Although ‘Overcoming Overeating’ is not recent it remains one of the best of its kind. “Overcoming Overeating” is infused with common sense and is full of truly practical advice. Do you feel compelled to eat even though you are not at all hungry? If you do then this book is meant for you.
“If your hand or your mind moves toward food when you are not at all hungry, you are by our definition, a compulsive eater. You are compelled to think about food or how your body looks in situations “compelled” because we know that you have no control over these thoughts” explain the authors Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter.
When you are a compulsive eater, you are perpetually fighting your body and eating. Compulsive eating is not so much an activity but an all-absorbing state of mind. Some compulsive eaters give in to their urge for food and others resist their food cravings and diet.
Compulsive eaters, men and women come in all shapes and sizes. In other words, a compulsive eater is not automatically fat. However, compulsive eaters consider themselves fat or bad because they think they do not have an ideal body and they also believe that eating should be controlled. Compulsive eaters are also victims of the so called ‘fat phobia’ and of the constant dieting which has become so much a part of our society.
The basic problem of the compulsive eater is that he is told not to do what in fact he should do! A compulsive eater is compelled to eat when he is in trouble. One cannot control a behavior by ordering it to stop, one should instead try and do something about the reasons causing the compulsion. Diets tell you not to eat and as a result they never work because they fail to address your basic need to turn to food.
“It is the thesis of this book that you do not have to spend the rest of your life trying to control your desire to eat … Controlling your eating and losing weight will never resolve your need to calm yourself with food.”
Dr. William Bennet and Joel Gurin have shown in The Dieter’s Dilemma that the body reacts to dieting as if famine has set in. Each time you diet, your body’s metabolism slows down in order to store fat. The more you diet, the slower your metabolism, and with each successive diet it becomes more difficult to lose weight.
Most current researches confirm the view that the ultimate result of food deprivation is an increase in stored fat. Losing and regaining cycles demonstrate increase body fatness.
`We live in a society in which physical appearance and self-worth are equated. We are obsessed with food and weight control and embark on the diet/binge cycle because we are unhappy with our body.
But the truth is that binging is a reasonable response to the restrictions of dieting, and it shows that you consider food as a friend, a source of comfort. In other words reaching for food in a difficult moment is an attempt to help yourself.
“We regard these efforts at self-help, regarding of their effectiveness, as life-saving devices deserving of great respect … We are suggesting that you learn to live life whatever your weight. And we can reassure you that we see acceptance of your current weight as a first step toward making a real and lasting change.”
In other words people who accept themselves as they are, are both compassionate and realistic. They do not complain about who they are but they strive for a better understanding of what they would like to change.
Compulsive eaters use food for anxiety rather than for the satisfaction of physiological hunger. Misuse of food can only be corrected if the compulsive eater makes peace with food itself.
The authors call this process legalizing food which means that you allow yourself to have the foods you want.
Removing all the taboos, restrictions, and external controls with regard to your eating is the way out of the diet/binge cycle. It will teach you how to make the difference between mouth hunger or psychological hunger and stomach hunger, physiological hunger. A compulsive eater most often eats from mouth hunger and not because he is truly hungry.
“Our goal is to help you eliminate the experience of mouth hunger entirely, that is, to stop turning to food unless you’re hungry. The difference between controlling and eliminating mouth hunger is critical. It is the difference between eating compulsively and eating normally, between controlling your eating and curing it.”
After you can identify the sensation of stomach hunger, you will realize that the body is in fact self-regulatory. Your body can tell you when to eat and exactly what food will meet your hunger need at any given moment
You will start losing weight once you start eating only when you are truly hungry, and that you eat what your body wants, and stop eating precisely when you are full.
“The more exact you are about your body’s food needs, the closer you will get to your natural weight.”
Once you give up food restrictions and quit dieting, your compulsive need for food diminishes greatly and with time and effort, it can cease altogether.
Overcoming Overeating offers a step-by-step plan that cures your eating disorders once and for all. Hirschmann and Munter focus on returning eating to its natural place in one’s life as something to be enjoyed and not feared. Free from obsessive thoughts about food and weight, you will stop overeating and lose weight naturally. This therapy brings a caring response to the compulsive eaters and helps them move beyond their negative preoccupations with eating and weight toward a fuller more satisfying life.
