Emotional Eating "Shrink Yourself"

I'm coming to the near end of my review of Shrink Yourself by Roger Gould, MD. Chapters 14 and 15 are about dealing with self doubts and self defeatism. Like the two previous chapters I find them overwhelming. He's dealing with self put-downs and self doubts and provides examples of self communication to set things straight. I would hope that in his last chapters he goes into building self worth.

I'd suggest reading these two chapters for no other reason other than to see a comprehensive list of self put-downs and self doubts. Perhaps there's one that's been dictating your life that you're unaware of.


More to come

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Emotional Eating "Shrink Yourself"

I'm reviewing the book Shrink Yourself by Roger Gould, MD and am in Part II Chapter 11 and 12. Both chapters are well worth reading however, I find them overwhelming and would imagine that one suffering from obesity would also. It's so much to do and remember that it can be stressful in itself. But then again, one tip may well be all you need as he provides many tips for overcoming the feeling phobia as well as getting out of your food trance. Although there's a lot of information, I feel it could be greatly simplified. I also notice that although he deals with the "feeling phobia" he doesn't really go into how to feel emotions. He doesn't tell the reader what to do with some powerful emotions such as anger, depression, confusion, uncertainty... other than to do one of many stress management activities. In a sense it's like telling your mother that you are angry with her and her response is to go jogging or maybe shopping. Maybe he handles how to feel emotions later in the book.

More to come

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Want to a cure for emotional binge eating and discover how to identify emotions, embrace them and feel them? You can purchase the, The Scale Conspiracy, (in e-book form) emotional eating now for only $14.95. It's a $39.00 value.

Emotional Eating "Shrink Yourself"

Continuing with Roger Gould's book, Shrink Yourself I'm at the beginning of Part II which is Chapters 9 and 10.

I got the distinct impression from reading chapter 9 that he was himming and hawing and it continued into chapter 10. It's like, "OK we're going to get you in control of your emotional eating, but I don't
1. either know where to start or
2. What to really tell you."

Chapter 10 did get rolling with a bunch of don'ts and things to avoid and ended with the only thing that really applies to emotional eating and that was to "observe."

More to come

Not sure you're an emotional eater? Click here and take the quiz.

Want to a cure for emotional binge eating and discover how to identify emotions, embrace them and feel them? You can purchase the, The Scale Conspiracy, (in e-book form) emotional eating now for only $14.95. It's a $39.00 value.

Emotional Eating "Shrink Yourself"

Continuing our review of Shrink Yourself by Roger Gould, MD finishes part I of the book with chapters 6, 7, and 8.

Chapter 6 is mainly about how overweight people shy away from being thin because of all the mechanisms they've learned to use their weight to avoid being put in situations that would require them to "shine" (my word), to avoid sexual issues... It's about how people hide behind fat.

Chapter 7 is the various rebellion issues that overweight people use to get even with their parents and those who criticized them as youngsters.

Chapter 8 is about using food to fill emptiness in one's life.

Overall these chapters provide interesting and informative information well worth reading for as they say, "if the shoe fits, wear it."

I'm looking forward to reviewing Part II.

Not sure you're an emotional eater? Click here and take the quiz.

Want to a cure for emotional binge eating and discover how to identify emotions, embrace them and feel them? You can purchase the, The Scale Conspiracy, (in e-book form) emotional eating now for only $14.95. It's a $39.00 value.

Emotional Eating "Shrink Yourself"

Book On to my next book to review--Shrink Yourself by Roger Gould MD. The introduction and first two chapters were more about emotional eating than the entire book by Geneen Roth was.
In the introduction Dr. Gould identifies the emotional eating problem as powerlessness. I must say that label pretty well fits all psychological problems. I mean those suffering from anxiety, panic attacks, lack of confidence, low self esteem... are all lacking power in their lives.

Nevertheless in Chapters 1 and 2 he provides an over abundance of case histories of those suffering from extreme stressful situations such as divorce relying on food and relates it to an alcoholic.

Chapter 3 is the Cost of Powerlessness in which he states that it's easier to be upset with yourself for pigging out than it is to deal with the emotional upset of something like anger or rejection. He goes on to say that overeaters have a feeling phobia--they're afraid of feeling emotions all of which I agree. There's also the challenge of maturing--throwing out the old childhood limiting programs and rewriting you own guidelines of life. The inability to deal with this conflict throws a lot of people into binging.

