Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don't Work [Paperback]

Michelle May (Author), Lisa Galper (Author), Janet Carr (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2005

Am I Hungry? will soon be out of print as it has been significantly updated and expanded. Please search Amazon for Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat instead.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Am I Hungry? is the prescription for healthy living and joy in our own skin we have all waited for! -- Edward J. Cumella, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist, Director of Research and Education Remuda Treatment Programs for Anorexia and Bulimia, Inc.<br /><br />Finally! The truth about losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle! This revolutionary book offers common sense solutions for success. -- Len Fromer, M.D.<br /><br />This book is a fresh, intuitive approach that tosses aside "good/bad food" mentality so we can start living without guilt. -- Dawn Rutledge, Certified Personal Trainer Curves Franchisee<br /><br />This book represents a paradigm shift in the way the medical field will approach weight loss; I endorse it completely. -- Rebecca Moran, M.D.<br /><br />This team addresses the real reasons people overeat - without gimmicks. I can't wait to use it with my clients! --Linda Steakley, M.S., R.D., L.D. Author, FitWeigh and Way To Go Kids Nutrition and Fitness Program

About the Author

Michelle May, M.D., a physician and recovered yoyo dieter is the founder of the Am I Hungry? non-diet weight management program. This comprehensive approach builds on the concepts of intuitive and mindful eating. She has spoken widely on this innovative approach to weight management at hundreds of medical conferences, hospitals, corporate wellness programs, health clubs, spas, schools, and community organizations. She is also co-author of the childrenÂ’s book, H is for Healthy - Weight Management for Kids.

Lisa Galper, Psy.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in eating disorders, compulsive overeating, and weight management. For the past eighteen years, she has devoted herself to teaching people how to step off the diet roller coaster and replace destructive eating patterns with truly effective tools for lifelong weight management. Dr. Galper has a strong commitment to challenging widespread cultural messages that perpetuate the myth that it is necessary to struggle against our own bodies in order to lose weight. Her passion for this work arose out of her own journey to victory over diet and weight obsession and compulsive overeating.

Janet Carr, M. S., R. D., is a Registered Dietitian specializing in weight management and eating disorders since 1998. As the Director of Nutrition Services at Remuda Ranch Programs for Anorexia and Bulimia in Virginia, the largest inpatient facility for girls and women struggling with eating disorders, Janet worked closely with persons struggling with issues and behaviors surrounding food and weight. Her intuitive understanding and passion for sharing a non-diet approach derives from her personal battle with eating and weight.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Nourish Publishing (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976044404
• ISBN-13: 978-0976044406
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #492,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michelle May, M.D., a family physician and recovered yoyo dieter, empowers individuals to break free from yoyo dieting to eat mindfully and live vibrantly. As an inspirational speaker and author, Michelle's passion, insight, and humor stem from her own personal struggle with food.

Dr. May is the founder of the Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Workshops (www.AmIHungry.com) that guide participants to eat instinctively, end mindless and emotional eating without deprivation and guilt, live a more active lifestyle, and balance eating for enjoyment with eating for nourishment. Winner of the Excellence in Patient Education Innovation Award, she has trained hundreds of health professionals to facilitate Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Workshops worldwide.

She is the award-winning author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle. It was named one of the Top 10 Notable Diet Books for 2010 by Time.com and received seven awards for publishing (including Best Health, Best Nutrition, Best Mind-Body-Spirit, and Best Self-Help book).

Dr. May has been featured on Dr. Oz, the Discovery Health Channel, and Oprah Radio. She has been quoted in CNN Health, Fitness, Health, Parents, Prevention, Self, USA Weekend, US News & World Report, Vim & Vigor, WebMD, Woman's Day, and many more. Her personal success story was published in Chicken Soup for the Dieter's Soul.

Dr. May's shares her compelling message and constructive approach with audiences around the world, conducts corporate wellness workshops, serves as a media spokesperson, and advises organizations about promoting healthy lifestyles.

Michelle must practice what she preaches in order to balance her personal and professional life while maintaining her own optimal health. She cherishes her relationships with her two college-aged children, Tyler and Elyse, regularly enjoys hiking near her home in Phoenix, Arizona, and became a certified yoga instructor in her 40s. She and her husband, Owen, a professional chef, share a passion for gourmet and healthful cooking, recipe development, wine tasting, and traveling.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 78 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book January 19, 2007

By Eduardo Katalbas

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I never really had any serious weight issues. But at one point in my life, as a short 5'4" guy, I hit the scale at 155 lbs. and thought that I was slowly digging my own grave with a spoon and fork. So, I started to read books about diets and nutrition; but with the plethora of diet programs and the apparent high incidence of failed dieters, I just decided to go on my own and follow a very simple rule: when eating, just listen to your stomach. Basically the rule translated to: eat when you are hungry, stop when you think you have consumed enough to last you for the next scheduled meal, eat only to the point that the stomach "does not stretch" so that it gets used to only being filled with less, and enjoy every bite like it's the last. There were times I broke my rules, and learned valuable lessons in the process, but in less than 4 months I dropped to 115 lbs. Not only that, I was shocked to find out how little food our body actually needs if we just consume food based on our physiological needs. Lots of my acquaintances have always asked me how I did it and how I have been able to maintain my weight for years. And to my increasing annoyance, until I found "Am I Hungry?" at Amazon, I have to lengthily explain and "defend" my eating habits.

