Customer Reviews

How Much Does Your Soul Weigh?: Diet-Free Solutions to Your Food, Weight, and Body Worries

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How much of your life have you thrown away on dieting, calorie charts, trying-always trying to be thin/good enough? Dr. Mcubbrey showed me how weight obesessed I was with striking examples that were dead-on. It made me cry.I bought this book when I realized that at 43, I was about to embark on my 33rd effort to lose the holiday pounds, get with the program and keep the weight off for good, this time. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well, I am a perfect example. I am a lifetime dieter. I run marathons to keep in shape. Yet, my journals from High school through adulthood are filled with daily calorie counts. I have 2 sizes of clothes in my closet. When I am wearing the smaller size, I fret about how long it will last before I fail again. When I wear the large size, I fret about when the weight gain will stop, and when I will gather enough courage to lose the weight again. As the author would say, my soul was carrying a huge burden with this issue. The book contains no nutritional information or diet plans. It shows you how much your weight obesession has cost you emotionally. It challenges you to get out of the sickness by focusing inward, learning to trust your self, your soul, instead of being ping-ponged about by the media ideas of beauty.
There are daily exercises that help you refocus your thoughts. I have done most of them and look forward to the rest. I have read all the diets,done all the diets and now I am brave enough to focus on the inside rather than the outside. Read this book. It will shake you up and wake you up!

I cannot say enough about this book. It changed my life. After years and years of Anorexic tendencies, as well as binge eating, and bouts of being overweight, I feel as though I have finally "got it". Being a therapist myself, I have come to recommend this book to many of my clients, who have come back to me, and said how much it impacted them as well. Dr. Dorie is awesome!
Instead of doing the same 'ole exercise routine at the gym all the time, I now ask myself, "what is my soul hungry for"? Running? Biking? Walking? Weight lifting? I don't weigh myself anymore, and it is the most freeing feeling. Read this book!

I got this book one day after Geneen Roth's "When Food is Love", disappointed by the latter's selfcentered and impossible to read (unless you are interested in the author) autobiographical style. McCubbrey's book is so different! It does contain elements of autobiography but only as illustration of certain problems. This is the kind of book that rely heavily on personal experience and is so much more valuable for that, but doesn't take advantage of the reader's attention to solve the author's own problems. McCubbrey talks about her childhood gracefully, without resorting to the all-purpose idea of "abuse" (in whatever guise). She doesn't blame anybody for her failures and in my eyes it makes her more trustworthy. Many of us come from loving families and the idea of "abuse" never really sounds right as an explanation for all the troubles in our grown-up lives.

Allergic as I am to all sort of motivational, "belive-in-yourself" blather, I was afraid that I will reject this book only because of its language. I was surprised how elegantly it was written! "Believe in yourself" is of course its main philosophy, but McCubbrey doesn't overwhelm you with the flow of motivational slogans. Even the stories about her parrot and a cat, which could sound corny in other hands, were beautifully and touchingly presented and illustrated her point brilliantly. There is so much substance to this book that one easily finds answers to some of the most troubling questions. There are also some "recipies" for success, little exercises that help you understand certain mechanisms of weight loss mentality. There are no diets, no restrictions, no fitness programs.
I don't know yet if McCubbrey's philosophy will work for me - it is too early to say, but her book was certainly wonderful to read, with lots of sound advice. I certainly will try to apply her wisdom to my everyday struggle with food and other issues and maybe report my progress sometime in another review.

I've struggled for years with dieting/binging. I have every book on "not dieting" and know that diets don't work but even the "Diets Don't Work" books missed the point for me. This book makes the point. It gets to the heart and soul of the matter. I'm very happy to see someone finally have the guts to write a book like this. Thanks, Dorie! I will gratefully recommend this book for years to come.

