[stayingalive]

Hello my friends...just picked up Geneen Roth's new book, "Women, Food and God," which is INCREDIBLE! The book speaks about dieting, failure and self hatred...and shows us how to simply try and understand ourselves. I can not put it down. It is the best "weight loss" support book I have ever opened.

Has anybody else read it?


Pam

[proudmommy09]

Just bought it today and I have to say as a christian I am very offened that she defines GOD as just being beauty. Im only a few pages in but that turned me off big time.

[JulieJ08]

Originally Posted by proudmommy09

Just bought it today and I have to say as a christian I am very offened that she defines GOD as just being beauty. Im only a few pages in but that turned me off big time.

It would be perfectly valid to feel the book has nothing to offer you. But it's only offensive if simply being non-Christian is offensive. Christians didn't invent the word god.

[lukesmom]

proudmommy09--I hope you can get past the references she makes in the book...I actually read some of her other books earlier this year and have lost 35 pounds since the end of February. The "rest" of what she has to say, makes sense...that we eat at times we aren't hungry to fill a void. I choose to think the void can be filled with God. Others don't think the same way, I know...

[Cglasscock1]

Yes, I started another thread about this book about two weeks ago. You might want to look at it as others have posted. I found the book very helpful in regards to emotional eating and will refer back to it when I need it.

[kimyf65]

I started reading 'Women Food and God' a few weeks ago because I was drawn by 'God' in the title. Several years ago, I battled binge eating and my weight increased up to 240 pounds. But I was healed of that issue and lost 85 pounds. I have kept it off for many years now. I give credit for my victory to my personal relationship with God. That process taught me that what you believe is true, (whether about yourself, others, life purpose, or about God himself), determines how you live. Back when I struggled, I heaped hatred and condemnation on myself. But I learned that God is about restoration, not condemnation. He wanted to teach me and lead me in the way I should go every day. I came to know God as my Healer, Strength, Wisdom, and Truth. Once I learned about his character and knew I could trust him, then He became my source of comfort and I turned to him when I was emotionally upset rather than food.

I wanted to tell you that because it is important to know that I came to the book with a certain bias. I was hoping to see the God who healed me in the book. Sadly, I did not. Early in the book, Ms. Roth says that it doesn't matter if you believe in one God, many gods, or no god. To me, that said a lot about the importance she ascribed to god if she said it doesn't matter if you believe he exists. According to her, if you can take God out of the picture and her method would still work then where is God in the process? It seemed she wanted to have it both ways.

But I came to learn through my own recovery that it was critical for me to have a stable view of God - and trust in his strength, power, and ability to change lives. Not God as I chose to define him but as he defines himself.

I know I have written a book here but I am passionate about this issue, having been healed of it myself. If you want to read my weight loss success story then you can on my Take Back Your Temple dot com website.

Kim

[justbeu]

Kim,
Have you ever read Thin Within....It is totally God based and it helps me so much!!! I have to read and reread as that is the only way I can NOT binge. And if I do slip, it helps me not feel so much terrible guilt. thinwithin.org

[ippocampa]

I read that book and it was beautiful. Have you read 'A New Earth', by Eckhart Tolle? I feel like Geneen's book is like a subset on that with a focus on eating disorders.

[Starrynight]

I just read a few excerpts from this book and I'm definitely picking it up. She seems to apply psychoanalysis to her line of work and that is something I'm very interested in.. especially when psychology has become very dogmatic in a sense and psychoanalysis has been getting little attention though neuroscience seems to be backing up psychoanalytic theories more and more. I'm not a fan of humanistic psychology or any tpye that has an agenda to "change" or "alter" you to fit society..
Oddly enough, my boyfriend who is a real auto-didactic in psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan, etc) had a similar conversation with me regarding my eating habits. I opened up to him and told him about certain things in the past and we touched on certain symbolic meanings for certain things I remember as kid and interests I have now and it was REALLY powerful. I hope to go to a psychoanalyst if I can through my insurance, but I'll tell you that it was a very different experience and I had the similar experience that one of the person's in the book had - confronting certain pains and truths out loud from the past, things we repress... making connections.. and then suddenly feeling no compulsion to eat or follow the same behavior. It is really tough to be constantly aware of these things, but it has helped me out IMMENSELY and I still think about it whenever I feel the powerful compulsion to eat when I know I am not hungry and the food falls out of what is healthy for me.
It seems to me that the author applies similar concepts in a different way and I am DEFINITELY am going to check this out!