Intuitive eating?

Hi everyone, I've just joined: v exciting. My question is quite specific...

I have lost a few stone through counting calories over the past few years and have kept it all off for the past 6 months, however I can't seem to reach goal and i keep going up and down by the same half a stone - it's really depressing and quite frankly boring.
I've done loads of research looking at Paul Mckenna, beyond chocolate etc and am really excited to try it but...

after a number of years on a reduced calorie diet, won't eating intuitively just make me want to 'feast', I'm so scared of putting the weight back on.

any thoughts, much appreciated...

katyvictoria.

Hi Katyvictoria, I just joined the forum yesterday and I'm loving it! I lost 2 stone through Slimming World a couple of years ago but suddenly something snapped and I started bingeing and put 1 1/2 stones back on! I too have read Beyond Chocolate, Paul McKenna and others - my latest one 'The Beck Diet Solution' arrived today, which is Cognitive Therapy based. Having lost weight I know I can do that but the problem is keeping it off, so I am really keen to find out about the psychological aspect of dieting. I want to eat like a slim person - not a greedy person trying to be slim for a while!
If you trick yourself into believing that eating intuitively means eating all the time (I've done that because I thought I was hungry all the time!) then it obviously won't work. You've got to be honest with yourself. If you want to eat intuitively so you don't have to be religously counting calories, syns, points or take meal replacements then you will still eat healthily, but if like me you suddenly have cravings for all the things you deprived yourself of whilst you were dieting, you will have a problem and could put on a few pounds.
I desperately want to eat intuitively and change all my inaccurate thoughts I have about food, but it will take time and effort. I think if you're anything like me it will need constant monitoring until it becomes habit. Good luck x

Hiya katyvictoria.

I've done a type of intuitive eating way to help me maintain. I prefer to call it Normal Eating, or Food Competency or Intuitive Eating using common sense

after a number of years on a reduced calorie diet, won't eating intuitively just make me want to 'feast', I'm so scared of putting the weight back on.

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That's where using common sense comes in IMO. Ack, I'm sure it can work just fine if you are an 'normal' eater who just happens to have eaten a little too much a little too often, but for me, it was a lot too much, for too long and there was no way I was going to take the risk of putting it back on again.