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5.0étoiles sur 5
Why didn't someone tell me about this book 13 years ago?, Oct. 29 2003
By accident, I happened to find this book as I was using Google to search for information that might help me overcome emotional eating. I have tried many, many diets in the past, but none of them worked, because I would always start bingeing, and then I would gain more weight than I ever had before. Right now, I am about 110 pounds over my ideal weight.I bought the Dr. Phil book earlier -- hoping that it would help me to figure out why I am so out-of-control on my eating. It was good in terms of presenting general information, but it didn't really give me any concrete and specific tools for helping me break my vicious cycle of emotional eating. I found the Dr. Phil book useless in terms of giving practical steps about how to get out of the very deep, dark hole that I am in right now. I bought this book about 1 week ago. It is by far, the hardest book that I have ever read, because the exercises (and stories of others who had traveled down the same path) in the book forced me to face loneliness, grief, depression, fear of rejection, hopelessness about my future, past pain from abuse, etc. It was hard to face that which I had run away from -- and consistently avoided facing by stuffing myself with food. Over this weekend, I put down the chocolate, and I faced the emotions associated with my depression head-on. I felt really, really bad for about two days as I cried about my life, but TODAY, the black cloud that has hung over me for most of my adult life has finally lifted. The most amazing thing is that my food cravings are gone. I am no longer downing 6 chocolate turtles, one pint of Blue Bell Rocky Road, 1 pound of rice pudding, and 1 Red Baron Cheese pizza in ONE SINGLE MEAL. I was totally shocked to find that I did not have a SINGLE problem with ANY food cravings today, and I haven't felt deprived in any way. The compulsion to self-medicate with food is totally gone. But best of all, I have been paralyzed by depression during the last 8 years. There are things that have needed to be done, boxes of cluttered files that I have needed to throw out, and changes that I have needed to make in my life -- other than losing weight. Everything seemed so overwhelming that I never could seem to do these things. It was much easier to hide under the covers and sleep, watch TV, and eat the Blue Bell ice cream, than it was to face these impossible mountains of change. Or to come to terms with profound grief over something that happened 13 years ago. Well, I am happy to report, that I finally started to tackle one of my biggest mountains this morning. I threw out boxes of files that were no longer needed, but that I couldn't seem to throw out, because they were my only connection to a much happier past. I also began to start thinking that perhaps I could change my life after all. It does not have to be like this; I do have the power to change my thinking -- and my life. I do have the ability to take baby steps to do what God is directing me to do -- in order to become the person that He created me to be -- not the half-dead shell of a person that I was only a few days ago. In conclusion, this book is well-written, and well-worth the money spent. Besides the practical reflective exercises, Linda Spangle writes about her life, includes personal stories from some of her former clients, and she includes time-tested tools that have been shown to get many people over the emotional blocks that keep them from losing weight. It is written in such a way that the reader feels that Linda Spangle is talking to you over a cup of tea. It is well-worth the money spent, and I only wish that this book had been written 13 years ago!
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