Breaking
Free From Emotional Eating,
Why
Weight? A Guide to Ending Comulsive Eating,
and When
You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up A
Chair
by Geneen Roth
I don’t know how
many times I’ve gone on a diet. I first
started the roller coaster at age 11 – at
either my mother’s insistence or encouragement,
I can’t remember which. But she was
definitely involved. Those were Weight Watchers’ infancy
days, when you had to make your own ketchup
and food was either “legal” or “illegal.” I
lost fourteen pounds. And gained it back
within six months of stopping the program.
And then proceeded to try every diet that
came down the line for the next thirtysome
years.
In my 40s, I knew at last
that the diet idea wasn’t going to
work; it just made me miserable. But what
could I do so I wouldn’t become 400
pounds of out-of-control appetite – which
I thought was sure to be my ultimate fate?
That’s when I found
Geneen Roth – a wise, kind, funny,
trust-me-I’ve-been-there-with-you author,
and a pioneer in the anti-diet movement.
Two of her books – Breaking
Free From Compulsive Eating and Why
Weight? were my doorways to
sanity.
Geneen believes that we
eat the way we live, and that our relationship
to food, money, and love is an exact reflection
of our deepest held beliefs about ourselves
and what we believe we have (or are allowed
to have) in our lives. Rather than pushing
away the "crazy" things we do,
Geneen's work proceeds with the conviction
that our actions and beliefs make exquisite
sense, and that the way to transform our
relationship with food is to be open, curious
and kind with ourselves instead of punishing,
impatient and harsh.
If you know someone who
is thinking about making “I have to
lose [X] pounds” or “I have to
stop eating [such and such a way]” one
of their New Year’s resolutions – gift
them with one of Geneen’s volumes.
I highly suggest When You Eat
at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair as
a humorous and gentle way to introduce your
friend or loved one to the idea that you can think
of yourself as thin, gorgeous and happy (when
you feel anything but). By turns practical,
whimsical, and spiritual, it sends a clear
message: Stop waiting for the day when you
are finally thin enough, good-looking or
buff-enough, smart or smartly-dressed enough,
and start living now!
In Geneen’s own words, “Once
you learn the real issues of why you turn
to food, you suddenly understand that compulsive
eating has served you well. You stop feeling
like a victim. You start feeling powerful.
That turn is the beginning of everything.”
And isn’t January
all about new beginnings in the first place?
