Category Archives: intuitive eating

Intuitive/mindful eating

So – I am finally posting on the intuitive/mindful eating.  This is probably going to be a rambling post, so be forewarned!

I have decided that I prefer the term mindful eating because I actually think I am pretty intuitive about a lot of things in life already, but I need to pay attention to some things more (being mindful).   This month is more about doing that than trying to lose weight (more on that later).  I actually think I have a fairly good relationship with food now, but sometimes I wonder why I snack out of boredom or overeat during holidays.  I feel my feelings.  I don’t have emotional scars or issues that I have buried with food.   I ate too much and too many of things that allowed the fat to pile up quite easily (note I am not saying I ate the wrong foods, reframing that).

I tend to be a somewhat regimented eater on a schedule because of my activities.  I try to eat every few hours so that I don’t get too hungry.  If I get too hungry, or what I call “falling off the cliff,” it is very hard to reign in the eating after that.  It is almost like I cannot get full.  I don’t really know if that is my body trying to regulate insulin or what, but I just do not like to get to that point.  I also have the habitual eating, like my afternoon latte, which occurs pretty much at the same time each afternoon.  I am not always hungry (usually I am), but I always have it or some type of snack.  Sometimes just as a forethought to avoid the cliff scenario mentioned above.  Is that mindful?  I don’t know.

Sometimes my body gives me hunger signals when I don’t want them.  Like in the mid morning and I feel really hungry, and I know it is hunger, but I think  “I just had a 500 calorie breakfast 2 hours ago, WTF??”  Shouldn’t that last longer when it is a good mix of carbs, protein, and fat?  So, that is something I need to explore.

I have been trying to listen to my body telling me what to eat as well.  And that means breakfast for dinner sometimes!  Like when I had oats for dinner after a big bike ride.  I really think my body wanted the carbs to replenish all that glycogen.

Then I wonder about how intuitive eating works when I know that I must eat, but I am not hungry, such as after some of those rides we did.  My appetite was suppressed, but I know that my body needed fuel.  How does one handle that in an intuitive/mindful way when I know that I need to eat?  Or is that being mindful in a different way? (Maybe I am over analyzing here).

And what about weight loss?  I know a lot of people think of intuitive eating as a way to lose weight, but I don’t really think that is the purpose for it.  I read that if you eat only when you are hungry, that your body will naturally become a “normal” weight.   If you eat when you are hungry, how does that work if your body has a set point of say… 250 pounds?  What if my body intuitively wants to be 250 pounds, but my brain does not want my body to be 250 pounds?  How do I reconcile or trust that?

So anyhoo – these are just some of the things rambling in my mind.  I have to admit that sometimes the notion of intuitive eating annoys the crap out of me, and maybe that is the real reason why I am looking into it.  Because I don’t know why it would annoy me.

I actually get along well with my body now.  In the past, it was always me versus my fat body.  Then I learned that my body is actually okay, it’s the fat that is not.  Now it is me and my body against the fat, which I have separated from being connected to who I am and what my body is.  We are like a team being healthy together and having to face some challenges (which we don’t always win).  It will be an interesting month.

Intuitive eating and kitties.

I have come to the realization that I am unlikely to ever be one of those intuitive eaters. I don’t know if it is laziness or just being unable to communicate well enough with my body to ‘stop when full’.

I also don’t like analyzing every bite. Am I still hungry? Do I want more? Should I stop here? It takes the enjoyment out of eating. I know that if I have a portioned dinner I can enjoy the whole thing, knowing that I have set aside the calories for that. Scheduled meals and snacks works for me. If I rely on intuitive eating, I tend to eat too much. I guess with practice I could probably have some success, but I am just not interested in that.

I was thinking about my 2 kitties today and intuitive eating. One cat is our shop cat, and the other lives in our house. They have very different eating habits. The house cat (Chloe) has eaten free choice for her entire life (and she is now 18). I pour a large bowl of food for her that I just refill when it gets low. She also gets 1/3 of a can of wet food in the morning and evening. She is the tiniest thing you have ever seen. Her highest weight was 8 pounds, now she weighs just 5.75. (And no health problems, for any of you curious. Liver, kidneys fine and no diabetes). She grazes on food all day. She will eat part of her wet food, then 1/2 hour later come back and eat some more. Then nothing until much later. She is like one of those people who can eat anything and not gain an ounce.

My other cat (Pixie), whom I affectionately call ‘butterball’, is chubby. She came to me as a stray and was extremely thin – so she was free choice food at first. The vet now wants her on a diet. She gets 1/2 cup of dry food a day, split into 2 meals – no wet food. She cannot be free choice, as she eats anything that is put in front of her, and will eat straight fat if given the chance. And yet – after months, she is still the same weight. Kitty on a diet that has plateaued. Kind of like me for a while, eating all the right stuff but no scale movement.

I sometimes wonder if Pixie thinks about food, as much as a walnut brain can think, anyway 🙂 . Does she wonder why she doesn’t get as much food now? Is she satisfied after eating her allotted portion of food? Or does she just think about catnip and naps?


Where’s my food??

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How thin people think

Someone posed the question about how thin people think and if it is different than when you are overweight or losing weight, and if you still thought about food all the time.

I think the question is really the difference between the formerly overweight and the naturally thin people. There are tons of books and articles about how to eat like a thin person. Be intuitive, stop when you’re full, only eat when you are hungry, eat consciously, ad nauseum.

Well, I don’t know about anyone else – but I doubt that I will ever be an intuitive eater. Maybe I just don’t trust myself, but I need to have tight control of what I am eating. That’s why my food is portioned out to what I need, not necessarily what I want. I really never serve myself too large a portion. If I try to let feelings dictate how I eat, I will be back at 250 pounds before you know it!

I will always be the former fat girl who acts like a thin person, I don’t know if I will ever be a truly thin person. I think you can only be born that way.

Today’s stats:
Calorie goal: 1,350 • Consumed: 1,311 • Burned: 543
Net calories: 768

C/P/F ratio: 50/25/25 (yay me!!)