Julie M. Simon - The Emotional Eaters Repair Manual: A Practical Mind-Body-Spirit Guide for Putting an End to Overeating and Dieting

A must-read for anyone who struggles with overeating. Julie Simon offers a beautifully written, compassion-filled guide for ending emotional eating, yo-yo dieting, and poor health. Shell show you how to nurture yourself with loving behaviors and wholesome foods and address your souls yearnings for joy and fulfillment. Her message is both practical and inspirational.

If you are like most of us, you eat for many different reasons to fuel your body, of course, but also for comfort, excitement, distraction, and companionship and to satisfy other emotional needs. In this marvelous book, Julie Simon takes you on a journey of self-care and soul-care that will help you understand your emotional and spiritual hungers, heal your relationship with food, and bring balance and happiness into your life.

Nearly every woman I know (including myself ) has collapsed into cycles of emotional eating, and then later felt ashamed about it. Our compulsive striving for perfection, acceptance, and love from others can cause us to feel continually not good enough, depleted, and empty. In the black hole of our loneliness and pain we then turn to food to fill and soothe us. Thank goodness that Julie M. Simons The Emotional Eaters Repair Manual teaches women another way. This is a compassionate and intelligent guide that can help women step out of this vicious cycle by listening to their intuition instead of counting calories. By addressing all aspects of a womans inner and outer life from her brain chemistry to the robustness of her social and spiritual connectedness Simons antidiet approach gives women the tools they need to finally feel comfortable in their own skin.

So many people struggle with emotional eating and the problems it causes. In The Emotional Eaters Repair Manual, you will find the stepby-step solution youve been looking for. Reassuring and calm, informative and inspiring, this book is your lifeline to fixing your relationship with food and gaining the health you deserve.

An invaluable book that addresses the true underlying causes of overeating and weight gain. The Emotional Eaters Repair Manual breaks new ground and offers a fresh, heartfelt approach to an age-old problem. Highly recommended!

[Julie Simon] writes with the compassion of a survivor as she shares the Twelve-Week Emotional Eating Recovery Program she created. Simon doesnt make quick-fix promises but she does assure readers that, at their own pace and according to their own terms, they can free themselves from emotional overeating, and that weight loss will follow naturally. This book is truly unique. It packages a complete system for inner and outer change in nurturing, realistic terms with specific directions that move readers toward their goals.

Copyright 2012 by Julie M. Simon

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The material in this book is intended for education. If you have health concerns, please consult a qualified health care practitioner before making dietary changes. No expressed or implied guarantee of the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given or liability taken. The names and biographical details of clients have been changed to protect their privacy. In most cases, the portraits presented are composites. Any resemblance to specific individuals is coincidental.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

First printing, November 2012

ISBN 978-1-60868-151-8

Printed in the USA on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Mamakitty, my soul mate and the best writing companion ever.

Rest in peace, sweetheart.

I f youve picked up this book, most likely youre regularly overeating comfort foods and battling your weight. Youre probably sick and tired of dealing with this issue, and you may literally be sick and tired from your overeating. Perhaps you already have some health conditions that you fear might be related to your eating and weight. Does it feel as if stress and a hectic lifestyle derail your best intentions leading you to grab unhealthy processed foods loaded with sugar and fat and overeat at meals? Are you drinking beverages like soda and coffee to keep going? Join the club.

Youve probably tried many eating and exercise plans but have always found it difficult to stick with them. Or maybe youve had some success with a particular program and are wondering why you always slip back to eating your favorite foods and gaining back the weight. Perhaps youve come to believe that you lack willpower or discipline, and this makes you feel ashamed and guilty. Take heart; youre not alone.

I know firsthand how frustrating overeating and gaining weight can be. I spent a good portion of my life stuck in a cycle of overeating comfort foods, gaining weight, and dieting. My health was suffering. I was never good at sticking with diet plans in fact, I always felt food-obsessed the minute I put myself on a diet. Whenever I did muster the motivation to go on another diet, I would lose a small amount of weight and then plateau. While each new diet plan restored some hope and motivation, compulsive food cravings and a sense of restriction and deprivation always led me back to overeating and weight gain.

I know that I definitely ate emotionally I used food to calm and soothe myself. It helped numb the pain of unpleasant emotions, selfdoubts and other negative thoughts, and general stress. Food altered my brain chemistry; and because food is pleasurable and exciting, it was a good distraction. It temporarily filled up the inner emptiness and restlessness I regularly felt, a sort of spiritual hunger.

I found it especially difficult to stay away from comfort foods like bread, muffins, chips, cookies, scones, ice cream, and candy, and beverages like diet soda and coffee. You would think that once I was losing weight and feeling better while off these substances, I would stay off of them. You would think. I knew my body didnt need them; but I wanted them. Does this sound familiar?