Take a load offMary Bolster
STARTING AROUND puberty, which was high school for me, I began obsessing about my weight. My tomboyish body was becoming more womanly and instead of welcoming my changing shape, I became self-conscious and ashamed of it--and struggled fiercely (and in vain) to change it back. That was the beginning of a long history of weird eating habits--from week-long fasts in college to out-of-control bingeing in my late 20s. I never became anorexic or bulimic or even seriously overweight but I certainly had my share of overeating and dieting horror stories.
Finally, in my mid-30s, I realized I couldn't ignore my eating problems anymore. They were too painful and disruptive. So I searched for self-help books about overeating. The first few I read were too extreme, chronicling stories of abused women racked with self-loathing and destructive habits. I found I couldn't relate to them. Then I discovered Overcoming Overeating (Vermilion Books, 2000) by Carol H. Munter and Jane R. Hirschmann, and recognized myself on every page. Here was a perfect description of my problem and a comprehensive plan for solving it. With the book as my guide, I began to recognize the difference between psychological and physiological hunger and learned to sit with difficult emotions (anger, boredom, loneliness, anxiety) instead of eating through them.
Today, I am a more attuned eater and no longer obsess about food. Unfortunately, many women still do. According to a recent Nielsen survey, 48 percent of women stress about their weight. I hope the stories in "Minding Your Weight" on page 78 will respire you to think about your body and the food you eat from a new perspective; one that sees eating as the joyful, celebratory pleasure it's meant to--and can--be.
Source:NAturalhealthmag.com
MARY BOLSTER -EDITOR IN CHIEF editorinchief@naturalhealthmag.com
