This book would be juicy.
I was ready to dig into a new book because the title was just the thing for my client who told me, “if (my special person) knew I had this stash of chocolate, he would kill me”. I proceeded to give this book to my client without reading it first and that was an oops.
The best thing about the book was the title, “When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair” by Geneen Roth. What an empowerment for people who are embarrassed about their eating! Own it!
The rest was not so great. This invitation to own what and how you eat is then promoted as the golden ticket to weight loss. She promotes the overly simplistic theory of “figure out what’s wrong, don’t label eating as good or bad, and the weight will fall off”. One woman at my workshop cried and cried when she realized how oppressed she has been all of her life, then quit thinking of food as good or bad, and she lost 50 lbs. This implies if you don’t lose weight, then you “simply” haven’t figured out what’s wrong yet.
So, what if weight doesn’t just fall off when one embraces the truth that there is no such thing as good or bad food? Herein lies the weight bias that I never realized was part of Geneen’s mojo. In one breath she appears to accept diverse bodies but then in the next states “…which is not to say you should accept being fat”. Huh? In other words, do whatever you can to get out of the body you have even if it means living in a shame cycle.
Oh, by the way, this shame cycle has never been shown to help people lose weight. Never. It almost always results in weight cycling which is worse than staying at a higher weight.
So, to all of you who are tired of hiding what you eat and who know deep down inside that chocolate is not the problem, then eat chocolate– and own it and enjoy it. Maybe one way to start is to do what my client did. She borrowed my book and laid it out for her special person to see. That’s bravery!!
One small step for her, one giant leap towards reclaiming food peace.
Do you live in the Greater Kansas City area? Are you ready to work with an experienced, credentialed and compassionate Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to reclaim food peace? Contact me today.