A few days ago, I wrote about a book by Dr. David Kessler titled The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.
Here he is in a YouTube video that offers us a look into the ways the food industry manipulates us. Great information for everybody, not just food addicts and emotional eaters.
You will hear experts talk about food addiction defining it in ways that usually relate to the treatment these experts provide.
The common thread in food addiction is that it is triggered by emotional stress, usually something buried deep inside. Regardless of what the experts say, unless they themselves have struggled with food addiction, trust yourself first.
In the case of women, the compulsive eating or overeating is often associated with issues of sexuality, including abuse.
This is not the only reason for the driving force behind a food addiction. Trauma of many varieties can trigger this kind of irresistible urge to stuff down feelings.
Releasing the emotions and feelings associated with the trauma is imperative if one is to overcome the addiction and return to a healthy emotional state, not threatened by food.
When evaluating the advice of an expert, consider these three things:
Just those three questions. If you feel comfortable with your answers, then you’ve chosen the right person to help you.
Trust is essential in any relationship, so make sure that when you define your food addiction, it matches the definition of the person or persons you have enlisted to help and support you.
Here is a very short and powerful YouTube video on emotional eating from Hale Dwoskin of The Sedona Method.
Anyone who wrangles with food addictions and emotional eating cannot help but be inspired by it.
A new book by David Kessler, M.D. is being touted as one that will change forever the way we look at food.
Rodale Books publishes some of the finest books you will read in the field of health and well-being. I should know; I’ve read most of them.
Dr. Kessler’s new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite is certainly worth taking the time to read.
Besides having some great information for emotional eaters, overeaters, people with food addictions, and those whose eating has led to obesity, there are insights in Dr. Kessler’s book that you may not have found elsewhere.
Being heavy, overweight, or obese is very uncomfortable at a number of levels. It isn’t the goal of people with food addictions or problems with emotional eating to be as skinny as a stick, nor should it be.
Learning to manage the discomfort or just making peace with your size at the present moment can make life more livable. The information in this book can help.
One chapter in the book, Chapter 11 in Part One, particularly caught my attention. It is titled “Emotions Make Food Memorable”. The title alone speaks volumes.
I got a kick out of its being Chapter 11, a concept and term most often associated with bankruptcy and reorganization. How appropriate to think of a food addiction as bankrupting your health and reorganization as a rescue remedy.
I encourage you to buy the book or get it at the Library. It’s just under $14 on Amazon and only about 250 pages without the acknowledgments, index, etc.
Like food, don’t try to digest it all at once. Read a little each day, or at night before you go to bed. Then write about what you learned in your journal.
As with any other resource, keep an open mind. Don’t accept or reject the ideas. Just use what you can and let the rest go, no judgments. Maybe it will be meaningful to you later, maybe not. Who cares?
Find something–a phrase, a line, a paragraph–that will inspire you to action today. One action each day to take you in the direction of your goal. That’s 365 actions a year. One day at a time.
Let me know how it goes.