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.
Tonight I was listening to an interview with Sheila Kelley, an actress, author, filmmaker and dancer. Tricia Greaves with Heal Your Hunger was interviewing Sheila as part of a teleseries on Weight Loss From the Inside Out.
You may have seen Sheila pole dancing on Oprah or read her book, The S Factor: Strip Workouts for Every Woman. If not, then you’re missing out on something very special.
It isn’t often that women get to hear another woman speak so passionately and frankly about the beautiful nature of women and how it is often hidden in an effort to fit into a man’s world.
“Validate and celebrate” she says of the female body. Sheila spoke eloquently about making peace with your sexuality and embracing everything about being a woman.
Sexuality and food are very closely linked in women. Excess weight is commonly traced back to early sexual experiences and the shame that is frequently imposed on young girls by their well-meaning mothers.
The world of today’s women, especially those dealing with food addictions and emotional eating challenges, is much different from that of our mothers who gave us strict orders about the opposite sex without any explanation.
Self-judgment and shame can consume a young woman when innocence is punished with threats and confusion. Many turn to food for protection without ever knowing what they are trying to protect themselves from.
Shame is a powerful emotion and when embedded early on in the female psyche, keeps a woman from being all she can be.
Once that shame is released and the female form is “validated and celebrated” in its own right, a woman can handle being a woman without those extra pounds. No diet necessary.
If you’re in the L.A. area on November 21st, Ms. Kelley will be part of a Weight Loss from the Inside Out event in Santa Monica, presented by Heal You Hunger.
Visit www.healyourhunger.com for more details on the event and to register, and check out The Original Pole Dance Workout on Sheila’s website at www.sfactor.com.
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.
Here is a short YouTube video about obesity, comfort foods and food addictions. What happens to to the food addiction when you lose the weight? These experts share some interesting insights into obesity, its causes and treatments.