Customer Reviews

Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time

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4 star:		(1)
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I wish I would have found this book years ago. I've been a yo-yo dieter for over 30 years. And I used food to take care of my needs, during stressful situations and to calm me. For me "control" has never worked, there was no way to control my cravings or to control my appetite or even to control my feelings and therefore diets actually have never worked in the long run.

But Dr. Somov has showed me easy to follow ways to be conscious of my cravings and to take care of them or just to let them be. Even though my life is still the same - still enough stress and a huge work load - I dont reach for the cookie bowl anymore and - for the first time in my life since I have been a child I eat according to my needs. I always new that the cure for this eating problem lies within me and Dr. Somov has just showed me the way. Thank you so much for this long-distance therapy, I hope your book will be translated and published all over the world.

This book is for individuals who understand there are no "miracle diets." Rather, it is a sophisticated read, in straightforward language, that proposes that the solutions many individuals use to deal with overeating can become problems of their own. Dr. Somov points out that diets typically are short-term efforts to lose weight, when what is needed is a long-term change in how one lives. Thus, as a part of an effort to increase one's mindfulness, Dr. Somov presents a set of 141 practices to increase our awareness around food and eating. These including noticing what triggers our eating, what foods we crave, even what thoughts and feelings are associated with different types of eating.

With its focus on mindfulness, Eating the Moment presents what is often a missing link in the battle to overcome eating issues. Dr. Somov writes about the important distinction between the typical "sprint" toward weight loss that is so common in dieting approaches and is so often a temporary fix, and a long-term change in lifestyle that results in lasting, healthful change. Somov's writing is smart, funny, and thoughtful. The activities are presented in an easily digestible format that is applicable to a wide range of readers - from those who are interested in changing their eating habits, to those who are interested in understanding more about their relationship with food, to professionals who are looking for creative, effective ways to help their clients.

Pavel Somov has poured his years of practical experience as a clinical Psychologist focusing on addictive behaviors into his latest book; "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time". Part psychology, part physiology and part scientific exercise, Eating the Moment seeks to elevate the awareness of readers through a unique approach to attentive eating. This is not a diet book, per say, in that its focus is on the readers perception of food and the reasons behind why we eat... and often, over eat. The 141 Practices range from simple and thought provoking that can be performed at the moment of reading to the complex, sometimes bordering on laconical, that actually go the furthest in elevating the readers awareness. At its core, Eating the Moment is an Eastern style approach to what is a Western style problem. Further, it revives a perspective long lost for many developed countries in which food is always as readily available as the next drive through window, in that it strives to make the reader aware of bodily signals (physiological) of the need to eat vs. environmental (psychological) or even Pavlovian triggers learned over a lifetime of over abundance and eating on auto-pilot.

As a long-term (30 + years) on-again, off-again dieter, I have read more than a few self-help books on the subject of eating. "Eating The Moment" not only provides practical exercises, it is also fun to read! The feeling that you are having a conversation with the author makes it easy to take the suggested mindfulness exercises and apply them to your own situation, whether it be addictive behavior with food or simply that, like me, you really, REALLY like food! Thank you, Dr. Somov, for new insights into so many aspects of our relationships with the foods we eat. Now I am thinking more about the 'Why?' of my eating.

Pavel G. Somov's Eating the Moment offers a fresh mind-centered approach to healthy eating and weight control. Vastly departing from the standard denials of diet tactics, Somov's playful book guides us through a series of creative and permissive experiments in food-related mindfulness. We are thereby brought to experience first hand that it is truly the mind that eats and that only the mindful mind is capable of eating appropriately in the modern world. Eating the Moment teaches us how to obtain that mind. Kudos to Somov for this highly original work illuminating the nitty-gritty on a key and underexplored aspect of healthy eating.

~Andrew Yake PhD~

I am a holistic health coach who works with emotional eaters who want to lose weight, increase energy, decrease cravings, and heal their relationships with food and with themselves. I'm also someone who has struggled with emotional eating throughout her life and this book has been incredibly helpful in healing my own disordered eating and has helped me shape my methods with my clients.

PROS:
1) Dual Approach to Ending EE (Emotional Eating)
I've read a lot of books regarding EE and this is the first book that I find approaches the issue from both an emotional one and a neurological one. What I mean is, you can
only delve into your childhood for so long to try to figure out why you are an EE. It's incredibly helpful to tell your story and to figure out what caused you to start EE in
the first place... I think all that has a place in this process. However, I also believe that if you eat a certain way for so long, your brain becomes habituated to that. Even
if you are finally in a place of no longer having quite those same emotions that you did when you began EE, your brain is so used to sending out signals to EE at a certain
time and/or in a certain way that it can be very challenging to change. You really need to look at this issue as one in need of rewiring your brain. This really is the first
book that I've read on this topic that approaches EE from a place of emotion and brain chemistry, and that's why I think it in particular is so transformative.
2) "Easy" Exercises
Although these exercises aren't easy in the sense that you really are trying to change long-held habits and mindsets, there are so many different exercises to try and they're
explained in an easy-to-understand manner, it makes it feel so manageable to being this process.

I highly, highly recommend this book. Ending EE is a challenge, but this is one of the best books I've read so far in overcoming that challenge. I will continue to use it for myself and with my clients.
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Main thing the purchaser has to know is that its geared towards overeating, not to be confused with Binge eating.
If you suffer from an eating disorder ( binge, bulimia) some of the examples make encourage the behavior you are trying to avoid. Overall, It does teach you some mindful tips, keeping in mind you dont have to try every unorthodox example.

To *really* benefit, you must do the exercises, not just read them.
Somov's book is different from other books I've read on either diet or Buddhism in that his focus seems to be on specific experiments that readers will do on themselves, not on advice or meditation, though both of those appear here, too.
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Activities leading to discoveries:
I like this better than other books on related topics because it's not just "talk" that will raise our awareness. Somov suggests activities that will show us the root causes of our own particular idiosyncrasies.
-For example, he asks that we study a menu's photos and words and to take notes on what stirs us (he offers helpful how-to details).
-Another example: He asks that we under-eat one day and indulge another day, with note-taking, then compare and contrast physical sensations.
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Needs a companion journal:
I wish he had created a slim journal to go with this book, something with the exercises alone, with columns and prompts already written in, with space for our own note-taking, so we could just pick that up and start using it ASAP.
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Good example of companion journal:
Since I didn't find such a journal (I looked online), I will have to sit down to re-read certain passages, with some clean pieces of paper in hand, to create my own notebook, concentrating without distraction to get the instructions down before I can begin.
Not that this will be hard. It's just that I would have purchased a companion journal had there been one. A good example is "The Mayo Clinic Diet Journal," which I have used with success.
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Experiential learning is most effective:
In my work life, I give workshops and train professionals to do their jobs differently. I recognize in Somov's book some of the success factors of my workshops. He emphasizes experiential learning over knowledge acquisition.

I am a Registered Dietitian specializing in weight loss, and I recommend this book often to my patients.

Its content is very helpful, simple to understand, concise, and well-organized.

Also recommended:

Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food
Breaking Free from Emotional Eating
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think