Dr. Dorie brings a lot of personal experience,drive and enthusiasm in her approach to diet and health concerns.
She repeats the title of the book "How Much Does Your Soul Weigh?" often throughout the book. Maybe too often, I thought at first, but she is making a point.
We should get off these guilt trips about our weight and eating habits, and get inside ourselves --to our soul as it were.
Develop confidence and a sense of peace and you will eat better, and not out of stress. (I go for one or more pieces of chocolate almost every time I am stressed, and that's not always easy when one lives in a small town in the Arctic)
If it is late in the day, and anxiety is setting in, you can decide not to go to the refrigerator. Maybe call a friend instead. (Make sure the friends usually stay up late)
Sometimes now, I pet the dog, or take her for a walk, rather than raiding the fridge.
Get the picture? There are so many weight-related books, it is hard to plow into yet another one.
But you might try this one. It is fresh, and seems to have a chance to work. I'll try and let you all know in about a year.
Peace!
earl

Listen, folks.

I've read fluff and this is not it. I think that all of the other diet books 'the get thin quick' books are the real fluffy, short-cut, dead end type of books. Not to pick on the reviewer who used the terms 'New Agey' and 'fluff', but it bothers me very much when, when confronted with terms like 'intuitive' and 'self-love' people automatically junk the advice and don't even give the advice a fair shake. It seems altogether too common to listen to books simply because they sound scientific or even negative.

I'd say it's pretty common knowledge that overeating is, in large part, an emotional condition, so taking that into account, this book is smart. It doesn't tell you how many calories are in a banana or what type of fat is in cheese versus what is in olive oil, but it transcends any and all diets and instead centers on common sense. That being said, I think that people should follow whichever regime feels right for them, but I do agree with the author when she says that ultimately restrictive diets give way to binge eating or other lapses.

A lasting lifestyle change can be found through this book.

Cheers...

This book is an answer for all the chronic dieters out there. I have been a diet queen for 20 years. This book will help get to the bottom of why you're on that track and how to get off it. How to trust your own body to tell you what you need to eat and when. There are ideas that helped me combat the mental talk that's been going on all my life keeping me on the yo yo diet. It is such an amazing concept to find that you can listen to your body and just start losing weight naturally. The weight comes off more slowly, but that is because you stop starving yourself and feel comfortable all the time. It's a better way to go since you no longer end up on the other side of the diet where you end up binging because you've been starving. So, in the long run you lose the weight for good. I feel like I've been set free to enjoy life and not worrying about calories or fat or carbs. That's not easy to do after all the different diets I've been on. It's worth the extra effort to lose the weight comfortably and naturally. I highly recommend this book to any one who has tried to lose weight by going on a diet.

This is a very well written book. The author provides some breakthroughs into underlying issues that can cause an overcompensating relationship with food.

A common theme throughout the book is to become a better listener to your own signals. Four points that I felt were foundational were: be more intuitive (less analytical), be more grateful (less critical), be more active (less sedentary), be more attracting (less pursuing).

I think if these principles are understood at a core level, it changes your thinking, your perception, and the things that you want. Most of all, integrating these things will make you feel less deprived - and this is the root of most food issues.

There is some really valuable discussion of underlying things to consider. AND there are really valuable specific suggestions/tasks for making these changes. Whether you are theoretical, or specific, in your approach the book contains something for you.

If you struggle with food, struggle with weight, struggle with esteem, this is an excellent book to read. The key is to stop weighing yourself down with anchors, but attach yourself to balloons. Learning to be free is not simple, but this book will start you on the way.

It's refreshing to hear someone who has been through the hardhsips of the weight-game. She gives good examples of what can happen and ways to recognize personal wants and needs that really do not stem from food. A good resource as a book and person.

I loved this book. I have been a chronic dieter since age 11 and as a result I am fatter than I have ever been in my life!! This author offered me a completely new idea to consider as a reason for my state of obesity - an over-burdened soul, carrying the weight of all my emotions. You can't make food behave. It's not necessarily about what you put in your mouth - but why you put it there in the first place - often for reasons completely unrelated to physical hunger. This book helped me to start a journey toward feeding my soul instead of my need to numb out. I am so grateful. And even thuough it is early in my journey (two weeks) I feel better than ever. I feel free. I am learning the importance of loving my body at this moment and taking better care of it, as it is the shelter of my soul. That seems worthwhile. I would highly recommend this book to ANYONE who struggles with weight issues of ANY kind and to take a serious look at why you REALLY turn to food and force food upon your body that it doesn't want or need, or why you starve it when it's begging for nourishment. Worth the read.