Since the 1970's the non-diet approach to eating problems has been slowly but steadily gaining momentum. For many years, the main resource for people who wanted to stop dieting and begin eating "normally" was Overcoming Overeating by Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter.
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| Great resource for compulsive and emotional eaters! |
But in the last ten years, the number of books and resources has grown. Today, there are lots of great books, websites, support groups and programs that teach people how to recognize emotional eating and take care of their feelings directly, rather than with food.
While the desire to be thinner or the fear of gaining weight may motivate you to begin doing this work, the benefit is far greater than weight loss. When you free yourself from emotional eating, you are freeing yourself from painful patterns of self-criticism, shame, obsessive thinking, and self-punishing deprivation.
The road to freedom may be difficult and even scary at times. You may have come to rely on diets to feel "in control" and safe from the fear of gaining weight. But take heart! Your body is designed to be self-regulating. Just like breathing, blinking, and sweating, your body has an automatic system that tells you when to eat, what to eat, and when to stop eating. Through the resources and information on this blog, I hope to provide you with the support you need to
1. hear and follow your body's signals: hunger, cravings, and fullness - and
2. recognize and attend to the emotions that food is currently helping you to soothe.
A good starting point is practicing Mindful Eating. There are a few books that describe this process including The Zen of Eating by R. Kabatznick and Eating Mindfully by S. Albers. For a quick start, you can download my PDF article on mindful eating at www.julielevin.com/mindful.php.
