely, and adding it to all manner of things that I formerly wouldn't have. Even morning oatmeal. Extra micronutrients can't hurt. It's fast and easy and painless, so why not?

I'm also totally enjoying hot cocoa. I make it with filtered water and Trader Joes unsweetened almond milk (2:1), sweetener of my choice (splenda), a dash of salt and cinnamon..... and the best unsweetened cocoa powder I can find. Very expensive, but oh so good. The hot cocoa is ambrosial, satisfying, filling, etherial, and made with the very high quality cocoa is sinful without being sinful. Win-win-win. One of the best food finds evah!


Dendra relaxes in a hot bath after her evening cocoa. The duck knows it won't be eaten.
(That must be one of the moderators looking through the window. )

I just re-read my last message from over a month ago - I could say almost exactly the same thing today as at the end of last April.... still plugging away, still doing OK, still working on remaining hungry longer, still very slowly losing weight. But not feeling deprived or ever overly uncomfortable - about much of anything.

I think where I am with my eating is the result of a great deal of long work dealing with food compulsivity, legalizing all foods alla geneen roth, and that a last brick in the wall was discovering my version of this way of eating and choosing health over pleasure. It's been a very long journey over a good number of years, but it seems very right.

When I read 'authorities' saying 'eat only the healthy stuff when you are hungry, and stop when you are full' and that will solve all your eating and weight problems.... I know they have no clue about compulsive eaters such as myself. It's so much more complex.

Not much has changed since I wrote that about 2 months ago. Still sticking with my version of being a non-vegan vegan. I had to have a diet I could stick with for life. YMMV. It's all good.

I am still losing weight, almost 40 pounds total since beginning 11 months ago. Just loving how I feel on so many levels.

To anyone who passes by, take time to smell the posies.

-Norm

I've been 'away' from here for awhile, but still following my hybrid version of a very high fruit/veggie, much less animal/fat plan. I can only do what I am willing to do if I want this to be life-long. And I do.

Just looked at my weekly weight graph and since the beginning of August, have dropped another 5 pounds. Not blinding speed, but far more than acceptable since I've not been paying nearly as much attention to it.

My current goal is to make it till Jan 1 doing as little damage as possible - I do intend to enjoy the holidays in moderation - then get back into harness and go for more weight loss again. I'm looking forward to it. Almost.

Today is Dec. 26 and I've decided to 'start' today and not wait till Jan. 1. New Year's shouldn't be that much of a hurdle, and we ate away from home mostly, so there are no holiday leftovers. All in all, holiday eating wasn't horrible. My goal was to mainly eat moderately and not seriously over-eat anything. And I didn't.

So, this is the plan...

1.) Be more careful with what I eat. To eat more veggies, fruits, and plant products, salads, less animal protein and so forth. No need to outline that.

2.) Not be on the computer so much (aka, sitting down) in order to move more, even if it's just around the house. So more, consistent movement. Standing is better than sitting. Maybe setting a timer for when I am online.

3.) Keep busy with interesting, creative things - less eating for entertainment - entertain myself doing other things.

4.) Don't eat past 8 pm unless I am physically very hungry.

5.) Keep a food journal. I have always resisted this, but over and over people who keep one do better. I did it for much of this past year and it helps keep me mindful.

Hmm, so almost 6 months later. I'm still eating moderately OK but some 'things' (nothing horrendous) have been slowly creeping back in esp when I'm in a hurry, and I decided I need to get more 'pure' again. Very interesting how I'm now almost a complete vegetarian. Who ever thought that would happen? I don't even miss meat that much.

Have been concentrating on keeping moving - mainly in the garden, but also sometimes 'my sport'. I can work literally for hours a day at a comfortable pace, and just love it. The plan is to grow lots of luscious veggies for the coming year and mostly live off my little plot of garden.

Also got a new stove-top pressure cooker. Cooked some beans, and then some brown rice. It works great for both. Also made some killer chili with beans, tomatoes, onions, and flame roasted chiles from last year's garden. Oh my. It's great over rice or even steamed squash .

It's been about 1.75 years since eating 'this way' and I'm still more than satisfied. Many of the benefits I now take for granted. Who knew? I am sad sometimes when I walk through a grocery and see all the dreck that is sold and most people eat. No wonder there is so much sickness.