I’ve been mulling the whole paleo/weight management/overeating thing recently and it’s been taking me to a new area of my local library.
But let me rewind a little.
Recently at an airport, as is my wont, I bought a book for the flight home. I was reviewing the tomes on the racks wondering which, of all these wonderful sounding titles that told me they would change my life, to buy, when my eyes alerted upon the words “Who Says I’m An Addict?“. I bought it.
I just had to.
Something in my core being just drove me to do it.
I devoured the book on the ten-hour flight home and I can honestly say this book did change my life. The book talks about the process of addiction, goes into some detail on nine types of addiction, and ends with ideas about combating them.
Now, when I think of substances that cause addiction I tend to think of alcohol and drugs. But when he talked about the nine different types of addiction in the book, the author, who was a former director of a well-known (celebrity) addiction center, didn’t mention them first or even second. Do you know what his first choice as the number one addiction substance was?
Sugar
Second was social media.
As I disembarked my flight, I wondered to myself, “What if the obesity epidemic and near-universal struggle with weight isn’t about what we eat?”
What if it is about why we eat?
What if it is about stress and how we manage that stress?
What if it isn’t about what we eat at all?
Mind altering
Since then, I’ve read and reviewed a number of books and resources on emotional eating. Below are my favorites.
7 Resources on Overeating You Definitely Should Be Reading
- Hungry by Allen Zadoff
- Ditching Diets and Eating Less by Gillian Riley. Also at the Eating Less website.
- Too Much On Her Plate: Dr. Melissa McCreery. Also her book, The Emotional Eating Rescue Plan
- The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual by Julie M. Simon
- No Diet Diet by Ben Fletcher, Karen Pine and Danny Penman. Also, their website: Do Something Different
- 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food by Susan Albers and at eatq.com
- Heal Your Hunger
These books and websites take an approach to weight management that isn’t based on what you eat or the number of calories you consume.
Sometimes, the advice might seem a little obtuse or out of left field.
But if food isn’t really the problem, why look for the solution in food?
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Are you struggling to sustain a paleo lifestyle change? Or not sure how to start? Or perhaps those around you are resistant and you’re feeling undermined and unsure. The Modern, No-Nonsense Guide to Paleo provides practical tools to ease the transition to a full-on paleo life. Each chapter includes strategies, tips and checklists to identify the actions to power you on your paleo journey and create sustainable change. Buy it at Amazon.com.
Written by Alison Golden
Alison Golden writes on the topic of paleo over at Paleo/NonPaleo. She aims to share ideas, inspire and motivate readers by teaching them how to live paleo in a non-paleo world. She is also the author of the bestselling book, The Modern, No-Nonsense Guide to Paleo, a unique tool that gives the reader hundreds of strategies to navigate the learning process to successful paleo living.
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