Update on my mindful eating experiment

I have intuitively eaten my weight back up 5-10 over the last year, very slowly.  Now that I'm in the habit, it is very hard to break.  I am definitely eating mindfully with protein first, still no drinking for almost an hour after eating etc.

Personally, I wish I had never stopped recording or letting treats an adult beverages sneak back in.  I think I can lose it again and plan to, come September when vacation time is over.

Sandy, you might be a prophet of things to come.  Were you weighing yourself everyday and keeping track of what's going on weight wise the whole time?  Did it just sneak up on you a little bit at a time, or did it come on over a shorter period, like vacation or holiday time? 

I totally respect your experience and I think we are all one big experiment.  I have been doing this for about three or four months now, and I only gained a bit in the beginning.  I think it was from simply eating more carbs and retaining more water.  After that balanced out, I have been more or less stable between 104-107.  My ideal weight is 105 lbs. and I set my ceiling at 110 lbs.  I weight myself everyday to make sure I am still in my range.  Knowing what you know now, do you still predict problems down the road?  I take your opinion very seriously as I find we are all figuring this thing out together.  Thank you for your response.

 Elina, I still weigh every day and do have a fluctuation of about 5 lbs.  Maybe TMI but I have a lot of constipation issues and feel that is contributing to my holding onto a little more weight at this time.  At the same time, I may have used it as a bit of an excuse to avoid seeing a half lb here and there sneaking up,  I would also add that yes a week's vacation here and there probably represent a pound each.  My intuitive eating had included adult beverages as well as the occasional unnecessary carb treat, but protein first.

Good luck to us all!

For those of us with Droid phones, there's a great app that helps track food and calories, but through intuitive eating.  it's called noom, and I did this through summer, along with myfitnesspal.com for comparison, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how close to the mark it came calorically to myfitnesspal.  It doesn't make you track exactly how much you eat, just if it's good, ok, or bad, and whether it's a tiny, small, medium or large size.  

I haven't gained any weight.  I think after a few years, I needed to give myself some flexibility, otherwise at least I start to feel like my life is fixated on food.  I still weigh every day, and adjust my food accordingly, but this app helped me see that we are smarter now with our food choices than we ever were, and could probably live this way long term.

Unfortunately I have a iphone, but my husband has a droid, so I will "borrow" his tonight and check it out.  Thank you.  I wanted to move away from the food fixation if it is possible.  If I can't be trusted around food, the scale will tell it like it is.  I am hoping that I have learned to eat correctly for my body and that I can maintain this for the long road.  I would appreciate it if you would read my new post about fiber and tell me what you think.  I am beginning to see it as my personal secret weapon.  What is your experience with this?

I'm trying to find that elusive happy medium.  Trusting myself to eat intuitively.  I like that phrase!  Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Janet

congrats on your success, sounds like its working great for you, i think thats the biggest part of our journeys is finding what will work for each and every one of us...

for me im just so pleased to have gotten rid of the carb monster off my shoulders again .. such a relief..

will keep watching with interest to see how things progress for you..

I read your post about your amazing success at getting back to basics and losing the weight.  I can't tell you how motivational it is to know that it is possible to do this.  It gives hope and courage to all of us. 

What really helped me in this whole "intutitive eating" game is when I got my BodyMedia FIT. After a few months seeing that eating to my hunger was not putting me over the calories I was burning, I got enough confidence to stop tracking my food. And ... nothing happened...! 

Which is exactly what I wanted.

Now I have sometimes when I dont' get enough protein and my hair starts to fall out again but I just make a point to have a protein shake every day again and eat more protein and it reverses itself. I'm not sure why but it also seems like I am having these episodes less and less.

Thank you for your response, it gives me courage to keep at this.  I have great respect for your long term success.  So far this has been my experience as well.  I seem to have learned how to eat to my new set point and I am loving the freedom that gives me.  I don't think I would have tried this until being almost two years out because the routines are so much ingrained in me now, that I just do the right thing most of the time and don't even notice it.  It also seems that balancing the protein with high fiber has been a huge help.