Not Counting Calories.... An IE Update

I'm a week and a half into working on Intuitive Eating. I haven't finished reading the book yet, but changes are being made. I'm not counting calories! OMG! It was pretty difficult the first few days as I stuffed all sorts of unhealthy foods in my mouth... Like twizzlers, reese's peanut butter eggs, and starburst jelly beans. Constantly stopping myself from thinking "hey! You shouldn't eat that." or "Eating that will make you fat." or "Just take a little peak at the nutrition label. You know you want to." The urges or cravings for those foods is starting to go away. I never thought that could happen, but it is. YAY! I still usually want a little but of chocolate after lunch and dinner, but now I'm eating a few little pieces instead of a handful and even the chocolate cravings aren't as strong.

I've been taking the time to stop and assess if what my mind is saying I want to eat is actually something I want eat. I'm an eat it because it's there kind of person. I have a tendency to see something and think "OH! That'll taste so good!" Then, I'd proceed to eat it regardless of whether or not I'm hungry. That behavior is gradually going away. I've noticed that if I stop and think about it for a second, I find that I'm not hungry and it's not something I really want.

Yesterday was a particularly good day considering it was a holiday. Family functions are when I do alot of unconscious eating. Usually I just eat and eat until I'm overly full and feeling gross. The snacks came out and I didn't eat any until I was feeling a little hungry and knew that dinner wasn't going to be for a while and that I should have a little nibble to tide me over. I had some tostitos and little dip that was quite tasty (though I don't know what was in it). When it was time for dinner, I was the perfect amount of hungry to have a taste of all the dishes I wanted and even left room for a little dessert. Believe it or not, I left cake on the plate! Pretty big accomplishment for me. The cake was good, but not soooooo fabulous that I felt the need to eat the whole slice.

A few times this week I actually left food on my plate. No more eating it because I feel like I have to. I've also started to break out of the eating because it's time to eat or not eating because it's not time to eat. So, I'm going to work on that a little more and work on telling the Food Police to shove it. :P

And... New cookbook! My husband begs for me to make Indian food and the house smells like heaven when I do. So I bought...

Can't wait to try out some of those recipes. Dave really wants me to cook lamb...

That's all for now... <enter catchy sign off line here>