Book Thirty - Two of my 2013 Goal

The Secret Burden by Michelle Bybel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started reading 'The Secret Burden: Letting Go of the Shame, Anger, and Guilt of Emotional Eating' by Michelle Bybel and in the back of my mind I was thinking, here we go again! This is going to be another one of those diet books with all the contradicting advise from one of these so called 'authorities' on how to loose weight and why you eat the way you do. I knew it was coming just by looking at the cover of the book, anyone with all those letters (LCSW, CHHC) is going to be saying what we all heard before, "you're eating because you were traumatized as a kid", "because your parents divorced when you were young", "because your mother did it", etc. Well, you know that old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover" and I should have listened because it was nothing like that. I didn't even know I was an emotional eater!

The author entered this field because of her own experience struggling with her weight and tells what she learned, tried, what worked and didn't. If she knew what is wrong with doing this or that (which some do go against some of these so called experts advise) then she states it. She doesn't go with the flow just because others before her said this is how it is done. This is a real account of what she learned and she is coaching the reader on how to follow through with the variety of exercises (and I don't mean physical exercises, I mean writing, thinking, exploring, things like that but don't get me wrong, she does eventually get to the physical exercise) to change your own mindset.

The majority of the book is all about mindset, what it is and how to change it which is not something you can do overnight. In fact, it takes many weeks and months to do some of these exercises. The author also includes sheets, websites, and excellent instructions on how, when, and why. The directions are easy to follow and in some cases a matter of going to website and printing out a page to fill in the blanks. The stress is all on your mindset and for you to understand it, as well as understanding your own body both physically and mentally. Once you understand yourself and change your mindset, then you can work on really loosing weight otherwise you are going to be on that roller coaster of loosing weight just to put it right back on a few months later and make yourself miserable (and deprived of your favorite foods) in the process.

Then the exercises are put together and you create a personalized plan for you to follow. Don't worry, she tells you how and remember, this is a plan you put together using your answers on your exercises. This is not someone who barely knows you and hasn't a clue what your likes and dislikes are and you going crazy trying to follow a plan that you can't do or hate. You put together your own plan.

For once I have finally found a book that makes sense! I didn't know about "triggers" and totally enjoyed the practical and realistic advise as well as the totally doable sample recipes at the end. I also love that this book is about the total person and not just the waistline. If you don't do things for yourself and feel good about yourself then chances are not only will you suffer at meal time, you will suffer in the many other ways which are explained in the book. It totally makes sense!

I would recommend this book to everyone even if you don't think you have an eating issue.

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