The less common your eating habits are the greater chance you have of facing persecution from other people….

There live on iTunes!

B

I’m sorry about what you and your family have gone through. That’s rough. Diabetes is definitely a concern for me. When I first became truly committed to losing weight in November 2009, I was 255 (now I’m 247,) so I was roughly 70-85 pounds over my ideal weight. So needless to say, I was concerned- and still concerned- with eventually developing diabetes, as well as joint problems, etc. I’m only 28, so I can nip it in the bud now before I go past the point of no return. I’m very fortunate that this change in my life is happening now rather than later. This needs to happen now.

There are some health problems in my family, but I think it’s mostly self-inflicted. Smoking, overeating, etc. We’re pretty healthy overall. So I’m lucky in that regard. My problems begin and end with me, so it’s a wonderful thing that I have the power to change myself and my life for the better. I’m in control of this, so that’s a blessing.

That food sounds good! And since I’m fasting today, it sounds really good! lol.

My family almost certainly has a set of bad cardiovascular genes from both sides, plus a mild form of mitochondrial disorder (early sensorineural hearing loss, diabetes that quickly becomes insulin dependent, relative short stature, nasty migraines, and DJD straight through the materal lineage as far back as I can find) so a lot of things would tend to not work as well for me. And I’m more desperate than most people to keep that weight off, not be diabetic (once I lost 17% body weight, my pre-diabetes went away and has not come back so far) to prevent as much as I can. It probably is strange that I am even on this list/blog, since I can’t actually fast, but it is such a good one for new ideas, openness and supportiveness for different ways of thinking and doing things, plus the exercise advice is so on-target. And the eat what you enjoy part is really important to me too; I’m blessed with liking a variety of foods and always wanting to try new things, so turning my favorites list into a healthier version has actually clicked and stayed clicked for me. I kiddingly tell people that I’m on the salmon, blueberries, and popcorn diet – my three most favorite things to eat. But tonight I’m off to fix us a low fat lemon cake for dessert, with actual home-squeezed lemon juice, and we’re having either chili or spaghetti with meat sauce using this really good ground turkey we get at the grocery store plus a fancy salad. And some good coffee.

I’m not worried about the physical part of it. I’ve done some IF’s sporadically, and I don’t remember the hunger being overwhelming. My stomach would growl a bit in the afternoon, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. The reason that I didn’t stick with it was because I was too undisciplined during off days, so I ended up not losing much weight (I think a pound over a month or so.) So it was a lack of discipline, not hunger or physical discomfort. Over the last few months, I’ve been eating somewhat less than I used to, and there are times when I get full more quickly than when I was eating more. Brad H. mentioned that he gets less hungry over time when he eats less.

So I’m not too worried about hunger. It’s really the mental part that concerns me. I know how easy it is for me to slip into overeating, regardless of my intentions. I’m not stupid, I know what I need to do! lol. It’s a bit of a mental block. I sincerely believe that it’s not a biological function. Does my body really need all that food? No. Does it really want to be 255 pounds or more? I don’t think so. I’ve weighed 267 pounds, my body doesn’t want that. It’s not my body, it’s my mind, that’s the problem.

As for filling foods, I doubt that would work for me. I can eat lots of different meals, healthy meals, and I’ll stick go back to the kitchen for more. I just haven’t noticed a trend in that regard. I do admit to not eating a lot of veggies. A couple of salads per week, some baby carrots, maybe some steamed broccoli with butter every now and then, that’s about it. John mentioned that trying to lose weight by eating different foods than you normally do isn’t very sustainable. Eventually someone is going to revert back to their previous favorite foods. So the philosophy is to eat what you enjoy, just less of it. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to test this philosophy on myself. I’ll be my own experiment. We’ll see how it goes!

How glorious are all of these simple, obvious revelations! lol.

You mentioned recently that you were eating 1200-1500 calories for the first 3 months of your cut, so that gives me something tangible to shoot for. If I can consistently get down to 1500, 1600 calories on most days, with a select few moderate-to-large social meals here and there, I’ll be very happy with that.

There was a program that was faith-based that taught to very strictly eat whatever you were hungry for but only when your stomach growled, and stop the instant you felt full, not one bite more; some people ended up fasting for a couple of days before they felt hunger, and a few even said it was the very first time they actually experienced that! They also had you record the level of hunger before and after you ate along with what you ate. I lost 8 lbs on it by just stopping eating at an 8 instead of a 10, but it quit right there. I still had an appetite for more than my body needed. Plus sometimes when the food was very good I could not bring myself to stop and leave a few bites on the plate, and thinking so hard about how hungry I was and using that much discipline all the time every time started to be a REAL chore. That’s part of why Lap-Band, etc. work for most people who go that route; the raging appetite goes away and every day is not a battle against it. Theoretically the appetite should shut off and make us not want to eat another bite more than we need, but for probably a variety of reasons, a lot of us can’t count on that, and just have to envy those who seem to have one that does.

So do entertain the other possibility, which proved to be the real one for me – that the “zone out” thing is what happens when your body wants to eat (hunger/appetite) and wants your mind (your “willpower”) to shut up. No one wants to believe we are battling internal biological forces, that makes us feel out of control! And those forces are powerful, they are meant to be, to keep us alive when it might be harder to get food than it usually is. I’ve done the sheer force thing, and my husband tries to do it too – he even tries to convince himself he’s full when he’s not. It never worked for more than a few days for me and a few meals for hubby. I have a friend whose family has excess appetite problems worse than mine, and she told me the only one of the siblings who ever stayed at a normal weight had “learned to hate food.” She seriously convinced herself that eating was a chore and she did not enjoy it. Now to me that’s depressing, I like to enjoy my food.

To test that theory out to see if it applies to you at all, you could just give a try of picking more filling foods – higher fiber/higher volume per calorie. I try to think of foods like that not as just “healthy” or “diet” foods, but the foods that let me relax and enjoy eating as much as I need to feel satisfed without the pounds piling back on.

Interestingly a recent piece of research indicates the only consistent thing with people who have lost weight and kept it off was discipline and will power! Go figure.

JB

I do agree that appetite is what drives us to eat, if “appetite” is separate from “hunger.” I know for sure that I don’t overeat because of hunger, or cravings. I would describe it as appetite, habitual eating, or mindless eating.

As for willpower, that’s a tricky one. I still haven’t unraveled the thought process that precedes my overeating. I feel like I don’t choose to overeat, it just happens really quickly, and while it’s happening, I sort of “zone out” until it’s over. I’m not sure how to approach this other than to hammer away at my habits, to basically force myself to eat less. Willpower may not be the problem, but it’s probably the solution for me. I don’t know how else to eat less, rather than to simply force myself to. It really doesn’t seem to matter when I eat, how I eat, or what I eat. No “trick” is going to do it for me. I’m going to try sheer force and see how it goes.