ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, I talk
And often, I find myself at a loss. Dealing with weight issues is tough. Approximately one-third of all U.S. women are obese, and statistics tell us that the chances of losing weight and keeping it off permanently are small.
I don't believe in fad diets or a miracle pill to lose weight, so all I've been able to offer to them, and myself, is a vague "eat less and better, and exercise."
No, you didn't read wrong. I did say myself. I've lost and gained weight more times than I want to think about. I've tried eating only half of what I usually eat. I've tried Weight Watchers (which of all the commercial programs out there I think is the best, but you have to stick to it, and the group setting isn't for everybody), and I've lost weight from extreme exercise (training for a marathon). But,
Like a lot of women, I eat when I'm not hungry. I eat when I'm sad, when I'm stressed, and when I'm bored. Telling someone who eats for emotional reasons to just stop eating so much and to exercise
While watching TV over the Thanksgiving holiday, I saw something on the news that caught my interest, and now I'm going to share with you what I've learned about this interesting eating approach. And what I'll do in subsequent columns is give you an update on how I'm doing and what I'm learning from it with the hope that it will help someone else.
Now, let me say ahead of time that I've started on this path only recently, so I don't know what the end result will be. All I can say is that I'm encouraged (which is saying a lot). And, since there are no drugs, gimmicks or extreme physical activity involved, I see no potential for harm.
I also want to say that I believe firmly that because everyone's different, no method (including the one I'm about to talk about) will work for everyone. I've seen people do great on Weight Watchers, the South Beach Diet and many others, including simply exercising and cutting back on what they eat. But, I've also seen lots of people struggling and failing. So, something else is obviously needed.
What I saw on the news was a report about intuitive eating. At its most basic level, it entails rediscovering how to listen to your body to find out what it needs, instead of eating based on all the external cues that cause
The man I saw on the initial news program was Steven Hawks. He's a professor at Brigham Young University, and he had just reported the findings of a small study he conducted on students at the university. (His findings were discussed in an article in the Healthy Living section last week).
He found that intuitive eaters tended to weigh less and had fewer cardiovascular risk factors than those who were not intuitive eaters. He personally lost 50 pounds and has kept it off for five years by relearning how to eat from the inside. He plans to conduct a larger study across a more diverse cultural swath to see if his findings apply on a larger scale.
I also found a Web site for a dietitian who helps instruct people in this way of eating. Her name is Barbara Birsinger (barbara birsinger.com). She's based in the San Francisco area, but she will work with clients over the phone.
So, I e-mailed her, and she answered me the next day. After an initial consultation with her,
I just completed session No. 2. I'm already much more aware of my eating patterns and why I overeat, and we're working on strategies to help me more appropriately address these issues.
The gist of the program is that you're attempting to get back to how you ate as a young child. Children eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full. And, if left to their own devices, they eat what they want in the right amounts for their health and growth.
All the messages we get as we're growing up--like cleaning our plates and eating because it's dinnertime (or lunchtime, or breakfast time, or because everyone else is eating, etc.)--cause us to lose the ability to self-regulate.
The program is based on the premise that our bodies have an innate intelligence about what they need, if only we could learn to listen to them. Intuitive eating attempts to reteach us.
So, you basically learn how to eat only when you are truly physically hungry, and you stop when you are satisfied. The really great thing is that there are no bad foods. You eat whatever you want, but you check it out with the body. Birsinger calls this "Eating From the Neck Down," and it is a technique to attune to the body's messages about what, when and how much the body needs at any given time.
Another important part of the program is to figure out what you've been using food as a substitute for. Learning how to decode your symbolic hunger and food cravings--those foods that you want when you are not physically hungry and tend to overeat--can be a powerful tool in ending overeating.
That all sounds great in theory, but we're working through exercises (both directly related to food and not) that make the theory real. The things I'm finding out about myself are amazing and empowering.
I also found a couple of books on the subject, although I haven't had a chance to read them yet. They are: "Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works," by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch; and "Intuitive Eating/Everybody's Natural Guide to Total Health and Lifegiving Vitality Through Food," by Humbert Santillo.
Just like anything else, you have to employ the strategies espoused to become an intuitive eater. The more you do it, the more second-nature it becomes. And success or failure is directly related to how consistent and persistent one is. But, losing weight is only one benefit of the program. Simply gaining control of my eating and my relationship with food, I'm finding, is equally satisfying.
I'm learning a lot and working hard, so stay tuned and I'll let you know how the program is working for me.
DR. ARLENE LEWIS welcomes reader comments and questions. She can be reached by writing to her at Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va., 22401 or by e-mail at
Email: newsroom@freelancestar.com.