Sane and empircally sound solution to a crazymaking system

books:


	• The Diet Survivor's Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care Judith Matz, Ellen Frankel Sourcebooks, Inc., 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Sane and empircally sound solution to a crazymaking system

American women and girls (and, increasingly, men and boys) are bombarded with messages about ideal bodies and acceptable weights, "good" and "bad" foods and the health risks of "obesity." Toss in the wealth of other stresses related to contemporary life and a recipe for disordered eating is born.

The disordered eating often takes the form of socially sanctioned and even professionally encouraged dieting and weight-loss behaviors. At the turn of the millennium about 116 million Americans (55% of the adult population) were dieting, supporting a $50 billion weight loss industry.

The result -- a lot of people "walking around feeling that something is terribly wrong with their bodies and themselves," as Matz and Frankel write. "Dieters of all sizes feel their body is unacceptable because it fails to meet the societal view of perfection....The truth is we live in a shame-based culture that says that if your body differs from the coveted thin physique, something is intrinsically wrong with you and in need of fixing."

Matz and Frankel document the damage dieting and other weight-loss focused attitudes and behaviors can do to physical and emotional health, including ways they contribute to compulsive eating. They offer strategies to identify ways in which uncomfortable feelings are channeled into "bad body" (or "fat body") thoughts and sensations, for which dieting or other forms of restrictive eating or weight-loss behavior are grasped at as possible solutions. And they point out that grasping at weight loss as a solution is no more a healthy (or potentially successful) strategy for truly fat women (or men) than it is for those who merely think they're fat, or who are just a few pounds over the societal ideal.

Dieting (restricting what one eats) is often viewed as a solution to compulsive eating (as well as to "obesity") -- but instead is actually a significant CAUSE of compulsive eating. In fact, dieting and other weight-loss related behaviors reinforce bodily dissociation, as individuals override their natural sensations of hunger and satiety in attempts to lose or "manage" weight. Ironically, dieting also tends to make people fatter, due to lowered metabolism and the tendency of many people to regain more weight than they lost as their bodies compensate (and protect) for the self-induced famines.

Is there any other industry in which a failure rate of almost 100% (almost all people who lose weight through dieting will regain it) is blamed on the CONSUMER rather than the product? But the truth, as Matz and Frankel point out, is that people don't fail at dieting....their diets fail THEM.

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Loving and taking care of yourself

I liked this book so much I bought one for everyone in my family. I am only 21 years old, but I'm so glad I found this book now so that I won't have to deal with a lifetime of diets and not accepting myself. This book reveals the b.s. associated with the diet industry, and teaches you both to love yourself and to treat your body the right way for YOU. The authors really seem to know what the struggle is like and the best way to handle it--like what it feels in the exact moment you want to binge eat and how to accept yourself, and then change the situation. It consists of short chapters, and sometimes guide charts, which makes it easy to go right back to the information you need at a particular moment. I definitely recommend this book for anyone and everyone, especially teenagers!

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LIfe-Changing

This book is the best approach to learning WHY you feel the way you do about dieting, body image and food and to turning around the negative feelings to help you become healthy again. The individual lessons can be done in any order once you've read it through - very helpful if you have a particular issue come up. I've used it over and over again to help me on my journey away from compulsive and binge eating. Judith and Ellen encourage taking small steps, one thing at a time and focusing on health and self-care - a completely different viewpoint than I've ever used and it has changed my life. I'm relaxed around food, wear clothes that fit me NOW and have opened new areas in my life because I'm not obsessing about food, points, weights, portions, etc. I've rediscovered the joy of movement for how good it feels instead of only working for results - and so I move more often than I ever have.
I now know I am a diet survivor, and this is the the book that started the change in my life.....I highly recommend it.

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Perfect for those learning to eat intuitively

This book is a wonderful guide for people who are trying to learn to trust their bodies again. The journey towards becoming an attuned or intuitive eater can be hard, especially for anyone battling back from an eating disorder. This book gives you easy lessons, in short, easy to digest chapters. Its also a small book... perfect for slipping into a purse or backpack. That may seem like a silly comment, but I love it because it means I can take the book with me anywhere, for when I need some extra support.

Oprah should read this book and share it with the world!!!

I am a text book case of the yo-yo dieter that Judith & Ellen describe in their book. For a few years in a row I would gear-up, diet, lose about 10 pounds, get antsy after about 3-4 months, binge, then gain back the 10 and then some.

I had the opportunity to attend a presentation the authors gave about the book at a local book store. I was intrigued by the idea that you could avoid having to restrict yourself , track points, calories etc., and simply get in-tune with your own physical comfort as it relates to food and eating.

I made some subtle modifications to the way I eat. I never feel stuffed anymore after a meal, and literally felt light enough to start an exercise regimen which resulted in further weight loss. (The down side is that I've
had to replace much of my wardrobe - from size 12 to around jr. size 9)

This book turns the whole idea of dieting on its head. I hope Oprah sniffs it out so she can share it with the world.

Read it!

Andra Kossy
Skokie, Illinois

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

If you're one of the nearly 116 million Americans trying to lose weight, only to find that every diet you've tried has failed you, you are a diet survivor.

You can step off the destructive diet bandwagon and reclaim your self-esteem, positive body image and a happy, healthy life. These 60 inspiring lessons will give you the tools you need to change your relationship with food, your body and yourself.

Dieting is hazardous to your health. Diets don't work and they won't work, and yo-yo dieting will make you fatter.

This book can show you how to:
* Never diet again and allow your weight to stabilize
* Stop feeling guilty about eating the foods you love
* Free up all that mental energy to be more productive and have more fun in life
* Get in touch with physical hunger and learn to love your body

Give up the vicious cycle and stop overeating.

Judith Matz and Ellen Frankel are sisters and therapists specializing in eating problems and weight issues. Each holds a Master's degree in Social Work and has over 20 years of clinical experience in teh field of eating disorders. They are the authors of Beyond a Shadow of a Diet.

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