Awakening the Intuitive Eater: Stage 1 - Hitting Dieting Bottom

So luckily in the beginning Chapters of the book, it summarizes the stages and principles pretty well before going into them a bit more in-depth later on in the book. The authors give you a bit of a run down of what to expect in getting there:

"As with any process, it's important to stay focused in the present (I swear I just said this before even buying this book!), and grow from the many experiences you will encounter. If, however, you focus on the end result (which for most people is the amount of pounds lost), it can make you feel overwhelmed and discouraged, and end up sabotaging the process (sounds familiar). Instead, if you acknowledge small changes along the way and value the learning experiences (which can be frustrating), it will help you stay on the Intuitive Eating path and move forward. Once you truly become an Intuitive Eater, your body will return to its natural weight level and remain there. Form many people, that means losing weight.

To find out if you are a good candidate for weight loss, ask yourself that following: Have you routinely eaten beyond your confortable fullness level (yup) ? Do you routinely overeat when you're getting ready for your next diet (knowing there will be a lot of foods that won't be allowed to eat) (no, not really like that) ? Do you overeat as a coping mechanism in difficult times or to fill up time when you're bored (I'd say I would have before WW, but I'm still doing it for the boredom factor now I think) ? Have you also been resistent to exercise? (Yup) Do you only exercise when you diet? (I've been on the weight loss path steady for over 3 years, so I suppose so) Do you skip meals or wait to eat until you're ravenously hungry, only to find that you overeat when you finally do eat? (Not really a meal skipper, but I'd "save" for the treat later being on a calorie budget) Do you feel guilty, either when you overeat or when you eat a "bad food," when results in more overeating? (Lately, yes) If you answered "yes" to some or all of these questions, then it's likely that you will be able to return to your natural healthy weight as a result of this process. (Yippeee!!!! :-D)

Once you've given up dieting forever, you'll find yourself eating far less food and wanting to exercise regularly. (Are you serious? I'll be exercising regularly for fun? Sign me up!) You'll find the your body feels so much better when your stomach isn't overfilled, with your muscles are toned and your heart is fit. If you focus on how you feel as the goal, rather than on weight loss, you'll find, ironically, that you can't help but lose weight (I can't help but be skeptical of course, but we shall see) . If, instead, you continue to focus on weight loss as the goal, you'll get tied up in the old diet-mentality thinking and find that permanent weight loss is like a carrot dangling on the stick in frong of you - you're forever dieting without reaching the mark. (Making weight loss not the main goal is a tough one to accept, but I'm ready to do it I think).

The authors outline what they have observed as the five stages in learning how to become an Intuitive eater:

Stage One: Readiness - Hitting Diet Bottom

This is where most people begin. You are painfully aware that every attempt to lose weight has ended in failure. (I don't feel like I have failed, obviously having lost about 130 lbs, but not being able to move beyond where I am now has made me feel that way.) You are tired of valuing each day based on whether the scale is up or down a pound or two (or if you've overeaten the day before) (I went from being a weekly weigher to a daily weigher and I'm pretty sure that this was a symptom of the rest of the "diet mentality" and it was driving me nuts!) . You think and worry about food all the time (Always on my mind: what to plan, cook, buy at the grocery store etc.) You talk the restrictive food talk - "If only I didn't have to watch my weight, I could eat that," (I actually said this - that "once I reached my goal" I wouldn't have to be so concerned) or "I had two cookies - I was really bad today."

Your weight could fall into one of three patterns: It's higher than ever before, you are stuck in a plateau and pounds won't budge (I'm either this one or the next one); or while not greatly overweight, you gain and lose five or ten pounds as frequently and rapidly as your laundry gets dirty and clean again.

You have lost touch with biological hunger and satiety signals. (I'd say this is true.) You have forgotten what you really like to eat and instead eat what you think you "should" eat. Your relationship with food has developed a negative tone and you dread eating the foods you love because you're afraid it will be hard to stop. (Not the case with me for the most part.) When you give in to the temptation of forbidden foods, it's not unusual to overeat because you feel guilty. (I've had some "timbit turbulence" once or twice recently!) Yet you sincerely vow you will never eat them again.

It's not unusual to find that you eat to comfort, distract, or even numb yourself from your feelings. If that's the case, you will sense that the quality of your life has been clouded by obsessional thinking about food and by mindless eating. (I don't eat to comfort like I think I did before I lost the weight, but I'd say that given the amount of time I do think about food in general probably does cloud the quality of my life when I think about it. I'd much rather be focusing on some other things.)

Your body image is negative - you don't like the way you look and feel in your body, and self-respect is lessened. (Not true with me. I am a bit overweight and there are things I don't like about my body yes, but I am quite comfortable with it and respect it for having carried me through some traumatic injuries and for losing so much weight, so nope.) You have learned from your own experience that dieting does not work - you have hit diet bottom and feel stuck, frustrated, and discouraged. (I have learned from experience that dieting does work actually, but I've been at it for so damn long now that it's taken a toll on me and now I am in a place where I'm stuck, frustrated and discouraged.)

This stage continues until you decide that you are unhappy eating and living this way and you are ready to do something about it. Your first thoughts may veer towards finding a new diet to solve your problems. (POINTS v. Calories again?) but almost immediately, you realize that you just can't do that one ever again. If this is where you find yourself, then you are ready for the process that will bring you back to eating intuitively."

So there you have it folks, that's the quick run through of what you typically experience going through the first stage toward Intuitive Eating!