Progress

I've made some progress over the last couple of days. I've realised that I have been treating the Beyond Chocolate principles as the "Eat when Hungry" diet, or the "Eat Mindfully" diet. I need to re-read my Beyond Chocolate book again, but also from reading blogs by Scales are for Fish, Liquorice Torpedoes and Sweet Chocolate Kisses, I've been able to see where I was going wrong.

I have learned that the whole point of Beyond Chocolate is eating without judgement, and that the only rule that there can possibly be is to be kind to myself however and whatever I eat, but also to observe and learn from what I see. And observing is nothing like judging. It's a bit like an experiment, to see what happens when I eat at certain hunger levels, or when I eat certain foods. And indeed the goal isn't even to be perfect at the Beyond Chocolate principles - even normal weight people don't eat only when they are hungry!

I also had a small success today. I waited as long as I could before eating to make sure I was somewhat hungry. I think I was somewhere between 3 and 4, and served myself chicken soup with a ham and cheese sandwich. As I was eating, I realised that my attentions were drifting elsewhere, so I prepared myself to stop early. I managed to leave the crusts from two sides of my sandwich, and half the bowl of soup. I was a little full, in that I could feel that my stomach was stretched slightly, but I was not really uncomfortable, and I stopped, I reckon at 6 on my hunger scale! I told myself I had two more cans of chicken soup in my cupboard, and plenty more bread, butter, ham and cheese and I could have it again for the next time I felt hungry.

Mostly, I am proud of myself for focusing on the positive instead of berating myself for not waiting til a 2/3 to eat or eating past a 5.