50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food , livre ebook

New Harbinger Publications - Susan Albers

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76 pages

English

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Publié par	New Harbinger Publications
Date de parution	01 janvier 0001
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781608821181
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0758€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

“A thoughtful volume filled with practical solutions for emotional eaters everywhere.”
—Madelyn H. Fernstrom, Ph.D., CNS, founding director of UPMC Weight Management Center, professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
“Albers’s soup-to-nuts list of creative, accessible, self-soothing tips will undoubtedly help anyone who has struggled with dieting, food, or body image. Beyond that, her exercises in mindfulness, deep breathing, and journaling are top-notch tools for finding balance in life overall.”
—Leslie Goldman, author of Locker Room Diaries
“Albers has done it again! 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food makes complex psychological concepts simple and accessible. I highly recommend you buy this book if you have ever turned to food for comfort and want to learn a new way of coping.”
—Kathleen Burns Kingsbury, LMHC, CPCC, coauthor of Weight Wisdom and founder of KBK Connections, Inc.
“You don’t have to be worried about your waistline to reap life-changing benefits from Albers’s easy-to-follow guidance. Reading this little book will boost your mood, reduce stress, and provide soothing alternatives to that next dessert! I highly recommend it.”
—Amy Weintraub, author of Yoga for Depression and director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute

Publisher’s Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books
Copyright © 2009 by Susan Albers New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 5674 Shattuck Avenue Oakland, CA 94609 www.newharbinger.com
Cover design by Amy Shoup; Cover illustration by Sara Christian;
Text design by Amy Shoup and Michele Waters-Kermes;
Acquired by Catharine Sutker; Edited by Kayla Sussell
All Rights Reserved
Printed in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Albers, Susan, Psy.D.
50 ways to soothe yourself without food / Susan Albers.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57224-676-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-57224-676-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Compulsive eating. 2. Food habits--Psychological aspects. 3. Meditation--Therapeutic use. I. Title. II. Title: Fifty ways to soothe yourself without food.
RC552.C65A43 2009
616.85’26--dc22
2009023473
To Brookie,
May you be blessed with patience and fortitude.