“If your hand or your mind moves toward food when you are not at all hungry, you are by our definition, a compulsive eater. You are compelled to think about food or how your body looks in situations “compelled” because we know that you have no control over these thoughts” explain the authors Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter.
When you are a compulsive eater, you are perpetually fighting your body and eating. Compulsive eating is not so much an activity but an all-absorbing state of mind. Some compulsive eaters give in to their urge for food and others resist their food cravings and diet.
Compulsive eaters, men and women come in all shapes and sizes. In other words, a compulsive eater is not automatically fat. However, compulsive eaters consider themselves fat or bad because they think they do not have an ideal body and they also believe that eating should be controlled. Compulsive eaters are also victims of the so called ‘fat phobia’ and of the constant dieting which has become so much a part of our society.
The basic problem of the compulsive eater is that he is told not to do what in fact he should do! A compulsive eater is compelled to eat when he is in trouble. One cannot control a behavior by ordering it to stop, one should instead try and do something about the reasons causing the compulsion. Diets tell you not to eat and as a result they never work because they fail to address your basic need to turn to food.
“It is the thesis of this book that you do not have to spend the rest of your life trying to control your desire to eat … Controlling your eating and losing weight will never resolve your need to calm yourself with food.”
Dr. William Bennet and Joel Gurin have shown in The Dieter’s Dilemma that the body reacts to dieting as if famine has set in. Each time you diet, your body’s metabolism slows down in order to store fat. The more you diet, the slower your metabolism, and with each successive diet it becomes more difficult to lose weight.
Most current researches confirm the view that the ultimate result of food deprivation is an increase in stored fat. Losing and regaining cycles demonstrate increase body fatness.
`We live in a society in which physical appearance and self-worth are equated. We are obsessed with food and weight control and embark on the diet/binge cycle because we are unhappy with our body.
But the truth is that binging is a reasonable response to the restrictions of dieting, and it shows that you consider food as a friend, a source of comfort. In other words reaching for food in a difficult moment is an attempt to help yourself.
“We regard these efforts at self-help, regarding of their effectiveness, as life-saving devices deserving of great respect … We are suggesting that you learn to live life whatever your weight. And we can reassure you that we see acceptance of your current weight as a first step toward making a real and lasting change.”
In other words people who accept themselves as they are, are both compassionate and realistic. They do not complain about who they are but they strive for a better understanding of what they would like to change.
Compulsive eaters use food for anxiety rather than for the satisfaction of physiological hunger. Misuse of food can only be corrected if the compulsive eater makes peace with food itself.
The authors call this process legalizing food which means that you allow yourself to have the foods you want.
Removing all the taboos, restrictions, and external controls with regard to your eating is the way out of the diet/binge cycle. It will teach you how to make the difference between mouth hunger or psychological hunger and stomach hunger, physiological hunger. A compulsive eater most often eats from mouth hunger and not because he is truly hungry.
“Our goal is to help you eliminate the experience of mouth hunger entirely, that is, to stop turning to food unless you’re hungry. The difference between controlling and eliminating mouth hunger is critical. It is the difference between eating compulsively and eating normally, between controlling your eating and curing it.”
After you can identify the sensation of stomach hunger, you will realize that the body is in fact self-regulatory. Your body can tell you when to eat and exactly what food will meet your hunger need at any given moment
You will start losing weight once you start eating only when you are truly hungry, and that you eat what your body wants, and stop eating precisely when you are full.
“The more exact you are about your body’s food needs, the closer you will get to your natural weight.”
Once you give up food restrictions and quit dieting, your compulsive need for food diminishes greatly and with time and effort, it can cease altogether.
Overcoming Overeating offers a step-by-step plan that cures your eating disorders once and for all. Hirschmann and Munter focus on returning eating to its natural place in one’s life as something to be enjoyed and not feared. Free from obsessive thoughts about food and weight, you will stop overeating and lose weight naturally. This therapy brings a caring response to the compulsive eaters and helps them move beyond their negative preoccupations with eating and weight toward a fuller more satisfying life.
