Good morning afternoon! (Or whenever you’re reading this, I suppose.)

I feel a little frantic today. I’m typing this on a quick break at work (which has been BANANAS) and I’ve had way too much coffee. Hello jitters!

First things first, a small virtual party is in order. I hopped on the scale this morning … and … I lost five pounds since last week. FIVE POUNDS! (Or ponds, if you’re over at the FF/E Facebook page. ha!) Great news, right? :D

To answer a lot of people’s immediate question: What did I do differently?

Answer: I don’t really know.

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(source)

In many ways, I feel like I’m taking a big leap of faith with this whole Intuitive Eating thing. When I saw that number (272.4) on the scale this morning I was immediately thrilled, but then wary. I started saying “What did I do? Can I do it again? Was it MORE fat? MORE veggies? LESS sugar? FEWER meals? MORE meals? WHAT WAS IT?!”

Which goes against everything IE is trying to teach me. What I did last week: ate when I was hungry. Stopped when I was satisfied. Ate food that would make my body feel good. That’s it. If you think you’re the only one rolling your eyes out there, believe me, you’re not. I’m seriously skeptical. But it worked, right? (I plan on talking a lot more about what habits I’m developing, but I want give them a bit more time before I start throwing them around as things that are/aren’t working.)

Intuitive Eating: My First Impressions (Intro – Chapter 4)

The beginning of this book describes the authors backgrounds, and how they came together to share about Intuitive Eating. They write in-depth on the “cycle of dieting,” and different dieting personality types. I definitely identified with the over-eater (obviously), but one metaphor that really stuck out to me was describing how some people can feel trapped by diets and rebel.

Think of dieting (any kind, any form. If you’re counting calories/points, staying away from a food group because it’s “bad”, you’re on a diet.) like a Chinese finger trap. When you start to feel restricted, guilty from “bad choices” or overwhelmed, you struggle to break out. The harder you try to work the program/rules while part of you is unhappy, the harder it is. Eventually you give up and think YOU’RE the problem, right? That you weren’t smart enough or good enough to “figure it out.” IE tries to show you that you are not the problem, the system of dieting and guilt is.

The basic principles of IE:

intuative eating phases

I can tell already that each principle will be giving me a run for my money. Especially numbers 5-7. That’s where my Binge Eating Disorder really puts me at a disadvantage. Respect fullness? Haven’t in years. Discover the satisfaction factor? I don’t even know what that means. Honor your feelings without using food? Is there any other way? ;) You get what I mean.

I’ve already reached out to a few of you reading along, and it seems like we’re all a little nervous, but excited to see what the next few chapters bring! They go into greater detail on the principles, so look for a run-down on them next week.

So far, it’s all be very “introductory”. This next week will really get to the guts of the principles. They also have an amazing online community for support that I should really take advantage of. As some of you may have seen, I’m already feeling better about my relationship with food. It’s such an amazing feeling to hear “you are not the problem.” It’s not going to be easy (I”m fully aware that I’m in a “ooooh everything’s shiny and new” phase) learning to listen to a body that I’ve practically ignored my whole life. Or at the very least thought was “wrong” and “bad.” You know what? I”m starting to think I’m okay. At least, better than I thought I was.

I’ve got this. And those five pounds I lost prove it! :D

 

xo – Emily
Be strong. Be fearless. Be you.

 

PS – are you reading along? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and/or link to your post! Don’t forget to use the #FitandFreeBOOK hashtag on Twitter/Instagram so we can all talk to each other. :)

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categories: Intuitive Eating11 comments

  • http://twitter.com/amerrylife Mary (A Merry Life)

    Go Emily! Go Emily!!!!!

    • http://www.FitandFreeEmily.com Emily

      THANKS, Mary! :D

  • http://twitter.com/BigGirlBombshel Jules Joyce

    i am at the 8-9-10 phase and have to replace the word food with exercise,muscles, like reject the exercise mentality, honor your body, make peace with movement, etc. another long intuitive process but one day at a time

    • http://www.FitandFreeEmily.com Emily

      This will definitely be a long process, but worth it. Nothing amazing ever comes with shortcuts, right? :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/mollie.l.9 Mollie Lyon

    I just talked a little about this in my post this morning. I’m doing a bootcamp (mainly to learn more intense workouts) and there’s a meal plan. I don’t calorie count and don’t have off-limit foods. I don’t measure my food. I eat healthy, clean foods. It felt so wrong to follow this. I just don’t believe that’s how people should live. I had this meal plan in my hands and I just felt…wrong. Like I knew inside this wasn’t me, it’s not how I live my life. It was a good feeling to know that I didn’t need some special meal plan and I have all the knowledge I need to be healthy. I guess I already knew that but I surprised at how I identified it so soon and easily.

    And YAY for the loss! Keep doin what you’re doin girl!

  • thechimes

    OMG I am SO glad you’re doing this. I was going to start my readalong series this Friday but I have not been able to commit to writing the posts. I think instead of doing a follow-along thing, I’ll do a summary like what you’re doing. I think the more of us that do that will hopefully help others find this book.

    • thechimes

      ALSO, YES for the 5 lb loss! I haven’t weighed myself because I don’t think it’s going to be beneficial to me at this point. I think once I’ve established good practices, I will start weighing again.

      I did basically start this over the holidays though and when I got back home after 2 weeks (1 at my parents’ and one at Mark’s parents’ house), I had lost .6 lbs and not gained 5-6 like I normally do at this time of year. Granted, my weight is what it normally is after those 5-6 lb gain, but that’s beside the point. I didn’t gain more!

      • thechimes

        ALSO I used to roll my eyes hard at people that were like “I practice intuitive eating and I eat what they want” but they never ordered dessert or junk. I never once considered that maybe they didn’t want dessert or junk.

        OH and my breakthrough moment? Mark made macaroni and cheese (with kamut flour noodles, brie, goat cheese, awesome stuff … yum) for BOTH of us on Saturday. While that was incredible in itself, the moment that he said, “I’m surprised you’ve not snagged any cheese while I’m grating it” was where I knew this IE stuff was for real. My response was, “I’m not hungry, and we’re going to have mac and cheese in about an hour, so what’s the rush?” In the past, I would have eaten a good portion of that stuff.

        I should test myself while baking cookies. Maybe not … since I am trying to quit sugar. That shit is addictive and it’s like a double-edged sword. I try to make it not restricted so it’s not tantalizing (based on IE) but at the same time, if I eat some of it, my body reacts by constantly craving it. :/

        HOLY LONG COMMENT BATMAN.

  • Biting Life

    Wow, congratulations!!! I’m really looking forward to hearing more about this whole intuitive eating thing. It sounds really interesting.

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  • http://twitter.com/WorkoutMuzkDiva Workout Music Diva

    Congratulations! Hey, 5lbs lost is 5lbs lost but I know, it is kinda frustrating not knowing exactly what you did to do it because you want to duplicate that success every week. But sometimes the body is like that, it will give up some lbs and then you do the same things and it only gives up one or two. The most important thing is that you keep moving down the scale!