The Heal Your Relationship With Food: Effective strategies to help you think differently and overcome problems with eating, emotions and body image

by Juliet Rosewall

Many of us have an unhealthy relationship with food. Perhaps you've been trying to diet for years, or only feel in control if you're restricting your food intake or following strict diet rules. Perhaps you binge or comfort eat when you're feeling low. Your relationship with food feels far from healthy, but it's been like that for so long that you don't know how to change it.With clear steps, and practical advice, this book will help you sustain positive changes to overcome your issues around food, and repair unhealthy eating habits and mindsets. Whether it be strict dieting, out of control eating, a fixation with your body, or managing emotions with food, this book gives you the tools you need to heal your relationship with food.This book brings together the authors' expertise in evidence-based treatment, arming you with clinically proven strategies to address issues with food, eating, emotions and your body.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have an eating disorder then this book is really helpful and covers the spectrum from anorexia, bulimia to BED. It may also be helpful if you are pro-diets as it explains why this is a negative mindset that won’t help long term.

I listened to this on audio which may have been less effective as I missed out on all the graphs and visual elements that it referred to throughout.

This book was non-judgemental and gives a really quick overview of fighting your disorder and why diets are not effective.

I would highly recommend to anyone suffering weight/diet/binge/self image issues.

[Artie Carden · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better books ive read on the topic but not a huge fan of the emphasis on CBT so skipped those sections. I think the journaling ideas and prompts were good and different. It was a much less stereotypical ED recovery book and felt more individualised. Still lacked a lot for me personally, but an improvement on what ive read in the past. Also recommended a useful app that also feels a lot more thorough and individual than other apps i have seen.

[KT · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book offers useful guidance for those who do not have experience attempting to deal with disordered eating. It is designed to take you step by step through the basic information regarding disordered eating, exploring treatment, coping.

Throughout the book, the authors cover standard practices which will be familiar to anyone who has tried to eat healthier or overcome an eating disorder. These include journaling, tracking food intake, compensatory behaviors, etc. The authors offer some critical insight into these practices and unique tips on how to actualize the behaviors. Alongside this, the authors spend time explaining important concepts related to food wellness such as basic nutritional requirements, common food myths, diet culture, compensatory behaviors, etc.

While the authors have created an excellent resource for those struggling with disordered eating, they approach the subject from a purely cognitive behavioral perspective. The authors solely suggest tactics found in cognitive behavioral therapy which may be useful to some, but it does not resonate with all eating disorder sufferers. Moreover, the authors approach the issue from the perspective that fear is a foundational motivator behind all disordered eating. Therefore, the writing tends to elicit advice solely based on that conceptual model.

The authors also neglect to address the portion of the population who has suffered from bullying. The authors often say that certain illogical thoughts, such as thinking friends will judge you if you eat pizza, are not based on reality. However, they fail to recognize that, for some, those thoughts are based on real life experiences.

Alongside this, the book lacks basic editing as it has a significant amount of grammatical mistakes. The material also fails to fully explain concepts at times. For instance, there are times when the authors make statements about how your body reacts to certain diets without fully explaining what triggers the reactions. In these instances, th book would have benefitted from additional explanatory writing.

Moreover, the authors fail to cite their sources or include a bibliography. This is worrisome when they make claims such as “fats are actually important for the health of your heart” without providing evidence; however their combined expertise lends some credibility to the statements.

In spite of these critiques, the book offers useful information for those struggling with disordered eating. Specifically, those new to seeking treatment and those who benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy should consider this book as a resource in their journey.

[Cthulhu Youth]

This book encourages you to keep a food diary even if you're worried it will trigger a relapse, because you "won't use it as punishment." Perhaps that will work in conjunction with more personalized help but for me it was a shocking reminder of how little it takes to be dragged back under. I'm glad it's helped people but it revealed that I'm not someone who can track without falling back into obsessive thought patterns.

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there was some great insight and strategies in this book, there was very little I hadn’t read before or heard before elsewhere. To be fair, I have read a lot on the subject so it would likely be hard for me to find new material. It was well written and researched and I am sure it will be very helpful to others.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really helpful for me personally, it was well researched, covered a wide range of topics that relates to disorded eating and provided many helpful solutions that I could take away from this book

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really helpful book that covers a range of issues with food, journalling opportunities and case studies

[Sinead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good solid book on dealing with disordered eating. It’s very practical with lots of actionable advice that can help. Useful for those dealing with eating disorders.

[Victoria Rosario · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant book...for a person who had an eating disorder for 10 years of her life in her youth and then spent the rest of her life following diets, restricting and depriving herself this book is a gem. Having reached a stage in my life where I no longer want to do any of these things and I truly want to establish a healthy relationship with food and my body I stumbled across this book.
I have previously seen a dietitian who specialised in eating disorders who gave the advice that this book offers, but the way it is written, the explanation of the body, it's needs and the exercises, really resonated with me with me now having a strong willingness to follow it's advise.
I recommend this to anyone who has had body image issues that has either resulted in an eating disorder or a poor relationship with food, and is ready to truly let go of a life of dieting and depriving themselves .
In this day and age with all the fad diets it is so refreshing to read something that is informative, simple and straightforward. I highly recommend this book