My lunch from yesterday-a turkey sandwich I really wanted, except without avocado because they aren’t ripe yet, and a bowl of blueberries that I didn’t measure-I was still hungry after so I ate a cucumber dipped in ranch-perfect!

Some of this is coming very easily to me. I know what foods I like and what my body likes. I trust myself to make good food choices and stop when I am full. Other things are harder, newer, less natural. Not logging my food or at least trying to guesstimate in my head the calories in it is, well, not as much scary, which is what I expected-but weird and uncomfortable, and a little nerve wracking. It’s also weird to realize I’m hungry again within an hour of eating something. I had an RX bar after my workout-I wasn’t hungry but knew I should eat something, because sometimes exercise masks hunger for me-and then about 90 minutes later I realized I was hungry. I ate a banana and a spoonful of peanut butter. Hunger sated.

I kind of want to track my food observationally, to see how many calories I’d eat if I wasn’t counting calories, but I’m not sure if I could do that without letting it affect how much I actually ate. Plus, not eating measures portions (like when I made fajitas last night) makes that tricky. Maybe I could let myself keep an observational notebook and once a week plug it in and see. I’m curious about this on an educational level, especially having read THIS blog post and it’s discussion of calories. I have long strongly suspected that undereating is the cause of my weight loss issues, and I bet that’s exactly what I’d see over time as I pursue eating Intuitively.

I might have to make this lifestyle my own, just as I have with every step along the journey, by giving myself some freedom to note concretely what I’m eating and what’s happening in my body because of it. My main goal is to break free of restricting calories and constantly obsessing over the number, and being tempted to use exercise as currency for food (worthy of its own post, really) right? I don’t really have an issue with “off limits” foods or eating too much (usually-there are days everyone overdoes it) so as I go through this book and workbook I’m going to really be willing to make this work FOR ME-just like our bodies have individual needs, so do our minds. For me, having no structure is just as dangerous to my well being as too much. So, something I’m marinating on.

Things I’ve learned already:

-I need to kinda predict what foods to have on hand in case I want them. Early this week we had no bread or eggs for my craving for a turkey sandwich and an omelet (not together, but on the same day).

-exercise definitely masks my hunger on the day, but the days I don’t exercise I’m ravenous, probably due to eating less than I needed the day before. Hmmm.

Monday, 7/2

So, it’s been a few more days, and it’s going great still!

Some highlights:

• we had Blaze Pizza on Friday night and it was the best pizza experience of my life, probably because I knew what I was eating wasn’t utter garbage and I had chosen each topping intentionally because I wanted it. I enjoyed every bite, and though I wasn’t stuffed at the end, I wasn’t tempted to eat anyone’s crusts either.
• Saturday morning Scott offered to take me wherever I wanted for breakfast and though we scrapped that plan for Dunkin’ Donuts and homemade eggs (with bacon, spinach, tomatoes, and Romano!) I ate half a donut and moved on without a second thought.
• We had a late lunch-I had chipotle (apparently I didn’t wanna cook on Saturday) and then for dinner we got OMG nachos takeout. I knew they’d be filling so I intentionally didn’t eat the regular chips beforehand so I wouldn’t fill up on the less tasty stuff! Scott was bewildered by this choice for some reason. Haha!
• Yesterday (Sunday) I wasn’t really hungry most of the day. I had a few leftover chips (shrug) early on, and then eggs around noon after my Peloton ride, and then a turkey sandwich around 3. I kinda grazed on ice cream while I attempted to make ice cream sandwiches, and had just one bunless burger for dinner.
• Today so far I haven’t been super hungry either. Banana and PB for breakfast, 2 cups coffee, a small brownie and a turkey sandwich for lunch. Dinner is going to be breakfast-eggs, bacon, and a strawberry banana fruit salad.

So far, I’m finding this is working well for me. I can’t wait to continue learning from the books and making it fit my needs!

Stay tuned for “Intuitive Eating on my Birthday” sometime after tomorrow ! Should be a blast!