Intuitive Eating: Chapter 2

 Chapter 2, "What Kind of Eater Are You?", discusses different eating personalities. The eating personalities introduced are:

1) The Careful Dieter: diligent eating, scrutinizes every food situation.
Trigger: fitness and health
-This was definitely me a short while ago and I still want to scrutinize every food situation or feel that I should but I'm trying to not be obsessive over my eating choices.

2) The Professional Dieter: usually a yo-yo dieter, always trying the latest "diet trends", diets, loses weight, gains weight, intermittent binges, and then goes back to dieting
Trigger: Feeling fat
-I have had a history of yo-yo dieting yet I haven't tried any dieting fads. I've basically just stuck to cutting calories when I wanted to lose weight and I would always go a little far with it and ended up gaining weight back

3) The Unconscious Eater: often unaware how much he/she is eating, eating usually paired with another activity
Trigger: Eating while doing something else at the same time

• Chaotic Unconscious Eater: eating style is haphazard, Trigger= overscheduled life
• Refuse-Not Unconscious Eater: vulnerable to candy jars or food at meetings, sitting on kitchen counter, Trigger= Presence of food. I have definitely had difficulty with this in the past!
• Waste-Not Unconscious Eater: person's eating drive is influenced by value of food, Trigger= free food
• Emotional Unconscious Eater: Stress and uncomfortable feelings trigger eating especially when alone. Trigger=Uncomfortable emotions. This is definitely something I've struggled with for years. I've turned to food so many times when stressed and uneasy.

4) The Intuitive Eater: makes food choices without guilt, honors hunger, respects fullness, enjoys pleasure of eating.
Trigger= biological hunger

After reading this chapter I can definitely see that I fit into several eating personalities. I have been on diets on and off through the years making me a careful eater at times and somewhat of a professional dieter. I also struggle with emotional unconscious eating and refuse-not unconscious eating. I have gained better control of these behaviors over the past year but at times I still turn to food when uncomfortable emotions strike.

I can say going on and off diets and having your weight yo-yo isn't fun so I'm tired of the professional dieter eating patterns I have had. I haven't been a careful eater for very long, but after I started weight watchers I became a very careful eater and was just too strict and rigid with eating plans. The emotional eating means I have to find other ways to work through emotions and find coping mechanisms as well as learn to really feel my feelings versus numbing feelings with food.