Chapter 4 is about how we let our low self esteem take a hit from other's criticisms, rejection... and that it's the low self esteem which contributes to binges and I agree with what he's saying.
Even self doubts (without anyone else's input) triggers binges. It's the critic within you--the self puts downs--that drive you to binging. He promises that in part II he'll give you a way of dealing with your critic.

Chapter 5 is somewhat about being hungry for what you lack or not knowing what you lack or not living up to your potential (dreams). Then there's the everyday pressures and stressors that contribute to overeating.

So far I'd say it's a one legged approach in that up to this point the book has been about eating in response to undesireable stress and fear--nothing about eating in response to happiness, celebration, achieving goals... Maybe that will come later in the book.

Not sure you're an emotional eater? Click here and take the quiz.

Want to a cure for emotional binge eating and discover how to identify emotions, embrace them and feel them? You can purchase the, The Scale Conspiracy, (in e-book form) emotional eating now for only $14.95. It's a $39.00 value.

Emotional Eating "Breaking Free From. Emotional Eating Pt IV."

The last three chapters of Geneen Roth's book Breaking Free from Emotional Eating starts with chapter 13 and how fat people loath themselves and then it moves into about 15 different things to do to begin liking (loving) yourself. Forgive yourself and forgive others. Page 171 is the first serious attempt to discuss emotions and the emotion of choice is anger. She ties it in with forgiving those with whom you're angry and ends the chapter with what it would mean to be a powerful woman.

Chapter 14 is about pain, "Life is Hard, then You Die." She offers tips on dealing with pain.

Chapter 15 is about "Men Use Sex the Way Women Use Food." It's about women's fear of being thin and having to deal with the issues of being feminine.

Chapter 16 is titled "Compulsions." Maybe I read it too fast but I didn't get that it had much to do with compulsions.
'Whoops I goofed, there's a chapter 17 which is one page about affirming that there's an end to self flagellation and put-downs.

Maybe I read the book too fast and missed its genius as I found it to miss the mark. It's as though she picked topics at random and tried to weave it into her "breaking free" program. What do you think?

Not sure you're an emotional eater? Click here and take the quiz.

Want to a cure for emotional binge eating and discover how to identify emotions, embrace them and feel them? You can purchase the, The Scale Conspiracy, (in e-book form) emotional eating now for only $14.95. It's a $39.00 value.

Emotional Eating "Breaking Free From. Emotional Eating Part III"

I think I understand why the subject of emotions and food is so poorly covered in Geneen Roth's Book which my last two posts were about. It's because the book was initially titled "Breaking Free From Compulsive Eating" and when it looked like emotional eating was becoming a buz phrase, she changed the title which means its what I call a recycled technique--true it stands alone but basically is a technique to ultimately create awareness as is generally used for habitual eating.

Chapter 6 is about learning our eating behaviors from our parents--how we were programed to eat from childhood. Chapter 7 is a about the program we received about eating in restaurants.

Chapter 8 is about exercise which is a standard discussion in most books. She warns about becoming an exercise freak and lists several things to watch for indicating you're an exercise freak. She has a section titled Scales are for Fish which I found amusing and am in agreement.

Chapter 9 is about what you want in terms of being thin.

Chapter 10 is looking at the image of the thin you and the fat you--a shift in self image.

Chapter 11 is about judgement and starts out with an interesting twist. For instance, in response to being told by one woman's lover that she's too heavy, she ate more and gained ten pounds rather than notice that her lover has a problem getting close.
Judging your eating behavior is the wrong thing to do as opposed to noticing your eating behavior free of judgement (much like I did in my posts a couple weeks ago when I was observing). The balance of the chapter is about tips on stopping judgement of yourself or handling them from others.

Chapter 12 is about trusting--trusting yourself that once you give yourself permission to eat everything in sight that you won't.

There's only three more chapters and I still haven't seen any real guidance re recognizing or handling emotions and what that would be all about.

Not sure you're an emotional eater? Click here and take the quiz.

Want to a cure for emotional binge eating and discover how to identify emotions, embrace them and feel them? You can purchase the, The Scale Conspiracy, (in e-book form) emotional eating now for only $14.95. It's a $39.00 value.