Eating Guidelines

I don't know if you are familiar with anti-diet guru, Geneen Roth. She has hit the scene hard this year, when her latest book "Women Food and God" came out. She was on Oprah twice talking about this amazing book. While I loved this latest work, I have been a fan of Geneen's for over 10 years and love each and every one of her books - each one speaks to me in a different way.

So, in case you haven't read any of her books, I'll give you a (very) brief overview...
Geneen was on a roller coaster of weight loss and gain for many years. This cycle culminated in her burning her diet books in her bathtub more than 30 years ago. She decided it was do or die time - literally. She gave herself permission to eat what she wanted, when she was hungry, at last trusting herself to not eat herself to death. After a time, she found herself healthy and happy at her natural weight - a realistic, natural place for her body.

Geneen's "method" includes eating guidelines... I am going to reflect and work one guideline at a time, adding a new one each week. This week's guideline: Eat when you are hungry. Mmmmm... that doesn't sound too difficult, right? My interpretation of this guideline is that I will only eat when I have an actual, physical need for food - when I am honest-to-goodness hungry. Not bored, sad, lonely, feeling fat and/or ugly, angry; hunger is not an emotion it is a physical state. So starting now, at 5 pm on Thursday, December 30th, I will eat when I am hungry, when my body needs food. If I "mess up", I am going to figure out why, without beating myself up.

There is so much more to Geneen's story and her insights are truly amazing! I highly recommend all of Geneen's books. One of my goals for this coming year is to read one non-fiction book each month and I am going to make part of that goal re-reading each of her seven books again - starting with "Feeding the Hungry Heart". I promise that if you are a compulsive and/or emotional eater, if you read any of Geneen's books you won't be disappointed!