This is the first book I read on intuitive eating. It really made a lot of sense to me. I researched intuitive eating online, looking at the relevent studies. There's not much research, yet, but the research does support intuitive eating. Just knowing that diets fail 95% of the time, on average, tells the story right there.
I jumped right into this eating approach with both feet about a month ago. When I started this diet I was a restrictive eater/binge eater. I was about 10-15 pounds overweight. I weighed myself one to four times a day. I never kept any food in the house that might truly make me want to eat a lof of it. Then, when I was out and had access to food that I craved, I would binge heartily. I'm extremely knowledgeable about nutrition, and only allowed myself to keep whole grains, no trans-fats, etc. in the house.
I really thought that I had a very healthy approach toward food. Then, I started intuitive eating a month ago. At first, it was stadium franks, hot dogs, chocolate, cream horns, turnovers, and a lot of them. I weighed myself recently, and found that I had only gained 3 pounds after eating this way to my heart's content. I stopped when I felt satisfied, and only ate when I felt hungry.
Just recently, do I feel the need for sugar/fat tapering. I'm starting to crave strawberries and cooked cabbage. I'm down to 2 cream horns a day, instead of 5. I don't even care to eat most of the other sugary food I keep around. I have to throw it out. My pants are starting to feel like they're loosening back up slowly.
I can't believe it. I'm 33. I've obsessed about my eating, dieted and binged (sometimes on a daily basis) for the past 18 years, only to weigh more than ever.
Now, to be surrounded by the food I always craved and binged on, and to not even want it is amazing!!!!
I can't support this concept enough.
Trust you body!!!! It knows what it's doing!
I really have to disagree with Yvonne's comment "But obese people do not start being overweight due to dieting!" As a child I always enjoyed eating, but I was not overweight. In fact, I didn't think too much about food at all. I went on my first diet at age 15, with the goal of losing 5 lbs. After I lost 5 lbs by eating a lot of salad and little else, I could fit into all my jeans and a few people commented on how good I looked. I was hooked.....I lost another 5 lbs. and looked great (probably too thin, but I thought I looked great!), but the constant restricting and hunger made me start to obsess about food! I would end a 2 day fast by eating an entire bag of cookies....My first diet was the beginning of a 20 year cycle of fasting and compulsive eating that left me 75 lbs overweight. I've been in lots of Compulsive Eating support groups over the years and I've heard the same story. If you put a child in a room filled with candy and junk food and tell her to eat whatever she wants, the food will quickly lose much of it's appeal......or tell her not to eat one bite and see how important that food becomes....
This book addresses many of the issues behind compulsive eating, and with lots of work on my part, it made me sane again (and 60 lbs lighter).
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Imagine never having to worry about what you eat. Imagine being one of "those" people who can eat whatever they want whenever they want and never gain a pound -even lose weight! Don't you hate those people? What if you could be just like them? What if you knew their secret (that even they probably don't know)?
This book is the only "plan" you'll ever need to get off the dieting roller coaster and become a healthy eater. Skeptical? So was I. However, after a year of practicing Intuitive Eating, I am a COMPLETELY different person.
Be warned: it is not a quick fix. In fact, quick fixes are PRECISELY the reason we end up yo-yo dieting. Intuitive eating is not a diet at all. I know you've heard this before -even from actual "diets" like Weight Watchers -but, in fact, there is NO PLAN to intuitive eating. That's the whole point! You learn to eat what you want, what you need, and what feels good to your body. Your body already knows what's healthy for it and when you get rid of your emotional baggage about food, your shame, hidden eating, and all the other food behaviors you wish you could stop but feel enslaved to, you actually begin to enjoy food again!
Since I live in Southern California, I've had the privilege of consulting with Ms. Tribole (one of the authors) as a dietitian and nutritionist in my quest to overcome compulsive overeating. This book completely changed my life. I will be forever grateful to the authors.
