Intuitive Eating Chapter 5

How's it going out there? I'm hearing that a few of you are just getting your books. Don't worry, it won't be hard to catch up if that's the case. We're looking forward to your comments and participation.

There's some interesting reading and questions for this week, but first of all, did anyone do the T.V. commercial assignment? We have TiVo so I don't watch commercials too often but, I watched some deliberately this week and was not a bit surprised at how many commercials were about diet food and dieting. I saw all kinds of commercials for new light foods that won't make you feel guilty, and a particularly long commercial for a new diet pill that is supposed to be the newest revolutionary way to burn fat. My favorite was a commercial that I think was for hand lotion or something where a woman is followed throughout her day and we are shown all the things she touches.... touch the keys, touch the computer, touch the baby, touch the husband, touch the laundry, touch the mail, and then somewhere in the middle of all of this touching you see a chocolate cake and the women says alarmingly, "Don't touch that," while shaking her finger at it, a subtle reminder to all of us that as we go about our busy day we must remember not to indulge in sweets. This is a hand lotion commercial! Just goes to show that subtle messages about eating right or eating wrong are everywhere.

This week we will read Chapter 5 of Intuitive Eating. From here on out we will be exploring each of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating in much more detail. If you have the newer version of the book, there is an Appendix B in the back that has step-by-step guidelines to help you with each principle. This Appendix helps break each principle into steps. You may want to check it out. If you have the old version of the book and don't have this Appendix, but want to know what it says, let me know and I can post it on the blog.

We'll also be reading Chapter 3 in Rethinking Thin this week. This is one of my favorite chapters in the book. I've got some fun pictures to post regarding this chapter. There's lot to think about, so let's get started......





Just one shelf of diet books at Barnes and Noble


Intuitive Eating questions Chapter 5:


1- The authors mention that for many people, dieting has been used as a way to cope with life, from filling up time, to exercising a semblance of control. Think about diets you have been on in the past. Have your diets ever been about anything besides just weight loss? If so, what else have they been about?

2- We are introduced in chapter 5 to the idea of diet bonding, the social aspect of dieting. Have you ever participated in diet bonding? If so, in what ways?

3- Be really honest here. Have any of you thought, while reading with us, that you need to go on just one last diet to lose all your excess weight, and then you can go back and try to learn to eat intuitively? If you also believe that diets don't work, can one more diet truly be part of the solution?

4- Some of you have never dieted and others of you may have given up dieting, but have you ever pseudo-dieted or unconsciously dieted? Remember pseudo-dieting behaviors are not usually apparent to the person engaged in them. Look at the list on page 44-45 for help with this question.

5- On page 47 we are shown the Dieter's Dilemma model. Does this pattern feel familiar to any of you? If so tell about a time you have experienced it.

6- On pages 48-50 there is a list of ways in which dieting causes damage. Have you experienced any of this damage? If so, what? Make sure you include damage that can happen psychologically and emotionally as well.

7- The authors state firmly that willpower does not belong in Intuitive Eating. Dieting is all about willpower, but it doesn't seem to be enough. Do you believe you can willpower your way to thinness for life? What are some other thoughts you have about willpower and its place in the world of eating?


8- Has rebellion against being told how or what to eat been a part of your struggle with weight? If so, how has it manifested itself?

9- Has anyone in your life ever put pressure on you to lose weight besides yourself? If so, was it good motivation for weight loss?




The daily ritual of weighing yourself

10- Have you been riding the "what do I weigh today" roller coaster? This would include celebrating the number with a treat or consoling yourself after a less satisfactory reading, with food. How often do you step on the scales? Tell how the number you see on the scale effects your emotions.

11- Really study the chart on page 57. Pick one diet mentality that you see in yourself frequently. How would your life be better if your thinking changed about that particular thing?

I know this is a lot of questions for one chapter, but don't worry, there will be no questions for Rethinking Thin this week, just a fun photo essay to look at and ponder. I'm going to do a separate post for it, to make it easier to post lots of pictures.