This book has really made everything easy for me. Now, every time people ask me about tips on weight loss or dieting, I point them to this book. Everything, and a lot more, is explained in "Am I Hungry?"

This book is a real treasure. It is light reading but heavily loaded with wisdom. No smoke and mirrors. No cheering. Just lots of plain common sense. Basically, it teaches about total eating awareness. From the book's lessons, one re-learns the basic principle that eating correctly is about feeding the body in the most mindful way. And the right way to eat is to be satisfied for the right reasons. One realizes that the most reliable cues of when to eat this and/or that kind of food are not found in the bookstore or the popular opinions of a bestselling diet guru. It is within each of us. Eating right is about having the clearest communication with our body. It is about enjoying food, and not about being constrained by some diet prescriptions. Sensible eating requires no willpower at all, just plain consciousness. Above all, this book teaches eating skills. And from the skills, the student reigns supreme again in making a decision of what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, ... based on the right reasons why one has to eat in the first place. This book is highly recommended.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really and truly, renewed hope for eating RIGHT! June 21, 2005

By Rhiannon N. Wisniewski

Format:Paperback

What a difference a book makes! I cannot BELIEVE how much this book spoke to my lifelong eating habits. I have always had a love/hate relationship with food, and for the first time, after well over 15 years, I feel hopeful that I can change this! I've always thought of food as something that was either "good" or "bad", hence leading me to battle with endless diets, binges, and other eating disorders. "Food as fuel" for your body, being neither good nor bad, is a concept that this book stresses, and it presents this in a way that finally doesn't seem so tough!

I have read so much on "diets" (entire books including Adkins NDR, South Beach, Zone, Eat Right for Your Blood/Body Type, Body for Life, Scientific Juice Fasting, and many others). I have tried all of them too, sometimes for a year or more each. The biggest problem I've always had is portion control! This book is right on- diets that encourage unlimted chomping on "good" foods and the total elimination of "bad foods" do not help eradicate the habit of overeating!

I've always known what to eat, and I generally do eat great foods. In fact, I particularly enjoy and buy lots of outright health nut foods like fresh organic veggies, fruits, sprouted grain breads, high fiber no sugar cereals, raw nuts and seeds, tofu, olive oil, etc.- but in copious amounts! With all of the research I've done, I possess an exorbitant amount of macro and even some micronutrient profiles of various foods right there in my head! However, like many Americans, I am extremely adverse to depravation. I would just watch thin people eat

chips and cakes and think "WHY can't I eat like that and LOOK like that?" Every time i would diet (I've been yo-yoing between since i was 11), I'd set myself up for failure, thinking I just couldn't enjoy food so much, period, or I would never look like the slender women I so envied. Well, I enjoy food a lot, so I would get mad, QUIT dieting and just go anarchic with the food again.

The guilt of possessing a high level of nutrition knowledge but not having the logical output of such knowledge- the healthy physique- has been enormous. I'm so glad the guilt over overeating when "you know better" is addressed in the book. I've never seen anyone address that. Every other book has been

so condescending, saying, "just do what you now know" and "if you overeat, it MUST be emotional". Well, it's not for me, and every single source I read tried to make me believe it was. I would search for what ailed me emotionally, and because I never found anything that connected with my eating I never solved the problem! My overeating is a combo of several things, all of which are addressed in this amazing book, specifically, childhood

patterns which became lifelong habits, boredom, eating too quickly, hopelessness associated with not being a "thin" person, etc.

I was stuck in the notion that snacking is bad for me, and I should always wait until "mealtime". I pictured "mealtime" in my head to equal some large plate full of various foods, with maybe even some seconds, which would be much more than what my body would need at one sitting. No wonder I'm overweight.

Now, even though it's been a week, and I am doing pretty well at only eating when I'm hungry, and I'm trying really hard to stop at the point of satisfaction without being full. Already I have succeeded because I used to eat to the point of discomfort at least once a day (after starving for hours of course)! I feel like I'm doing right by my body, and I hope it remains so easy for me!

THIS BOOK represents renewed hope. Recently I have been toying with going back on a starvation diet again, knowing full well how

detrimental it is but feeling like it would be the only way to drop a few of these pounds...and I'm NOT going to do that now!

Plus, the book is so affordable, DO NOT WAIT another day!

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm Losing Weight and I'm Not On A Diet! March 7, 2006

By M. Lepore

Format:Paperback

I would give this book 10 stars if I could! I had done every diet known to man, and I lost weight, but I kept putting it back on. I realized that "diets" don't work for me. I had completly given up any hope for attaining a lean figure. How could I live without Starbucks Mocha Chip ice cream in my life? Then I read "Am I Hungry" and my life is turned around! Michelle's easy step-by-step methods have taught me how to understand my hunger and eating cycles, and also how to give my body what it needs and wants. I have lost 16 pounds in a few short months and I get to eat ice cream, too! All I need to ask myself is "Am I Hungry?".