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I've read several comments that said that no one who reviewed this book mentioned that they had actually lost weight, and that therefore, this book is just giving overweight people permission to eat badly. So let me just clear that up right now. I read this book (an earlier edition) in 2000, and lost 40 pounds in the next 2 years. In the 4 years after that, I lost an additional 25. And...I've kept it off.
This book does give readers permission to eat what they want, but not to eat AS MUCH as they want. It teaches you to pay attention to your body, to your hunger and fullness signals, and to how certain foods make you feel. And once you've got that down, then it goes into nutrition.
My biggest problem was eating food just because it was there--and adding to that, the habit of ordering the largest size at restaurants. Once I learned to pay attention to what I was eating, and experimenting with smaller servings, the weight just dropped off. It may not work for everyone, but here is one woman who it did work for.
Let's face it, in this day and age it IS virtually impossible to eat 100% intuitively--we all have times when we eat for reasons other than hunger--many of us have jobs where we have set meal times, we are guests at other people's houses, etc. But even if you are able to learn to eat intuitively 50% of the time, it is an improvement.
So it goes without saying that I highly recommend this book. It's not conventional diet wisdom, but if that was what worked, we wouldn't have a multi-billion dollar weight loss industry, would we?
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About 5 years ago a friend tried to explain to me how she lost weight and had kept it off for so long. She told me that the only reason I overeat is because I restricted that food. I sort of understood what she was saying, but not really. She told me to practice listening to my body: what do i want to eat? am i full yet? etc.
Well, it took a few years of pondering her words, then I found this book, and finally it clicked!! WOW!! What a relief! I lost about 17 pounds two years ago and I have been the same weight since then. I eat WHATEVER I want to eat. There's not one food that is off-limits.
Here's the essence of the book: pick whatever your most favorite food is and allow yourself to eat however much you want. For me, it was Oreos. I could eat an entire package in one sitting. So, imagine that you go to the grocery store, you buy one dozen packages of Oreos. Everyday after today you receive another dozen packages of Oreos on your front step. Basically, you have a neverending supply of Oreos. How many are you actually going to eat? Maybe the first day you eat three packages. Guaranteed, by the end of the first week or two, if you are still eating them, you'll be eating only a couple Oreos at a time because you literally don't want to eat anymore.
Another food that was hard for me was french fries. Why do I eat all of my fries even when I'm stuffed? I realized it was because I knew in the back of my mind that I was going to try to avoid eating fries in the future, so I knew I better eat them all right now while I can!
If you tell yourself (and you have to really mean it, too) that you will go back and get more fries in an hour, or ten minutes, if you really want to, then you will never overeat! Why would you make yourself uncomfortable? If you are making yourself uncomfortable, you are doing it because you think you won't get to buy more of it later (either because of a self-imposed restriction or because you think you need to get your money's worth). It took lots of practice, but now anytime I go out to eat, I hardly have to remind myself that I will come back and buy more later if I want to. It's a true habit to not get uncomfortably full.
For those of you who feel like you need to get your money's worth in food, just remember this: if it goes in the trash, it's wasted and if it goes in your body, it's wasted. No matter what you do, it's wasted food. Your body doesn't need it or want it.
My relationship with food is now peaceful and calm. I no longer have any kind of anxiety about going out to dinner or going to a party where there's going to be food. I used to think about what I was going to eat for lunch for hours before lunch and think about dinner as soon as lunch was over. Now, when it's dinner time, I start thinking about dinner. My mind is at peace. And I have Oreos in my pantry :)
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This is a great cookbook for those wondering what they can eat after learning they are lactose intolerant or must maintain a gluten-free diet. The answer is: A lot of nourishing food that also is healthy. The author does an excellent job of introducing recipes to non-cooks who in these days of chosing prepared food from the grocery aisle no longer remember how mom or grandma boiled an egg or mashed potatoes from scratch. That's where the healthy comes into play. No additives in these recipes, just as advertized, it's home-style cooking and it's delicious.
