[close] Healthy eating is conscious eating, according to eating disorders specialist Susan Albers. In this book, she introduces concepts of acceptance and awareness of one's eating behaviors, new exercises steeped in Buddhist practices for healing negative patterns in this area, and a means for restoring tranquility to meals. Albers does not encourage a diet of deprivation, but instead provides a checklist for the wide variety of mindless eating approaches, from eating when not hungry to faddish diets to food rituals. Practical exercises grounded in cognitive behavioral research reveal the forces that drive unconscious eating. These step-by-step instructions help readers cut through the mind's chatter and reach a new level of understanding of their relationship to food, weight, and health. This, finally, is a sound weight loss program that uses mindfulness techniques to break the patterns of unhealthy eating.