Hi everyone,
I know this should probably go in the Emotional Issues forum, but I'm just pissed off so I thought the War Zone might be more appropriate
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Don't know if anyone is familiar with this show on TLC, but I think it just started a week ago. From what I've seen, it's basically a live audience type of thing and hosted by Paul McKenna. Basically, it's all about intuitive eating (i.e., eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, emotional eating, etc.) and techniques on how to stop them.
I was looking forward to watching this, since I've been a binge eater since I was in my teens. I've read several books on intuitive eating so I was familiar with most of the techniques and was anxious to see how this would go.
So I watched one show tonight about emotional eating. First off, McKenna made it sound like intuitive eating was the easiest thing in the world. He even had one of his past clients come up (who lost 185 pounds) and the guy was all about "oh, this is so easy, I lost the weight so easily," etc.
Um... hello??? If it was "so easy" to just eat what you want, be conscious of what you're eating, stop when you're full - most of us who are overweight wouldn't be in the position we're in, would we??? To me, that's just insulting the intelligence of people who have struggled not only with their weight but with food issues in general. We KNOW what we need to do and the theory is a beautiful theory. But in practice, it's a whole lot harder, especially since most people who overeat have lost the ability to know what hunger and fullness really feel like.
I've tried intuitive eating the way that McKenna describes it (i.e., eating what I felt like I wanted, stopping when I was full) and it's tough. Sure, it's the ideal way to eat and maybe the way "thin" people eat, but after twenty plus years of overeating and using food to numb emotions and stress, it's just not as simple as eating half as much (which is what one guy said he did last week trying the IE techniques)
Then, McKenna answered one question that viewers had (why are there no meal plans to his program) and he went on and on about how restricting food from without (i.e., a diet) was detrimental and how his technique was about listening to internal cues. Again - hello??? For most people who are overweight (that I've met and talked to) if we knew what internal cues to listen to we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
Then, there was this clip about a woman who gained weight after her divorce and is dealing with emotional eating. McKenna sits down with her and tells her he has some techniques that he wants her to try to get rid of her stress so she won't overeat - and proceeds to show her some "tapping" techniques on certain points of her body. Here he is, ranting on about how you can't rely on external techniques to lose weight and get healthy and change habits and here he is using "tapping" and acupuncture, which, in my mind, are external techniques.
Sorry this is so long. It's not that I don't think intuitive eating is wrong or that this guy isn't really trying to help people. But the way the show presented it, intuitive eating sounds like just another "diet" in a more unconventional sense at best, or, at worst a gimmick.
Thanks for letting me rant
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Tam