I started practicing Intuitive Eating in 2008. I had spent a lifetime dieting and binging my way up to morbid obesity, over 300 pounds. Everyone in the support group told me I should expect to gain weight in the beginning, that it was normal, and sure enough, I gained about 12 pounds in the first few months. Obviously the weight gain was not a happy thing for me but I was 100% certain by that time in my life that diets were only making me fatter.
People in the group also told me that after a while, the weight gain would stop and slowly but surely I would lose the weight I had gained, plus more. They were right. By the end of my first year, I had lost all of the weight I gained in those first few months. And over the course of 10 years of intuitive eating, I have gone on to lose 100 pounds. I lost the weight slowly and in a healthy manner by just listening to my body and eating to the point of satisfaction, not more and not less, and only when hungry. Best of all, I believe this weight loss is permanent because there was no sense of restriction or suffering involved.
I would love to lose another 50 pounds but that is entirely up to my body. If that eventually happens, that would be great but if it doesn’t, that is OK too.
Enjoy the journey and know this process does work!
