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On never dieting again

So I finished the book Good Girls Do Swallow, by Rachel Oakes Ash [link contains a great interview with the writer]. I've put a picture up down in the lower right hand corner. This book was very good for so many reasons. If only just to remind me that I am not alone in my food and body obsessions.

Mine are no where near as extreme as the writer's as I have never binged or purged. If you are a binge eater, I highly recommend this book to you. It is not very long either so you can't use the excuse that you just don't have a lot of time to read.

The writer mentions the way she treated herself is by joining the never diet again crowd. She mentions Geneen Roth, who I have read and love, as well as this other book I mentioned a few weeks ago, When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the concept of never dieting again, but I don't think I am ready to tell myself it is okay to chocolate cake everyday and stop worrying about the amount of food I consume in a week's time.

I don't want to fill my house with all the foods I love, (ie: french fries, chips, bread, doughnuts etc) because I know that if it is readily available I will eat it a lot, and I will gain weight.

I know that they say eventually you will be in tune to your own hunger and the weight will naturally fall off as you learn to only eat what you need, but am I crazy for not wanting to give up the control I have by simply not surrounding myself with temptation?

I eat a lot. I don't tell myself there are "forbidden foods", I never binge eat because I feel deprived. I eat fast food when I want it, but I still spend most of my week monitoring my food intake so that I don't gain weight.

But then again I don't consider what I am doing a "diet". When these books talk about never "dieting" again they are not talking about people who have made a change in their life to embark on a healthy eating plan. They're talking about people who starve themselves for periods of time only to backslide and "binge eat" when they feel the full extent of their deprivation. People who diet to extremes may do well to follow the advice of these books.

There are some very interesting statistics Rachel includes in her book. The one I am most interested in is the one that says only about 5% of people who lose weight actually keep it off. I want to be in that 5%. I want the things I am learning about food and weight-control to stay with me for life.

This is not some fad for me. I am not losing weight to look for that miracle to cure my life and make me feel beautiful and successful. I know that even now, at almost 40 kilos down from my heaviest weight I still have emotional issues that will not go away.

Being thin is not the answer to all my problems.

Comments

lainb said…
Thanks for the recap of the book...I'm definitely gonna have to check it out! You're so right in that since you allow yourself anything you want, you don't feel the need to binge. Along with underlying problems (depression, anxiety, etc.), I think deprivation is a major cause of binge eating.
Argy said…
Iam just like you! I need a safe environment at home. This somehow builts my strength and gives me the power to resist yummy treats when I am out. But if I have the stuff at home, it really wores me out to resist to them, and then, when I am out, my choises tend to go wild. I have only so much power to resist "bad" food now, why spend it all at home where I can have a sort of safe environment?

*hugs*
Anonymous said…
sounds like a great book - i love reading anything to do with weight loss, fitness or how our body works. One day I will figure out how MY body works and will lose weight!
Anonymous said…
I commend you on your efforts at losing weight ! It is the emotional issues that take the most time and the most work on your part. You have to feel good about the new you to make the weight loss meaningful and permanent.
Robin said…
I'm thinking I need to start reading again... and maybe start with your recent plugs.

Oh, and way to go with your little outfit. You were rockin' it, girl!
M@rla said…
You have to do what works for you - there's lots of good info and advice in books and online, but ultimately it's what's right for you. You seem really in tune with what works and what doesn't for yourself.

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