Kristeller Jean - The joy of half a cookie : using mindfulness to lose weight and end the struggle with food

An Introduction to Mindful Eating

Imagine what it would be like to lose weight without the struggle and without giving up your favorite foods, to be able to enjoy a glass of wine, a warm dinner roll, a slice of pizza, or a piece of chocolate without experiencing that familiar tug-of-war between your desire and your willpower. Think of how freeing it would be if you could truly savor a delicious treat without guilt and without worrying that, once you start, you wont be able to stop.

Is this possible? Could this become your reality? Yes, it can. Mindful eating will show you the way.

Before coming to my mindful eating workshops, the majority of women and men had lost anywhere from a few pounds to 50 pounds or more multiple times, depending on their body size and the type of diet theyd chosen. Depending on the plan, they had counted calories or points, feeling virtuous when they met their calorie goaloften 1,200 calories and sometimes as little as 500and feeling awful when they missed, whether by only a little or by hundreds or even thousands of calories (though, by that time, theyd stopped counting). Some tolerated this good foodbad food approach for only a few days. But for others, it had worked well, at least for a while.

But then, inevitably, there came a point when they just couldnt stand to live like that anymore. Their old eating habits returned gradually, and so the pounds on the scale. Many couldnt even count the number of times this had happened to them. Often, theyd tell me that they just needed a little more self-control or willpower. One participant stands out clearly. On the first day, she told me, Im really good at no. I say no to so many things that, every once in a while, I want to consume all of it and never stop. And so thats what I do. Instead, I want to be good at yes. I want to make friends with food.

She eventually learned to do just that, and now, in the pages of The Joy of Half a Cookie, its my intention to show you how to do the same.

Say Yes! to Joy

Do you believe that forbidden foodsespecially desserts, fried foods, snack chips, and cookiescontain an addictive combination of sweetness, fattiness, and/or saltiness, making them impossible to consume in small amounts? Assuming youre not too hungry, could you savor only half a cookie, a handful of corn chips, or a few spoonfuls of ice cream and put away the rest for another time? Could you put half a chocolate bar in your desk drawerand then ignore it? Or would you be continually tempted to have just a little more?

As you read these words, you might be telling yourself, Thats impossible. No one can stop at just a few chips or a few bites of dessert. By the end of this book, after youve spent some time with the practices described in the second part of The Joy of Half a Cookie, its my experience that youll know its possible because youll have experienced this kind of freedom for yourself.

It doesnt matter how much out of control you might feel around certain foods at the moment. You can gain freedom. You really can.

Thats because this is not like any other plan youve ever tried. In fact, when you embark on this plan, you are not going on a diet. Rather you are creatingand staying witha new way of relating to food, to eating, to yourself, and to your body.

Based on the successful Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) program I developed with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and have adapted into shorter workshops that I teach around the world, The Joy of Half a Cookie is about using mindfulness practice to give yourself permission to enjoy the foods you love, to choose the foods you enjoy, and to leave food on your plate if you dont want it or no longer feel like eating. Its about self-care, self-nourishment, self-acceptance, kindness, exploration, and curiosity. Its about cultivating your inner gourmet rather than martialing your inner police force.