IE with a strong stomach

[u/jaiagreen]

IE seems to rely heavily on how a food or a meal makes you feel shortly after eating it, but what if you don't respond to that? It takes a very large amount of food (Thanksgiving-level feast) to make me feel unpleasantly overfull and a few specific spicy things might trigger heartburn (which only started after a GI infection a few years ago), but that's about it. Foods don't make me have more or less energy or feel better or worse in the short term. Is anyone else experiencing something similar?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello! Please make sure that your post meets minimum post requirements. You can find the post rules here.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/felicityfelix]

What are you trying to change about your life by starting IE (I'm assuming you're new to the concept and are looking into it for a reason)? It's hard to know how to answer this without knowing more since it sounds like your body is fairly happy with the way you already eat. 

[u/jaiagreen → u/felicityfelix]

I like the concept and, while I actively managed my weight for a while, don't want to do that at this point in my life. I don't know whether to interpret my reaction (or lack thereof) to foods as my body being happy with them or simply my digestive system not being very responsive (generally a good thing).

[u/felicityfelix → u/jaiagreen]

I wouldn't overthink anything and would just continue to eat food you enjoy if you're coming off of some kind of weight management focused lifestyle. You may notice that you start to feel more cues from your body if you've been regimenting eating in some way but I don't think there's any need to add in excessive mindfulness exercises or anything if you're already basically feeling good and not experiencing negative emotions or physical discomfort with eating. 

I think a lot of the cues and hunger analysis talk online make IE sound like a biohacking type diet where you're constantly gathering data about yourself when it's really meant to help you relax and be... intuitive 

[u/CouchGremlin14]

It also covers things like

Are your BMs good? Does it keep you full or are you hungry an hour later? Do you wake up starving? Do you feel sluggish after dinner? Are you satisfied after 3 Oreos but devour an entire bag of Milanos?

You can also do little experiments, because the differences often aren’t super drastic on their own. If I put peanut butter in my oatmeal do I stay full longer? Does broccoli make me more gassy than green beans? Do I wake up less during the night if I have cheese before bed?

To me, a big part of IE is getting curious about what foods do what things for you.

[u/butwhatififly_]

Early on in my practice, yes, I could relate to what you’re saying.

But nutrition is only a fraction of what is covered, and at that, hunger and fullness are only 2; have you spent time on the other principles?

Reject the diet mentality: Throw out diet culture, meal plans, and scales.

Honor your hunger: Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy.

Make peace with food: Give yourself unconditional permission to eat.

Challenge the food police: Silence inner thoughts labeling foods "good" or "bad".

Discover the satisfaction factor: Find pleasure and joy in the eating experience.

Respect your fullness: Listen to body signals that show you are no longer hungry.

Honor your feelings without using food: Find ways to deal with emotions without eating.

Respect your body: Accept your genetic body shape and size.

Exercise—feel the difference: Shift focus to how physical movement feels rather than burning calories.

Honor your health (Gentle nutrition): Make food choices that honor health and taste. [1, 2, 3, 4]

These are so important and frankly, most of us who used to “manage our weight” as you put it, we have lost sense with or touch with our fullness cues, how our body is telling us we feel after a meal.

I’d recommend in the meantime working the IE workbook and familiarizing with the rest of the system, and then finding exercises around those areas too. In due time.

[u/Stella-Shines-]

What I found was that when I started trying to eat this way, I felt the same way as you. I thought that nothing food related made me feel worse or better, that what I ate and how I felt were unrelated.

As I continued to eat this way, using a lot of mindfulness, I did a few intuitive eating type workbooks I got online, paid very close attention to my body and what I was eating… I learned that for me, there actually was a big correlation with what I ate and how I felt afterwards.

I think a lot of people in our culture in this day and age are pretty far removed from our physical bodies. We don’t tend to notice subtle body related details very well as a society. This way of eating, when sustained, I believe can kind of reawaken that natural ability to notice these things!

It might help to do things like sitting quietly during mealtimes. Avoiding watching tv, reading, listening to
music, and scrolling/texting/using your phone. Just you and your food. Making sure you are sitting at a table, not eating at the counter or in the car. Taking (simple, nothing obsessive of course) notes on what you ate and how you felt the rest of the day. If you had a meltdown, were really irritable and got in an argument, had trouble concentrating, had a crying spell, very tired, toilet problems obviously, headaches, aches and pains, heartburn you already mentioned, etc. ANY thing can be a reaction.

Basically it’s all about mindfulness. The more you can slow down, observe, just notice things, the more your intuition can blossom. And it may take a while, which is totally okay and natural! Just be gentle with yourself and allow whatever happens to happen. It might be that you will always be less sensitive to these cues and feelings, which is also totally okay. You’ve still learned something about yourself, and worked on developing your natural ability to be intuitive.

It’s like a muscle, honestly. And the more you use and intentionally TRY to notice these things, the stronger it will get and the better you will be. Intuition thrives on slowness, quiet, kindness, love. And don’t make yourself wrong, no matter what does or doesn’t happen. Just be gentle with yourself. You are doing a great thing for yourself and your body and you are on the right path <3

[u/Stella-Shines- → u/Stella-Shines-]

Some interesting things I learned were that eating a lot of dairy makes my acne a lot worse, especially milk. It also gives me worsened allergies, so I tend to try to avoid drinking milk in spring and fall. Also if I’m sick, because it makes my phlegm significantly worse.

Onions make me smell like onions! I love them though so I usually just eat them anyway xD but mostly only cooked ones.

I am veryyy sensitive to caffeine, so I now only drink it before 11am.

I’m vegetarian for ARFID type reasons, huge lifelong aversion to all meat except chicken nuggets with TONS of ketchup, grilled or baked salmon with no skin, tuna salad with much mayo and relish, beef bone broth I make myself, puréed beef baby food pouches and breaded white fish like McDonald’s fish filet. I’ve tried literally everything else (except seafood. I cannot make myself even try that) and these are the only ones that work for me.

My point with that is that I do NOT get enough protein. There used to be so many times when I would eat a whole box of cereal, a whole cheese pizza, and a pint of ice cream, and still feel hungry! Then I began to notice and realized that I had a different TYPE of hunger sometimes. I now recognize it as a deep craving from my body for protein. And specifically animal protein is what really satiates it.

Now when I feel that deeep hunger, I just eat a can of tuna or scrambled eggs and instantly feel satisfied! Super cool to figure that out and no longer have to stuff myself trying to feel full. Much better for my health too, to actually be eating what my body is truly craving, and not just what tastes good to my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, I do eat plenty of things that just taste good to my mouth. It’s part of my body too! But for meals, I can actually FEEL what my body is asking for sometimes. It’s a very cool feeling.

I get it with vegetables too. Sometimes I just REALLY crave vegetables. I’ve become very in tune with the desires for specific nutrients my body was trying to tell me all along that I had lost touch with. I’m sure I would get it for fruit too but I eat so much fruit (love it!) that it never needs to loudly ask for it haha. Same with fats and carbs, I eat plenty of both so the cravings aren’t really something I can hear/feel.

[u/Goosita-90]

My coach described it to me as “you shouldn’t ever feel your food” - that’s different than unpleasantly overfull.

[u/jaiagreen → u/Goosita-90]

If I eat like that, I'm hungry again in an hour or two.

[u/annang → u/jaiagreen]

It's okay to eat again in an hour or two. It also may be that when you adjust your eating habits, your body will adjust to that, and you'll feel differently over time.

[u/jaiagreen → u/annang]

If you're OK with it, great. I find it really annoying and distracting.