I thought it would be nice to have a thread where we can discuss good books that have helped you with emotional/binge eating. I know a few have been mentioned on here but I'd like to know about a few more. I went to Barnes & Nobles to look at "100 days of Weight Loss" and "Life is Hard Food is Easy" but they didn't have them. Have these books helped any of you?

I thought "Life is Hard, Food is Easy" to be very helpful.

A.

I've read others recommend books by Geneen Roth. I'll be reading them soon.

Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach is the compulsive overeater's bible. Apologies if it's been mentioned before, but really, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's also worth noting that Geneen Roth has been highly influenced by Orbach's writing.

I bought Life is Hard food is easy and am still reading it. It triggers me a lot! I have found tears have flown numerous times while reading it because I so relate. I also bought When food is love. got them both on amazon dot com and had them shipped to my house both for 25 bucks. Cant even visit a psychologist for that money LOL !! Hope this helps ! I haven't read the 2nd book yet!

Good advice ladies, Thanks!

Thanks!! ALL these books sound soooo good..I'll have to one by one go through all of them... I'm just now realizing that I have a BIG problem with emotional and binge eating. I'm going to figure out how to get it under control. I hate it. It feels like I have no control once I decide to eat off plan. I had a friend tell me that I want all the things that aren't OP because they are "forbidden" and that makes me want them even more. Like I said, I never craved sweets before and now I can have a whole jar of peanut butter gone in 2 days. Beat this one...I stopped off at the local grocery store went straight to the cake and icing isle and got me a jar of dark chocolate icing and had the whole thing ate in 2 days. I have NEVER done that before. If I'm not careful I'm going to give myself diabetes. I'm so confused.

What worked for me are the books by Judith Beck (The Beck Diet Solution and The Complete Beck Diet for Life) which use Cognitive Behavioral Techniques. I'm amazed because it doesn't really tackle the underlying emotional issues, but it directly targeted and stopped my overeating and bingeing behavior. Now that I have some breathing room, I feel like I'm ready to look at some of these other books (thanks, everyone!) to take a look at those issues.

Can you share some ideas from this book?

Most books are on Amazondotcom and can be previewed there if that helps Sometimes you can read the first 14 pages.

This is the same thing that has been going on with me! It is frightening me. I was never like that before, not to say I didn't love chocolate, but what is going on with me is crazy. I am looking into any books I can get that might help.. Next stop Psychiatry! Glad to hear I am not alone in this..

Cheers!
Ronnie

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I just read Geneen Roth's book "Women, Food, and God." I found that it particularly focuses on emotional eating and gives a few simple rules to follow to overcome it. I found it very helpful.

In my home office I have two rows..yes two full complete rows...on dieting and weight loss books by nearly everyone in the past 10 years! I have not read the books posted here and will head to our local library to see if I can pick them up...I have invested so much $$$ in all theses books and still I have issues. The current book I have read and liked is Jillian Michaels "Master Your Metabolism", it is a good read in understanding food and explaining hormones and how the food choices affects our metabolism. I had to buy it because there was 10 reserve holds on it at the library and it would have taken me nearly a year to get my turn! It did help me understand the MRC diet a whole lot better and it is very similar, not as restrictive in amounts of food and type but similar in selections of proteins, carbs, fruit, veggies. I also read her Making the Cut book which outlines her eating plan...once again similar to MRC without the use of HNS however it is based on 3 different types of individuals. She talks about the overall success of regulating blood sugar, balancing hormones, max energy and about 3 different metabolic types in balancing macronutrients - carbs, proteins, fats based on individual biochemical needs. I found the eating plans very much like MRC but with the explanation, also I now understand why some individuals do really well on MRC while others, doing everything right on MRC, and does not have the same results and still struggles, still looses but at a slower rate or might be hungry etc...Jillian talks about the needs of more protein or a more balance mix of protein and carbs for others etc...anyway I know this is long but I found her information based on eating and my metabolism very helpful. I sabotage myself... no one has to help! I struggle everyday with choices of eating because I am sad, stressed or eating to be healthy and alive...unfortunately the emotions get their way far too many times Thanks for all the reading suggestions...
Genell

porchmom84:
The ideas from the Beck book that helped me the most are:
-make a list of advantages to losing weight (things like "I want to lose weight to get of my blood pressure medication") and read them at least once a day
-make a list of responses to various situations (things like "When dieting seems unfair, remind myself that this is how all successful dieters and maintainers eat.") and read them at least once a day. When I encounter a situation where I don't have an appropriate response, make up a new one for the list so that I handle it better next time.
-write down a food plan for the day, so I'm not faced with decisions all day long about what to eat. One of my responses is "I can always plan to eat this food tomorrow" which is pretty effective when I have a desire or craving -- if I really want it, I can put it in tomorrow's food plan and still feel like I'm in control of things.
-make rules for myself that keep certain situations from ever arriving. For example, I have a firm rule that I never eat in the car which was where I used to engage in my worst bingeing behavior.