Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating

by Geneen Roth

There is an end to the anguish of compulsive eating - and this book tells how to achieve it. Geneen Roth, whose "Feeding the Hungry Heart" brought understanding and acceptance to tens of thousands of readers, now outlines a proven program for resolving the conflicts at the root of eating disorders. Using simple techniques developed in her highly successful seminars, she offers reassuring, practical advice on:

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Health, Psychology, Food, Personal Growth, Mental Health

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 1986

About the author

Geneen Roth's pioneering books were among the first to link compulsive eating and perpetual dieting with deeply personal and spiritual issues that go far beyond food, weight and body image. She believes that we eat the way we live, and that our relationship to food, money, love is an exact reflection of our deepest held beliefs about ourselves and the amount of joy, abundance, pain, scarcity, we believe we have (or are allowed) to have in our lives.

Rather than pushing away the "crazy" things we do, Geneen's work proceeds with the conviction that our actions and beliefs make exquisite sense, and that the way to transform our relationship with food is to be open, curious and kind with ourselves-instead of punishing, impatient and harsh. In the past thirty years, she has worked with hundreds of thousands of people using meditation, inquiry, and a set of seven eating guidelines that are the foundation of natural eating.

Geneen has appeared on many national television shows including: The Oprah Show, 20/20, The NBC Nightly News, The View and Good Morning America. Articles about Geneen and her work have appeared in numerous publications including: O: The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Time, Elle, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She has written monthly columns in Good Housekeeping Magazine and Prevention Magazine. Geneen is the author of eight books, including The New York Times bestsellers When Food is Love and Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything. Her newest book, to be published in March 2011, is Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations about Food and Money.

Reviews

[Melet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary. I will be "reading" this book for the rest of my life, I expect.

[Ashley Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, this book helped save my sanity. I had found myself obsessed with calorie counting, measuring good, weighing food, weighing myself, measuring myself, excessively working out, creating spreadsheets of my calories in vs calories out.... I had been on every diet ever invented in the last 10 years, and finally something clicked that my lifestyle was no longer healthy. This book was suggested to me several times. I bought a $3 copy on Amazon, and expected to put it in the recycling bin. I though "compulsive eating? This isn't me at all. I'm more of a control freak than that!"..... But almost every page in this book (or at least the first half) had something in it that really hit home. If you're trying to get back to healthy eating habits, trends and thoughts- try this book.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down the best book I've read so far of its type...and that's saying a lot because I try to read a lot of these things for my work.

GREAT book- I highly recommend- makes eating conscious, which generalizes and pulls to deeper places that also need to be more conscious.

[Abby A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life. Scratch that-- this book saved my life.

[Chavonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book. I'd heard how good Geneen Roth's books were and this certainly did not disappoint. I can hear a lot of myself in this book. I can't wait to read all of her work.

[Ana Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was honestly life-changing for me. I had never thought about food in this way before—I didn’t even realize there could be another approach. It showed me that eating can actually be about tuning in to my body’s own needs and wants, not just about rules or restriction. For so long, I believed that reaching my “perfect weight” had to mean counting calories, tracking macros, and pushing through constant sacrifice. Now, I see it so differently, and I’m incredibly grateful to Geneen Roth for sharing her wisdom. Even years later, this book still feels fresh and relevant—it continues to speak to the struggles so many of us face in today’s world.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a therapist, and can only speak from the female point of view, but in my opinion, the concepts here could apply to multiple compulsions that females experience - particularly alcoholism. A couple of chapters toward the end of the book - On Having, On Judgment, On Forgiving Yourself - I found particularly helpful.

[Tahlia C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took some really useful new ways of thinking about and approaching food from this book, but my goodness it's largely problematic at times. Skinny-shaming and bulimia-triggering passages abound. Approach with caution, take the helpful parts.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this books inspiring, eye opening and completely life changing. After a lifetime of binge eating and not understand why or how to stop, I feel like I finally have some tools to take a step out of that darkness.

[Bryan Jenks]

DNF’ing this book because I am not the target audience and I’m not getting what I thought I would out of it at no fault to the book. Perhaps the approaches in the book work for the intended audience but for me it is missing the mark entirely

[♏Vanessa♏ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is very interesting and full of helpful insight and techniques to help us over come emotional eating. But more importantly understand the reasons we do it. I feel that understanding the why helps to put the techniques into action.

[Gillian RB · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book saved my life. It taught me to listen to myself and be kind to myself. It taught me to speak up and not be told to ‘shut up’. It taught me that I have worth now, not just when I’m thinner. Thanks, Geneen. Reread 34 years later: Still a powerful message.

[Betsy Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

has some good advice here but a bit out dated as for today's method of compulsive eating which I found out I don't have to a degree - more like emotional eating .

[Áďa Vávrová · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed the way I view food. For anyone who struggles with overeating and compulsions - you can apply it to basically any compulsion. Comes from real experiences and she gets also in a spiritual side of it. Just overall nice package of a book to question the ways and roots of the way you eat

[Yara]

nice

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little on the crazy hippie self-help side, but there were a few insights that made it almost worth reading.

[Cindy Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Geneen Roth. This was one of the first book of hers that I read. It's one that I read over and over again!

[Millie]

Recommended by my therapist. Lots of writing assignments and self-reflection. Was helpful for increasing self worth for me.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 1 out of 5]

I lost my weight, but without this book.

[superawesomekt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book. Geneen Roth definitely shares openly, which is sometimes uncomfortable, but more often than not, helpful. I would like to study this or another of her books more closely.

[Agatha Glowacki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to her other books but good review nonetheless