Reddit reviews Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
We found 3 Reddit comments about Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Great product!
>Would you tell a fat person who wants to lose weight to just "let it go" and eat whatever they want to eat?
I would. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it's a very real way out.
I've struggled with eating disorders. I've been both obese and severely underweight.
Sure, you can force away body fat through rigid methods. It's really not that hard. But the psychological issues that underly compulsive eating will remain, and you'll just end up developing self-destructive orthorexia instead.
First of all, don't you think fat people are fully aware of how counter-productive their dietary habits are? Of course they are. What one must recognize is that food in excess happens to be a relatively (compared to other drugs of abuse) socially accepted way of self-medicating psychological pain. It's easy to get away with and to rationalize.
The problem? You know how bad your habits are. And you shame yourself. Shame leads to psychological pain, and the only way you know to self-medicate is by eating, and so you get at it again. It's a self-feeding (heh) mechanism.
One issue is also that many fat individuals are not very mindful when they eat, and so they rarely eat 'what they actually want', and instead they eat out of self-soothing habit. A food binge is the most intoxicating thing ever. In one sense, it's a 'letting go of control', and it's total freedom, but that freedom is only restricted because you've imposed that control-scheme on yourself in the first place.
The release-aspect of "Ahh fuck yes, I can finally do this! ALL IN BABY!" only comes because you've spent all day every minute all week thinking "I musn't do this, this is bad, I'm a bad person, why am I doing this? This is a bad habit. Stop doing it. You're stupid. You're bad. You're useless. You shouldn't. You musn't. Why can't you stop?" The release comes from a temporary rejection of that control scheme. But if you never had that control scheme in the first place, the forceful rejection of it wouldn't appeal to you. That's the paradoxical nature of the situation.
The most tricky pattern one can recognize is this: "I musn't do X. Alright I've decided, I will never do X again." followed by "Shit, shit, shit. I did X! Fuck. What now? I'm fucked, might as well do it all day long." repeat the whole ordeal, except next time it's all week long, and then all month long, because why not you're already fucked, right?
The solution? Don't blame yourself, because it'll only lead to fear. Instead, seek to understand the pattern. Don't seek to control behaviour according to some ideal you have in mind, instead observe it, deeply, and seek to re-adjust it according to your true honest understanding of the situation. Be mindful (meditate) when you eat, make it a ritual of focused awareness. Do the same for masturbation, and you'll see that the 'desperate' aspect of it will dissolve soon enough.
A single orange peeled and eaten in a mindful manner will taste a thousand times better than the largest plate of [insert favourite food] eaten in a mindless binge. It will also, probably, last a lot longer ...
Related note: Most people don't actually know what true hunger feels like, because they eat according to the clock and not according to the bod, and they can afford to not fast/starve for long periods of time. The first step in 'solving' any 'problem' related to the body, is to listen the fuck up to what the body is telling you, and not to an endless stream of external 'advice'. If you're really hungry, steamed plain broccoli will taste just as good as the smoothest chocolate you've ever eaten.
For a more in-depth discussion on eating disorders (and self-destructive patterns in general), I'd suggest the book Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by author Geneen Roth. It's aimed at women who've struggled with compulsive eating, body dysmorphia, and so on. But the underlying message spreads much wider.
It's all about control. We fear losing control, but we also love losing control. We want to lose control 'on our terms'.
The other side of it is: If there was no control to begin with, then you can't fear the loss of it, nor can you love the loss of it. The love, or the fear, is instead eternally present with you. You choose which one to manifest.
There's a ton of books, blogs, & podcasts that deal with emotional eating. You may not like them all but here are some recommendations:
Finally, while you are still in this low place, I would recommend filling up on foods that are high volume/low calorie so you don't find yourself quite as hungry for foods that are low volume/high calorie. Snack on carrots, broccoli, bell peppers, etc. before you tackle the oreos, ice cream. But by all means don't deny yourself the food, just eat some carrots first and if you still want ice cream after, have at it.
This is not an issue about weight loss ultimately. You need to deal with the interplay of food & emotions first. Weight loss can come after that.
Good--I really think that this is a matter of finding the underlying causes of your emotional eating, not just overcoming it through sheer willpower. You might also check out the book Women, Food and God.