Contents
acknowledgments
introduction
1 why is eating so soothing?
2 how to get started
3 mindful meditation techniques
1. creating mindful moments
2. the practice of meditating
3. breathe your way to inner calm
4. strengthen your endurance to counter stress eating
5. letting go
6. setting the inner critic straight
7. calmness, be right here, right now
8. mindful spiritual moments
9. virtual bliss
10. ending hide-and-seek feelings
4: change your thoughts, change your eating
11. journaling to boost your mental health immunity
12. ha-ha moments
13. when you feel empty, choose feeling that your glass is half full
14. daydreaming the blues away
15. worry mindfully
16. zone out mindfully
17. the Scarlett O’Hara approach
18. finding your security blanket
19. soothing affirmations
20. from Ms. Perfectionist to Ms. Realistic
5: soothing sensations to calm and relax the body
21. pampering your senses
22. soothing scents to rejuvenate yourself
23. yoga 101
24. sweating at the life gym
25. sleep on it
26. soak away stress
27. cleaning out the urge to eat
28. turn off the carnival in your head
29. self-hypnosis
30. be your own masseuse
6: soothing yourself with distractions
31. emotional Band-Aids
32. shop, drop, and roll
33. brain candy
34. knit it out
35. make a bucket list
36. crafty ways to self-soothe
37. exploring cyberspace
38. meditative music
39. weeding out the urge to eat
40. mini mental challenges
7: soothing yourself with social relationships
41. the buddy system
42. join the blogosphere
43. helpful ways to vent
44. when you are all alone with a quart of ice cream
45. your furry friend and unconditional love
46. stepping into someone else’s shoes
47. blockers for boredom eating
48. healing touch
49. volunteer yourself
50. connecting even when you want to crawl under the covers
8: soothing emergency help
references
acknowledgments
As always, I must thank my clients, readers of the Eating Mindfully series, and friends who generously shared their strategies and tips for soothing themselves without food. Their stories always inspire me to keep working on finding ways to help ease the suffering caused by eating problems. It is my sincere hope that you will gain some useful strategies for comforting and nurturing yourself from reading this book.
My gratitude to the people who soothe me best: John Bowling, Brooklyn Bowling, Dr. Victoria Gould, Jane Lindquist Lesniewski, Betsy Beyer Swope, Dr. Jason Greif, Eric Lingenfelter, Dr. Angela Albers, Linda Serotta, Carmela and Dr. Thomas Albers, and John, Rhonda, and Jim Bowling.
This book would not be possible without the editors and staff at New Harbinger Publications. A special thank you to Catharine Sutker and Kayla Sussell.
introduction
On days like today, I could eat everything that isn’t nailed down. I find myself sneaking into the kitchen after getting both kids to bed. I rummage through the refrigerator for something to eat. I justify my nibbling by telling myself that after such a hard day, I deserve something satisfying. Munching makes me feel good. It’s instant bliss. I forget about all my chores and stress. And after all the leftovers are gone, I still feel like I need something else. So I open up a box of cookies. I can’t stop eating them until I am way passed stuffed. Why does eating feel so good in the moment, and then I feel so much worse than when I started? —Rachel
Does this sound familiar? When Rachel needs comfort, she needs it now! A nagging boss, demanding kids, and never-ending housework all seem to vanish for a moment—just as long as she is eating. Munching on potato chips provides a seductive moment of calming and soothing. But just a few minutes after she swallows the last morsel, the soothing effect vanishes and she is filled with regret and guilt. Rachel’s relationship with food sums up the way most emotional eaters feel, sometimes on a daily basis. Eating has an amazingly contradictory power. It can relax and calm your nerves, while at the same time, it can drive you crazy.
When you eat to soothe yourself, it is generally what most of us call stress eating or emotional eating. These terms describe the times you eat specifically to calm down, numb out, or elevate, prolong, lessen, or avoid your feelings. Notice, however, that emotional eating and stress eating are different. Stress eating means consuming food in response to feeling overwhelmed or upset. Emotional eating includes eating done not to relieve hunger, but in response to any kind of feeling, even pleasant ones like joy and surprise. Yes, it’s true. Even good feelings can lead to overeating. Sometimes you eat because it makes you feel good and you don’t want that feeling to stop. In Rachel’s case, just about any kind of demand on her time prompted her to eat for emotional reasons.
Rachel’s emotional eating was becoming a problem. The same cycle was repeating over and over again. Stress. Need comfort. Need to eat. Feel relief. Feel good. Positive feeling fades. Feel guilt. Need soothing. More stress about guilt and weight gain. Begin cycle again. Although eating provided a temporary emotional patch, the major downside was that she was gaining weight. She hated stepping on the scale, because every time she weighed herself the numbers seemed to go up. It didn’t matter whether she was experiencing a major or a minor stress. Each time she felt stressed, she went straight to food for a quick pick-me-up. Rachel couldn’t understand why she continually sought food for comfort when it caused her so much distress about her weight. It just didn’t make sense.
This book explains why people like Rachel—and like you—fall into the trap of eating to soothe yourselves. It covers some of the reasons that make emotional eating so seductive and comforting. As you read, you’ll be taking a closer look at your emotional eating for the purpose of conquering it. You’ll also learn some practical solutions.
Essentially, if you eliminate eating as your main source of comfort, you have to find something helpful to put in its place. In this book, there are over fifty tips and techniques for doing just that. The initial techniques and tips are based on the concept of mindfulness, which is a clinically sound way to calm and soothe both your body and your mind. You will also learn mindful coping skills that will help you to better regulate your emotions. To put it simply, mindfulness is the state of awareness. When you are truly aware of what you are feeling and approach your feelings with a nonjudgmental attitude, you can find healthy ways to deal with whatever kind of discomfort you might be trying to numb out with food. Say good-bye to comfort foods and hello to using your mind and body to cope with emotional eating.
my background
As you read this book, you’ll