Book Suggestions?
 

I am looking for some good books to read. Not necessarily on losing weight, but things like emotional eating or maintaining weight loss or why we eat when we are not hungry and so on.

The closer I get to my original goal the more afraid I get that I will think I’ve reached some magic number and can go back to eating as I did before. As many times as I tell myself this is just not true I know me and its happened before so I just want to arm myself against it.

One major thing I have this time that I did not have in the past is 3FC! You guys are so supportive and I know will help keep me on track!

Thanks in advance for any book suggestions you might have.

Here's a thread over in Weight Loss Support that has some good titles in it:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125493

Jay

Some that have helped me are Weigh Down and Bob Green's Best Life Diet.

I'm sure there are better ones out there focusing more on the psychology, though.

These are the books that I turn to again and again for inspiration and encouragement:

The Four Day Win

If I could pick JUST ONE, this would be it. It focuses on the transtheoretical model of change -- the stages that we go through when making any major change. You've probably heard them before... pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. This book's whole premise is that "diet books" focus on action. Sometimes they include maintenance. But 9 times out of 10 people fail in change because they haven't really finished "contemplation" and "preparation", and so "action" fails. So she leads you through each stage with exercises. The "four-day" part is because you set do-able goals, and do them for four days, and then reward yourself. It helps to set up a positive motion forward in your plan. It's not a diet. But the work you do in this book will help ANY diet you use. Get it from the library and see what I mean. I read half of it, and went out and bought my own copy!

You: On a Diet

This one is amazing for the science of how your body works, why you need to diet, and what happens when you diet. It explains things like cholesterol, hormones, artery damage, diabetes, inflammation, and blood pressure in ways that I can understand (and explain to others!). The second section also has a very solid diet plan, with some tasty recipes.

Thin For Life

This one is just downright inspirational. The author interviewed hundreds of people who have lost weight and kept it off, and analyzed the similarities in their methods. She's narrowed it down to 10 key things, written in a conversational manner and liberally laced with anecdotes from her research and discussions with people who have been there and done that.

Others that I like to pick up now and then, but aren't in my must-have list:

From Chunk to Hunk. Fred used to keep a blog online of his weight-loss journey, and he later got it published as a book. He lost a HUGE amount of weight, and kept it off, and this book takes you step by step.

The Flavor-point Diet. This one is an actual diet book. It's an interesting concept, though I'm not sure that it works. The premise is that if you lace the same flavor throughout your food during the day (mint one day, and lemon the next, etc.) you will be satisfied with less food. We tend to eat more when there is a variety of flavors. I'm not sure if that can fact can actually translate into eating less day by day, as in this plan, but I respect the author very much. I actually use this one for the recipes, more than the diet. The soups and salads are AMAZING. The eating plan is low calorie (around the 1500 range), and very tasty, so that by itself is worth getting it out of the library once in a while.

I liked Thin for Life because it's so nice to read advice from successful "losers" and Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Brian Wansink. I wasn't as crazy as You: On a Diet, but it just wasn't my style--too cutesy and celebrity-studded (like I'd care what Brad Pitt thought of me if I met him?!)

Hi there!

I just finished three very, very good books dealing with losing weight and ending the food/diet battle. Martha Beck's Four Day Win was incredible! It really helped open my eyes to what over-eating was all about, the triggers, and how to control the urge to binge/over-eat. We all know being overweight has very little to do with food and this book brings that fact to the forefront.

The "ah-ha" moment was when Beck talked about getting into and staying in the, "Watcher" mode to help stop over-eating.

Same is true with Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I picked it up after I heard someone say the book helped them put a struggle with bulimia to rest for them. I once had my jaw wired shut (not fun) in an effort to deal with bulimia but this book did more for me than that ever could!!

Last night I finished Runaway Eating by Cynthia Bulik and Nadine Taylor. I read an article by the author (Bulik) in O magazine (Aug or Sept ?) that talked about BED; or binge eating disorder, which described exactly what I struggle with. Runaway eating can be eating out of control (running away with us) or/and eating that we do to run away from whatever it is in our life that triggers a binge. A big plus to this book is that it focuses mostly on the middle-life woman and the body struggles we begin to notice and have in common in our forties... Being 41, I found this book very insightful. Usually I share my books or turn them in for credit at my local used book store, but these three are so heavily tabbed that I'm keeping them in my library as reference material!

I hope these books help bring you the same peace I now feel about my struggles with food/dieting and over-eating.

Be well,

Janet

PS - I went to a conferenc where Dr. Roizen spoke; you may know that he and his partner, Dr. Oz wrote, You: On a Diet. While his talk was interesting, I found the book a terrible read. There are LOTS of references to the foods we are ALL trying to avoid, (which brought them front and center for cravings as I read) and, in the end, the bottom line was nothing that many of us who have dieted in the past don't already know... I am glad the copy given out at the conference was free, since had I paid for it I would have returned it for a refund!

Being a card carrying book-a-holic...I just read the suggestions here and ordered several of the books from amazon. I am looking forward to reading Thin for Life, The Four Day Win and Mindless Eating. I know amazon appreciates all of your suggestions when I hit "place order" as well. ;)

Despite a couple of bad references from the people here, I have to say that I loved "You On A Diet." The book does a marvelous job of explaining why we continue to be overweight despite years of "dieting." This book really helped me to get on track.

I just completed "The Mars & Venus Diet & Exercise Solution" by John Gray, Ph.D. I thought it has some excellent information about how to just eat healthy, and he does a great job at describing the differences in men and women and their different nutritional needs. I would recommend it myself.

Thanks for all of the wonderful suggestions! This is just what I was looking for. This weekend I'm making a trip to the library and the book store! You guys ROCK!!!!

Hi! I agree, You On A Diet is a great book. Another interesting one was The 7-Day Low Carb Rescue and Recovery Plan, by Rachael and Richard Heller. This one was great because it tells exactly what carbs do to your body. (Not that all carbs are bad, but what the bad ones do to you.) It's written in regular people's language!! The authors have lost weight on their program. And kept it off. Check it out!

I didn't care for You on a diet but I do think it is worth a read. I am really focused on healthy eating rather than "dieting" so my latest interest has been "Eat to Live" which I think is a good book to read regarding what you eat.

I also like "Thin for Life".

Don't forget your local used book store! I found Martha Beck's book at mine for only $8.00 (and no shipping/waiting!) I hope your city has a good used book store because mine seems to have every book available, old and new.

You take care and much success!

Janet

I liked The Ultimate Weight Solution from Dr. Phil. While it is a weight loss book, for me at least, it also really delved into why I was fat in the first place and a complete mindset change for life from here on out. I know a lot of people don't like him but for me he was very straight forward, thought provoking, and helpful. I haven't read any of the others mentioned so I can't compare to those.

It was reading the "You on a Diet" book that really made things click for me. It all just made sense after I read it....not impressed with the writing style, but the info there was invaluable to me.

I also think that reading Superfoods RX and the 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth are both worth reading - helps you figure out what you should eat!