Tag Archive | Amazon

Anatomy of a Food Addiction

Nov27

Tonight I want to tell you about a terrific book by Anne Katherine, written about food addiction and compulsive eating. The book is titled Anatomy of a Food Addiction: The Brain Chemistry of Overeating. You can get it online in paperback for around $10.00.

When she first wrote it in 1991, I had been working at a psychiatric facility. I saw some things there that made me realize that I wanted to uncover and get to know the real me. One troubling aspect of my life was my relationship with food.

The stress at the facility was immense and the administrator was a control freak, a very cruel and destructive one at that. I recognized what a valuable resource a good therapist could be so I availed myself of the contacts I’d made since I took the job. Soon afterward, I left  the facility.

Anne Katherine’s book did not reach me in my younger years because my food addiction was not a major concern. I was usually never more than 20-30 pounds overweight and no one seemed to notice, except me .

I played down the addictive behaviors. When I attempted confide in someone, they laughed at me and called me a drama queen. But I knew it was serious business.

When I finally found someone to take me seriously, it was a very special clinical psychologist whom I saw for several years off and on. Between the two of us, we were able to uncover the emotional trauma that had been buried for decades under my food addiction.

Finding Anne Katherine’s book again was a blessing. There are exercises included in the text. They  help you find your own answers, as all food addicts must  if we are to overcome our fear of food and the emotions that send us on an eating spree that doesn’t stop until the pain goes away.

There are all kinds of programs for compulsive eaters but the best ones start with education. When you read this book, you will be able to relate to it, if not identify with it.

Everyone needs a starting place, and this may be your chance to find it. You’ll probably get the best deal if you go to amazon.com, but the library will work just as well.

Happy reading!

New Book for Food Addicts and Overeaters

Nov8

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.