http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051204/ap_on_he_me/fit_intuitive_eating

This is exactly how I eat now that I am banded. No more guilt or "I can't" or "I shouldn't". I eat when I'm hungry and I eat EXACTLY what I want. It's a very freeing way to look at food. Sure, I have my moments when I still eat emotionally, but that is the exception now, not the rule.

Anyone else eat this way now?

Megan

Thanks Megan! Very interesting article.

"There is a catch to this no-diet diet, however: Intuitive eaters only eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full."

I think the problem for many of us is that before being banded, we had no idea what "full" felt like (as opposed to stuffed to the gills.)

Perceptions are interesting. He felt that 210 was "fat." Of course, I have no way of knowing what his body type is or what his frame is like, but in my family type that is not fat. My ex-coke-head brothers weigh more than that, and they look gaunt.

Anyway, I keep stuff like that in my house, and I've had to throw away chocolate bars because they got dusty. But I'm not a binger, never have been one. I know other people would find the temptation too great, especially if they don't have their heads "banded" as well.

Yes, I found it interesting, but nothing that I could really use. I agree with Vines, The statement "Intuitive eaters only eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full.", was the kicker for me. If I could eat that way..I wouldn't be in this shape today.

Hi Megan,

if you are interested in this have a look at a couple of books, one called "over-coming over-eating" and the other "when women stop hating there bodies" (very cool title) - both are by the same authors and an excellent read. I can't remember the name of the authors but I am sure if you search amazon you will find them.

I tried this approach several years ago and found it very helpful, but for me my psychological drive to eat was too great. I think if you have no psych issues and you can actually stop when you are full this could be helpful. The trouble is sometimes they urge you to deliberately have a binge - as a kind of experimental exercise, and I think this would be difficult with the band and could undermine the process. Best of luck to you though, I must say I need to avoid the whole binge/shame cycle as much as possible - so even though I am not following their advice I really learnt a great deal from these books.

Okay, I'm going to go back and hit the link for intuitive eating...I just don't understand that at all.

For example. Hubby bought a biggie sized pack of peanut M&Ms. He and my daughter ate some. I went into the kitchen and saw this folded up packet of peaunut M&Ms on the bar...huh? I ate 2, there were 6 left in the bag. Who leaves 8 M&Ms in a bag and folds the pack up for later? Who? I ask?!!! That befuddles me to no end. Why don't you just EAT THEM????? How can a person just say...I don't want any more?

Thing is...as dumbfounding and irrational as that is to me...I only ate 2, and I left the other 6 in the bag folded up on the bar.

hmmmm, does banding make me intuitive? Does refusing to feel guilty for eating 2 M&Ms help me stop at 2? All I know is, I did it, and stood there mouth agape, still wondering how in the world HE did it.

http://www.intuitiveeating.com/

great web link. check it out.

I do this, I can eat half a normal small bag of M&Ms and just leave the rest. But I don't veiw food in terms of "good & evil"

I've had to throw away chocolate bars because they got dusty.

OMG Vines...you don't eat the wrapper...the dust goes in the bin lmao.

Not that I've ever had chocolate long enough to get dusty

I find this subject facinating...intuitive eating is such a foreign idea when all of your life food has been consumed to alter brain chemistry and alter moods. I don't understand how a band around my stomach has changed this. When I have good restriction food becomes an after thought. At times when I have ok restriction, like now, I tend to make good choices and only eat when I'm hungery 80% of the time. The biggest change I have made in my thinking about food is the good vs. evil dance. I no longer play that game with myself. I'm no longer a good or a bad person based on what I eat. I eat what I want...EXACTLY what I want. Sometimes I only take a few bites but I figure that if I listen to my body it will tell me what I need to eat. Sure, sometimes it tells me to eat that Chubby Hubby Ice Cream for dinner...but mostly it tells me to eat things that are good for me. I think that we spend a lot of time analytically trying to determine what we should or shouldn't eat...and after awhile we loose the ability to listen to our bodies.

But then again I ate a small fry from McDonald's last night at ten o'clock and I wasn't hungery. But I think that is the first time in two years that I've done that...and it used to be a weekly occurance and it would have been a large fry and a cheeseburger and milkshake. Sometimes progress doesn't mean "never"...it just means "not as much".

Megan

I wax and wane on this one. Twice in my life I've lost significant weight and kept it off for very long periods of time, in fact it was only disrupted by pregnancy and nursing. That was when I decided dieting does not work and I wasnt going to do it anymore. I've never had that kind of success (over 12kg which was plenty on me at the time) with dieting.

Trouble is, I dont truly know when I'm hungry and when I'm full. I was still stopping eating when I knew I should not when my body told me to. I was still resisting eating knowing I'd only just had lunch.

But that is precisely what I hope the band will help me achieve. I have no intention of counting calories, becoming obsessed with single food groups or doing any of that kind of dieting behaviour ever again in my life.