Eat, drink & enjoy

**An Encouraging Word, Vol. 9**

an occasional note from Jean Fain

 Harvard Medical School psychotherapist & hypnosis instructor

 Published Feb. 5, 2007

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Read on if you’re interested in losing weight without the deprivation associated with dieting. Feel free to forward “An Encouraging Word” to a friend. If you didn’t receive this note directly from Jean Fain and you’d like to subscribe, send an email to the address above with the word “subscribe” in the subject field. If you’d rather not receive future announcements, send an email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject field.

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“Nothing works.” You’ve no doubt heard this familiar refrain from friends, families, colleagues or your own inner dieter.  Diets aren’t worth the effort, people say, because, like Eve, they’re inevitably tempted by the forbidden fruit or, more likely, a slice of birthday cake. Yet, hope for the next new diet springs eternal, especially after seeing so-and-so who did such-and-such diet go from apple-shaped to peanut-sized seemingly overnight. How did she do it?

If your own personal experience has yet to convince you that diets are more the problem than the solution, I recommend taking a lesson from Geneen Roth, one of the grandmoms of the mindful eating movement.  Even if you’ve read her best-selling books or listened to her audio recordings, you won’t want to miss her newest, and arguably her best CD: “Bite By Bite: Seven Guidelines to Break Free from Emotional Eating.”  Hot off the press, this two CD-set is essentially Roth’s greatest hits: guided meditations and visualizations, her Seven Eating Guidelines, as well as a recap of her own inspirational story.

In the process of dieting or binging every day for 17 years, during which she lost and gained 1,000 pounds, Roth developed a keen understanding of how to help herself and others break free from emotional eating.  She defines emotional eating as “eating when you’re not hungry and not stopping when you’ve had enough.” Her mellifluous voice doesn’t “speak,” so to speak, to everyone, but her eating guidelines, the heart of her anti-diet plan, are well worth reviewing:

1. Eat when you are hungry

2. Eat what your body wants

3. Stop when you’ve had enough

4. Eat sitting down in calm environment

5. Eat without distractions

6. Eat with the intention of being in full view of others

7. Eat with enjoyment, gusto & pleasure

That’s right, eat with pleasure. When you eat with an eye toward pleasure, you can finally stop trying to lose weight and start succeeding at a establishing a healthy relationship with food. When you pay attention to what pleases and displeases your palate, weight loss happens naturally. Ready for a refreshing change of pace?  “Bite by Bite” is available at soundstrue.com (http://store.soundstrue.com/aw01042d.html).  For more information and inspiration, check out Roth’s website: http://geneenroth.com.

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On A Different But Related Note…

When Tyra Banks starts singing a similarly encouraging tune, you know the eat-to-enjoy message has made it mainstream. [If you were sunbathing in the Caribbean and missed the off-putting headlines about Tyra’s curvaceous figure, including “America’s Next Top Waddle”, here’s the CNN video clip: http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/showbiz/2007/01/30/vargas.tyra.fat.cnn].

Who better to deliver this timely message, especially to girls grappling with body image issues, than a 161-pound former model that made a living starving herself?  Assuming People Magazine’s reporting is accurate, it appears that Tyra could still learn a thing or two from Geneen. A review of the sassy talk show host’s two diets -- the one she eats to lose vs. the one she eats to enjoy -- suggests that Tyra can talk the talk of an enlightened eater, but walks the walk of a yo-yo dieter. When she’s eating to lose, she starts the day with an egg, some papaya and maybe some turkey sausage. Mid-day, it’s time for Crystal Light or tea, some protein (like braised veal) and a salad.  Dinner typically features fish and veggies. But if she’s eating to enjoy, she might breakfast at the IHOP, where she orders sausage and gravy, and sneaks “a few bites of pancakes from someone else’s plate.” For lunch, she enjoys a burger, pizza or fried chicken salad. For dinner, it’s steak, “something else” and dessert.

She’s certainly come a long way from her Sports Illustrated swimsuit days, but she’s still got a ways to go. (You can trust that An Encouraging Word will follow her progress.)

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This Just in…

I just got a copy of “Eat, Drink & Weigh Less” by Walter Willett and Mollie Katzen (http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Drink-Weigh-Less-Delicious/dp/1401302491). This is a marriage made in publishing heaven: Walter Willett, who hales from Harvard’s School of Public Health, has already written the most readable nutrition book (“Eat, Drink & Be Healthy”).  His dietary guidelines are so right on, they’ve been adopted by one of the premiere weight-loss programs in the country, Dr. Herb Benson’s Lighten Up. Katzen, the healthful gourmet whose name is synonymous with Moosewood Restaurant, has been dubbed one of the best-selling cookbook authors of all times by the New York Times. The full-fat recipes in Katzen’s Moosewood cookbooks are so yummy, I’m salivating just thinking about her leaner cuisine. I’ll let you know if “Weigh Less” delivers what the ad copy promises: “A medically sound plan that shows readers how to lose weight by adding delicious food to their diet.”

Speaking of new partnerships, Benson’s Mind-Body Institute has recently joined forces and a hyphen with Mass. General Hospital to form the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. (I’m still trying to find out who Henry is.) For a taste of their weight-management program, check out Lighten Up’s 10 Tips for Weight Loss:  http://www.mbmi.org/basics/whatis_nutrition_WM.asp.

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In addition to seeing clients in private practice, Jean Fain teaches hypnosis at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and she writes for O, The Oprah Magazine, among other women's magazines. More information about Jean Fain’s services and weight-loss CDs is available on her website (www.jeanfain.com).

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(Click the Newsletter link below to read other volumes of "An Encouraging Word.")

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