mikepwagner

My experience doesn't support #2. My theory is that I have a an expert with me 24 hours a who can tell me whether I am eating too much or not - in fact the sole absolute expert in this matter, and no writing is required.

The expert is, of course, my own body. When I started this process in October of 2010, I realized that I did not know when I was hungry, and when I was not hungry. I had been tuning out those messages from my stomach for decades - and replaced those messages with eating out of boredom, habit, social discomfort, physical pleasure of eating, etc. Note that none of those are hunger. I reflected that I would overeat the most when I was at a social function with people that I was not particularly close to, with really good deserts (boredom, social discomfort, and physical pleasure of eating).

I had an insight that yoga might help me get in touch with my body, and re-establish a route of communication with my stomach. I was shocked when I lost 2.5 lbs in the first week of yoga. This was pretty mild stretching yoga - none of the more cardiovascular varieties.

I was shocked to keep losing 2.5 lbs a week for the next two months.

I continued to be shocked as I kept losing 2.5 lb/week for months on end. Altogether 7 months of losing 2.5 lbs/week.

I weighed myself every day - mostly to verify that I was in fact listening to my stomach, and not conning myself.

I realized at one point that I had lived my whole life with a screwy notion of self-nurture - that in fact a good yoga session was and felt more nurturing than an ice cream sundae.

As a part of exploring self-nuture and physical pleasure, I got on a bike - and had a lot of fun. I kept on the bike because it was fun - but I don't kid myself about calories. If I go out for an hour's ride in the evening, I probably burn 250 calories or so - about a half of a glass of chocolate milk. If/When I start eating due to those other factors - boredom, social discomfort, etc. - 250 calories isn't even a warm up.

For me - and perhaps only for me - tracking what I eat leads me to the wrong question. When I am around people who track their food closely (Weight Watchers, calories counters, etc), the fundamental question is "I really want to eat this, can I eat this?"

For me, the question is, "I can eat this, do I really want to eat this?" - and the answer is almost always "not really". That's mostly because I don't ask the question if I am really in fact hungry.

I realize that my results may be highly idiosyncratic for two reasons:

1. I am a pretty contemplative guy, I guess. I am comfortable pondering my impulses - instead of reacting immediately.
2. I was never an athlete - so I think the deeper cause was decades of alienation from my own body. People who were once athletic and no longer are may have a completely different experience.