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Healthiermum · Post by **Healthiermum** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:03 pm

Back again and hoping this works. Every previous time I have been on this my head gets in the way and I start thinking if I am eating extra calories in my meal to tie me over why can't I just eat less now and then snack if I'm hungry and then guess what I'm off the bandwagon and on another diet and once again obsessing over every little calorie and what I'm eating. This is how I used to eat when I was a younger and never had a weight problem eating this way so it makes sense. I funnily enough don't think I ever had a weight problem till I started dieting. Hope this time I can stick to it.

MJ7910 · Post by **MJ7910** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:56 am

funny that you say that. i did just fine until i started "dieting" too... then is when i gained all the weight! i know i need to get back to a normal person's eating system, and i know this is the right thing for me. just have to give it a chance to work

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:35 pm

I am finally just a few pounds over what I weighed when I first dieted after high school. However, at that time, though I was in the normal BMI range, I was heavier than most of my peers and always felt big. Now I am lighter than 75% of them, and I expect less of myself anyway, thank goodness. Wish I'd been able to break free of the tyranny of thinness sooner.

finallyfull · Post by **finallyfull** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 1:10 pm

I have never had much of a weight problem, but any and all problems came after learning to "diet" -- it was so "successful" it goofed me up for evermore by changing me from a person who ate when hungry to a calorie counter. Duh.

Someone here wrote that counting calories divorces you from the natural process of listening to your body. Great advice, and that has finally helped me quit doing it. I still sometimes automatically start to do it, then I shut it off. Yay.

catservant · Post by **catservant** » Sun May 19, 2013 7:47 pm

I have tried to No S a few times within the past year or two but up until now have failed to get through more than a day or two. It occurred to me this morning that I will be 58 soon, and that I have been engaged in this struggle to be a "normal" eater since I was 8 and the first kid made an unkind comment about my chubby self. That, and the many comments that followed, really made me believe as a child that I must really be bad and unlovable. Thus started all the self-abuse in all its many forms (smoking, binge eating, alcohol and abusive relationships to name a few). How sad is 50 years of thinking so little of myself. Anyway, I will try a little self love for a while...I think I will succeed this time. 21 day challenge here I come!

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue May 21, 2013 1:26 pm

I started seriously just after Christmas of 2009, when I was 56, and seeing that I had been struggling with this since I was 18 really helped. I kept thinking, I don't want to overeat all the time for my last years alive, and if I don't do it now, when will I? I knew I could take a few years to get it right because I would have to no matter what I did, and this has been more fun than anything I did before!

Don't be afraid to use beverages between meals to get your through, if you are legitimately hungry. I"m excited for you!

catservant · Post by **catservant** » Tue May 21, 2013 9:13 pm

Thanks, Oolala53! I had the very same thought: if not now, then when?? I am not getting any younger, and 50 years is enough to devote to this struggle. I really would just like to be a "normal" person! Thanks for the pointer about beverages...I am sure that during the process of learning new habits they will be needed!

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue May 21, 2013 10:56 pm

Don't set yourself up with an romanticized view of "normal." Normal people do give attention to eating. It's actually not normal to completely forget about food unless you're eating. Even in slim cultures, people look forward to and reminisce over wonderful meals, and make efforts to eat moderately. But if you mean you don't wring your hands and judge your worth anymore by your eating habits, well, you've got a chance here. Two years from now, you'll be in a very different place.

catservant · Post by **catservant** » Wed May 22, 2013 1:41 am

A very good point...By "normal" I mainly mean that I'd like to not restrict any food category and not have to obsessively count the calories in everything. I don't think I'll ever not love food...just would like to have the structure and ditch the constant monitoring!

Christine · Post by **Christine** » Fri Jun 21, 2013 11:52 am

Helenaz, Good luck to you. A couple months later, but I hope you are doing well! I can echo your frustrations, totally. And I'm about the same age range. Reading this just reminded me of a couple of things: once my mother told me, than when I was about a year old, I kept crying and crying. She took me to the doctor who said, "You're starving her to death!" My mother told me this with slight amusement. Gee thanks Mom. And when I was in about 7th or 8th grade, a boy I secretly liked called me "football player". Like, I was the size of a linebacker or something. Which I wasn't, but it sure made me feel like one after that!

Anyway, just some philosophizing: I've wondered if my "starving" when I was a baby forever messed up my eating? If so, how can I just let it go and not have that unconscious fear keep popping up? Well, I think No S is about as close to that as I can get. As everyone else here has said, "I didn't have a weight problem until I started dieting!"

Helena, let us know how you are doing!

Healthiermum · Post by **Healthiermum** » Fri Jun 21, 2013 2:44 pm

I'm doing pretty well. Still my diet head gets in the way every now and then but it's becoming less often and every time I think of trying something else after a few hours of researching it and contemplating it seems too hard and I remember why this program is so sane. I don't even need to lose weight and just want to maintain so I don't know why I have so much diet head. Eating has been going well though and I am pretty much maintaining my weight.

Everyday Systems

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