Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I highly recommend this book!, February 7, 2006
This review is from: The Appetite Awareness Workbook: How to Listen to Your Body and Overcome Bingeing, Overeating, and Obsession with Food (Paperback)
I find this book to be just what I was hoping for! The whole purpose is to help all of us become more aware of our appetites and how we can use that awareness to become healthy eaters. Dr. Craighead and her associates have spent years researching and using this method--not only with their clients, but with themselves as well.
As with any attempt at healthy eating, there is work involved. Just reading this book (or any other book) will not help us lose weight or eat in a more healthy manner. I found this book to be very informative, well laid out and tuned in to the root of the problem for many of us. As I read this book, I realize that I really do not know when I am moderately hungry and when I am moderately full. I also tend to eat while I do other tasks. Therefore the food is not satisfying.
The workbook pages are easy to use if we read the directions carefully. We DO NOT start off keeping a record of the food we eat. We start off learning how to tell if we are moderately hungry and moderately full. What a revelation! The chapters are set up as weekly activities with a specific focus. Each week, the form adds another item to focus on. Each week builds on the one before it. If we try to do it all at once, it won't work. The key word is PROCESS, not instant success. If we expect instant and total success, we are just setting ourselves up for failure again. And if we are looking for a magic weight loss miracle that takes little or no effort, this book is not what you are looking for. I love the weight and body mass index chart and all the related information about healthy weight. This book will benefit those with severe eating disorders as well as those of us who just want to get a better handle on how and why we eat.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about how your own body signals you that it is hungry--both biological hunger and psychological hunger. Do I hope to lose weight? Absolutely! But I know from personal experience that "diets" don't work for the long haul. I am tired of all that. My goal is to learn to listen to my body and take it a step at a time. I truly believe that by following the guidelines in this book, all of us can learn to be aware of our appetites and benefit immensely!
Dr. Craighead, her colleagues and clients have laid the groundwork for all of us to have healthier bodies. Get this book, and go for it!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helping people recover from disordered eating, July 25, 2007
This review is from: The Appetite Awareness Workbook: How to Listen to Your Body and Overcome Bingeing, Overeating, and Obsession with Food (Paperback)
This book is not a diet plan as such. It is a training manual that helps people who have disordered eating habits (overeating, bingeing, as well as food restriction) learn to recognize their bodies' hunger and satiety signals.
If you are expecting someone to tell you exactly what to eat and when to eat it, this book will probably disappoint. If you are hoping to develop healthier eating habits without having to measure the caloric content of each bite you take for the rest of your life, or perform other obsessive, time-consuming, deprivation-inducing behaviors, if you'd like to eat healthy foods in quantities that are right for your body and actually enjoy the food that you eat, this book might just be the ticket.
I've been working through the first week, and it's a struggle, but I'm already learning a lot about myself and my eating habits. This book is what I was looking for.
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58 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not what I hoped it to be, February 2, 2006
This review is from: The Appetite Awareness Workbook: How to Listen to Your Body and Overcome Bingeing, Overeating, and Obsession with Food (Paperback)
I ordered this book in the hopes of it helping me change the way I treat food. It doesn't come close to what I expected.
My first dissapointment was in the setup of the book. It is not designed in an easy to use format. When it said that it was an eight week workbook, I expected it to be divided as such. It is somewhat divided but not in the clear, scheduled way I expected. It is not clear as to when to start different chapters of the book. There is no Week 1, Week 2, etc....
The worksheets might be helpful for some people. They were not for me. You are basically asked to moniter your fullness at each meal/snack on a scale of 1-7. I did not find it clear enough as to how to decide which number you are.
The book says eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. She acknowledges that this is not a simple task. If it were, the book would not be necessary. I found no helpful advice into following that code.
My final dissapointment, and perhaps this is my most important one, was that this book is sold under the unwritten pretense that it will help you lose weight. That if you truly listen to your body that it will tell you when it has had enough and that you will be able to be at a healthy weight for you. If that is what is supposed, and I'm sure that everyone else who ordered this book is under that same assumption, why after all the "learning of the AAT method" is there an Appendix C called the "Weight Loss Window" that sounds like just about every other diet that is out there.
There is a section of "Alternatives for Urges to Eat When Not Hungry"- and what is on the list you ask?
-Take a nap
-dance
-yoga
-go shopping
-take a bath
-do physical activity
Sounds like any magazine with tips for weight loss or any other diet book. If I was willing to do yoga or exercise instead of eating, I wouldn't have ordered this book.
I am very sorry that I wasted money on this book. I don't know what my permanent resolution to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle will be, but this book was another faulty attempt.
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