What do you think?
Rate this book
Normal Eating for Normal Weight: The Path to Freedom from Weight Obsession and Food Cravings
Normal Eating® is a uniquely effective step-by-step program to free people from compulsive urges and emotional eating. It's not a quick fix, but it's a real fix. You not only lose weight, you become a true normal eater. Many people who've failed to solve their eating problems in the past finally succeed with Normal Eating.The Normal Eating® method draws from the Zen principle of mindfulness, 12-step wisdom on addiction, intuitive eating (the non-diet approach), cognitive psychology, and solid nutrition. Author Sheryl Canter analyzed the natural recovery process and broke it into stages, with each stage building on the last. The result is a gentle, step-by-step guide that greatly improves the odds of success.The book lays out the program in detail. An accompanying online support group lets you ask questions of the author, and apply the ideas to your own life.
- GenresHealth
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 6, 2009
4 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 6, 2012
Ideally, I'd like to withhold a rating, simply because this type of book needs to be re-read, referred to, and put into practice before determining if it is any good. I think it's only fair, though, to give an initial rating based on the information and writing. So...
There was something about the thought process that you are asked to put yourself through that struck a nerve with me. I actually found myself crying at one point in the book, because it was expressing a sentiment that was deeply embedded in me but I'd never vocalized and would not have been able to find the exact words to do so if I had wanted to. This in itself doesn't make it a great book, or a reason to recommend it- it is simply a book that said the right things for me.
It takes you through a four step process to help overcome compulsive eating. First you are talked through getting rid of all the built up "training" we are given throughout our lifetimes, such as: being ashamed of overeating or eating fattening foods to the point that you find alone time to binge, or obsessing about what you eat to the point that you make yourself crazy and deny yourself- only to turn around and eat out of frustration or anger and not being allowed to be normal. You are asked to observe what you eat without judging yourself.
The second stage is to learn the physical cues of hunger and satiation, "reconnect" with yourself and notice when you are eating for emotional reasons, not out of hunger.
The third stage is to work out what problems/emotions are triggering the overeating. You are asked to stop and think before you eat. "If hunger isn't the problem, eating isn't the solution."
Fourth stage is learning to make good choices, which is where the book fell down for me. As a lifetime dieter, I know what food is "good" and why I should eat it. My problem isn't not knowing that information, it's eating tons of extra food and thinking that if no one sees me do it it doesn't count, and I can't stop myself. That's the reason I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book.
I'm hoping this book will be what I need to keep me going through what the author admits is a long, difficult process. It is for that that I am rating the book as I am.
There was something about the thought process that you are asked to put yourself through that struck a nerve with me. I actually found myself crying at one point in the book, because it was expressing a sentiment that was deeply embedded in me but I'd never vocalized and would not have been able to find the exact words to do so if I had wanted to. This in itself doesn't make it a great book, or a reason to recommend it- it is simply a book that said the right things for me.
It takes you through a four step process to help overcome compulsive eating. First you are talked through getting rid of all the built up "training" we are given throughout our lifetimes, such as: being ashamed of overeating or eating fattening foods to the point that you find alone time to binge, or obsessing about what you eat to the point that you make yourself crazy and deny yourself- only to turn around and eat out of frustration or anger and not being allowed to be normal. You are asked to observe what you eat without judging yourself.
The second stage is to learn the physical cues of hunger and satiation, "reconnect" with yourself and notice when you are eating for emotional reasons, not out of hunger.
The third stage is to work out what problems/emotions are triggering the overeating. You are asked to stop and think before you eat. "If hunger isn't the problem, eating isn't the solution."
Fourth stage is learning to make good choices, which is where the book fell down for me. As a lifetime dieter, I know what food is "good" and why I should eat it. My problem isn't not knowing that information, it's eating tons of extra food and thinking that if no one sees me do it it doesn't count, and I can't stop myself. That's the reason I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book.
I'm hoping this book will be what I need to keep me going through what the author admits is a long, difficult process. It is for that that I am rating the book as I am.
February 2, 2011
So far, so great! This woman has systematically tried each and every approach I have tried in the last 20 years and discusses them all. The approach she recommends is based on Susie Orbach's Fat is a Feminist Issue (a must read for anyone interested in the issues of feminism, body image and food in my opinion. I can't wait to try the exercises she recommends!
November 7, 2009
An insightful book that deals with the emotional side of overeating and food related issues. Focuses on a step-by-step approach to freeing oneself from food related obsessions, compulsions, and otherwise unhealthy ways of relating to food. Not a quick fix, but one that works.
July 9, 2011
The only way that makes sense to me for losing weight and coping differently.
January 31, 2010
Interesting and insightful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews