Re: Geneen Roth's Women, Food and God

[Guest guest]

Hi Sue, you wrote: " Bingeing and then restricting to compensate for bingeing was

my way to avoid a reality I didn't want to face. "

I think I restrict and control in an effort to not face the reality of my

weight's natural set-point. Of course, I am not sure that other facets of my

life (aside from food and body image) have contributed to these behaviors, as

well. I *hope* that facing my body as it is and is meant to be will rid me of a

lot of physical and emotional control issues and anguish.

Thanks again for an informative reply (and I'm glad you are out of your abusive

childhood and marriage!).

--

> >

> > A very intriguing review, indeed. Thank you for sharing!

> > I particularly relate to the " Restricters " part of this statement:

" Restrictors love rules and boundaries. Permitters numb. Restrictors control. "

> >

> > --

>

[Guest guest]

Hi : If you 'restrict and control in an effort to not face the reality of

(your) weight's natural set-point', you may use that coping mechanism (restrict

and control) to avoid facing other situations or feelings about situations and

relationships in your life. Also focussing on resolving your body issues can

distract you from other life issues. Geneen Roth describes that tendency in her

book more convincingly than my words here. As Geneen says in her book:

" The truth is that it's not about the weight. It's never been about the weight.

When a pill is discovered that allows people to eat whatever they want and not

gain weight, the feelings and siutations they turned to food to avoid will still

be there, and they will find other more inventive ways to numb themselves. "

SUE

> > >

> > > A very intriguing review, indeed. Thank you for sharing!

> > > I particularly relate to the " Restricters " part of this statement:

" Restrictors love rules and boundaries. Permitters numb. Restrictors control. "

> > >

> > > --

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Sue,

Thank you very much for a very thorough review of Geneen's book. I know it will be a while before I can read it, my pile of books is already very high. I learned of Geneen way back in the early 90's when I was seeing a therapist who specialized in eating disorders. (Interestingly enough, my therapist helped so much with many things, but not the eating, intuitive eating was the only thing that worked) I read all of her early books right away and it was so nice to read exactly what I was going through. But I never applied anything, it was all pretty much conceptual. But I still love her!

Have you read her last book, "Appetites"? I would love to know if you liked it. I started reading it years ago and it started off with her talking about candida and I lost interest. Is it worth going back to?

Anyway, thanks again!

Thanks!GillianGillian Hood-son, MS, ACSM

Get your report, "The 6 Steps to Guilt-Fr*e Eating" at http://www.HealthierOutcomes.com Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood

From: IntuitiveEating_Support [mailto:IntuitiveEating_Support ] On Behalf Of sueSent: Saturday, March 20, 2010 11:55 AMTo: IntuitiveEating_Support Subject: Geneen Roth's "Women, Food and God"

"Women, Food and God" summarizes what Geneen Roth learned from her workshop participants over the past 30 years. I enjoyed reading her descriptions of workshop participants' reactions to her workshop exercises and ideas. While her previous book "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating" explains the guidelines to intuitive eating, "Women, Food and God" describes how people resist using those guidelines and how they can use their resistance to learn more about themselves and resolve eating problems.

[Guest guest]

Hi Gillian:

Yes I read and liked " Appetites " . However, the book which preceded WFG is " The

Craggy Hole in My Heart and the Cat Who Fixed It " (about her relationship with

her cat and her dad). I appreciated Appetites much more after I developed

gastrointestinal symptoms, which were misdiagnosed by many doctors before I

finally learned I had celiac disease, food allergies, and subsequent

gastronintestinal infections. I also was diagnosed (by stool test) with

intestinal Candida, but I didn't use the 'anticandida diet' to treat that

fungus. Taking Nystatin for 3 months completely eliminated my candida infection.

When I later reread Geneen's account of her symptoms in " Appetites " I related to

her misdiagnoses and the diet treatments which didn't relieve her symptoms.

'Appetites' depicts how doctors misunderstand and misdiagnose gastrointestinal

symptoms as much as it describes Geneen's eating issues.

I read all of Geneen's books after buying her first book " Feeding the Hungry

Heart " in the early 80s. However " Breaking Free from Emotional Eating " gave me

the most specific guidelines for eating intuitively. Unfortunately I couldn't

consistently follow those guidelines, because when I ate foods I (my mind)

loved, my body reacted negatively. Only after I was diagnosed with CD and food

allergies, did I learn to choose foods that felt good in my BODY, rather than

foods that just tasted good in my mouth. Thereafter I realized 'intuitive'

eating was more about respecting my body cues than eating according to my mental

preferences.

SUE

>

> Sue,

>

> Thank you very much for a very thorough review of Geneen's book. I know it

> will be a while before I can read it, my pile of books is already very high.

> I learned of Geneen way back in the early 90's when I was seeing a therapist

> who specialized in eating disorders. (Interestingly enough, my therapist

> helped so much with many things, but not the eating, intuitive eating was

> the only thing that worked) I read all of her early books right away and it

> was so nice to read exactly what I was going through. But I never applied

> anything, it was all pretty much conceptual. But I still love her!

>

> Have you read her last book, " Appetites " ? I would love to know if you liked

> it. I started reading it years ago and it started off with her talking about

> candida and I lost interest. Is it worth going back to?

>

> Anyway, thanks again!

>

>

>

> Thanks!

> Gillian

> Gillian Hood-son, MS, ACSM

>

> Get your report, " The 6 Steps to Guilt-Fr*e Eating " at

> http://www.HealthierOutcomes.com <http://www.healthieroutcomes.com/>

> Follow me on Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood>

> http://www.twitter.com/gillianhood

>

[Guest guest]

I ordered it yesterday. Can't wait to read it!Sent from my iPhone

I loved this review, Sue - thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all of this. This will be a must-read for me after your great synopsis.Blessings,

On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 11:55 AM, sue <penguineahotmail> wrote:

"Women, Food and God" summarizes what Geneen Roth learned from her workshop participants over the past 30 years. I enjoyed reading her descriptions of workshop participants' reactions to her workshop exercises and ideas. While her previous book "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating" explains the guidelines to intuitive eating, "Women, Food and God" describes how people resist using those guidelines and how they can use their resistance to learn more about themselves and resolve eating problems.

I need to add that my impressions of this book are colored by my perspective: I've read every book Geneen Roth wrote. So I love her ideas and style of writing. I've eaten intuitively for 8 years.I am fairly thin, but want to improve my health and well-being. I'm a Christian, but I'm open to other's concepts of God, religion and spirituality.

As a Christian I was confused about Geneen Roth's concept of God and how that relates to food and eating. Eventually I understood her explanation that people often begin to eat emotionally after they stop believing that they deserve love and goodness in their life. They stop believing in what the concept of God offers and begin to numb their desperation, fears and hopelessness with food.

I especially liked the chapter entitled "Those Who Have Fun and Those Who Don't". Geneen observed from her students that "roughly half of them had never been successful on a diet. They weren't interested in rules or order or being told what to do. They told me about the nether world of glazy-dazy eating uninterrupted by restriction ... It became clear that not all bingeing is dirven by deprivation; in half of emotional eaters, bingeing (or, at the very least, consistent overeating) is a way of life punctuated by sleep, work, time with family."

Then Geneen goes on to differentiate the two most common types of compulsive eaters: permitters and restricters. I'd heard previously about those categories in GR workshop CD. However in this chapter Geneen explains why some people LOVE the 'eat whatever you want' part of intuitive eating but resist 'eat when hungry, mindfully savor each bite and stop when full', while others fear freedom to eat anything but feel safer when they obey hunger, fullness boundaries. Permitters hate rules and boundaries. Restrictors love rules and obundaries. Permitters numb. Restrictors control.

That difference helped me understand why people are drawn to different intuitive eating approaches. Some may LOVE legalizing food ala Overcoming Overeating and Intuitive EAting. Others prefer "Thin Within", "7 Secrets of Slim People" and even Geneen Roth's "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating", because those books emphasize the importance of obeying guidelines about hunger/fullnes cues and eating mindfully. Nevertheless, Geneen emphasizes that we can swing between permitting and resticting, but "both are subtypes of compulsive eating which is the metadefense."

In my opinion the most eye-opening chapter was "It's Not about the Weight and It's not NOT about the Weight". There Geneen says:

"Most people are so glad to read about, hear about and then begin any approach that doesn't focus on weight loss as tits main agenda that they take it to be license to eat without restraint. 'Aha!' they say, 'Let's eat. A lot. Let's not stop.'

"The bottom line, whether you weigh 340 pounds or 150 pounds, is that when you eat when ou are not hungry, you are using food as a drug, grappling with boredom or illness or loss or grief or emptiness or loneliness or rejection. Food is only the middleman, the means to the end. Of altering your emotions. Of making yourself numb. Of creating a secondary problm when the orginal problem becomes too uncomfortable."

"Sometimes people will say, 'But I just like the taste of the food ... I overeat because I like food.'

(Geneen responds to those comments by saying:) "When you like something, you pay attention to it ... You want to be present for every second of the rapture. Overeating does not lead to rapture. It leads to burping and fateing and being so sick that you can't think of anything but how full you are. That's not love; that's suffering. Weight (too much or too little) is a by-product. Weight is what happens when you use food to flatten your life ... It's about your belief that it's not possible to live any other way--and you're using food to act that out without ever having to admit it."

I recommend this book to anyone who knows how to eat intuitively, but still struggles with intuitive eating; to anyone who loves legalizing foods, but resists waiting for hunger before eating and stopping when full; to anyone who has read Geneen Roth's "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating" but still eats emotionally; and especially to anyone who wants to use their struggles with food to improve their lives, health and well-being.

SUE

[Guest guest]

" Bingeing and then restricting to compensate for bingeing was my way to avoid a

reality I didn't want to face. " -- I think this is definitely possible in my

case, as well. I've been trying to wok on issues I feel surrounding

relationships and interactions with other people, as well, instead of putting

all of my energy into " molding " my body or thinking about food. Thanks again,

> Hi : You're welcome! BTW I'm also a restricter, who swings to the

'permitter' side when I occasionally binge. However, I especially liked

Geneen's comment in WFG that bingeing was not always the result of deprivation.

I can eat my former 'binge foods' moderately every day for 9 months, but still

binge on those same foods when I'm so emotionally distraught that I prefer to

binge than cope with my feelings. When I no longer believe I can control

anything and just want to go numb, I become a permitter for an hour or so. Many

years ago, during a previous, very abusive marriage (which immediately followed

my abusive childhood), I binged almost daily to cope with life and avoid facing

the truth about my marriage. Bingeing and then restricting to compensate for

bingeing was my way to avoid a reality I didn't want to face.

>

> SUE