The Rules of "Normal" Eating: A Commonsense Approach for Dieters, Overeaters, Undereaters, Emotional Eaters, and Everyone in Between! [Paperback]

Karen R. Koenig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2005

Written in easy-to-understand, everyday language, The Rules of “Normal” Eating lays out the four basic rules that "normal" eaters follow instinctively — eating when they're hungry, choosing foods that satisfy them, eating with awareness and enjoyment, and stopping when they're full or satisfied. Along with specific skills and techniques that help promote change, the book presents a proven cognitive-behavioral model of transformation that targets beliefs, feelings, and behaviors about food and eating and points the way toward genuine physical and emotional fulfillment. Readers learn how to reprogram their dysfunctional beliefs, manage uncomfortable feelings without turning to food, and establish new eating habits that tune their bodies into natural sensations of hunger, pleasure, satisfaction, and satiation. Filled with humorous insights, compassion, and practical wisdom, the book outlines balanced attitudes and patterns that benefit all types of eaters.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Karen R Koenig, LICSW, Med, is a psychotherapist , educator, writer, and a speaker who has over 20 years experience on eating, weight, and body image issues. She lives with her husband in Sarasota, FL. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Gurze Books; 1 edition (January 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0936077212
• ISBN-13: 978-0936077215
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Eating Disorders

More About the Author

I am a psychotherapist, national educator, international author, and an expert on the psychology of eating--the how of eating, not the what. My 30-year mission has been to help people with eating and weight problems learn to eat "normally" and maintain a healthy, stable weight for life without dieting and deprivation. Although my therapy practice is in Sarasota, FL, I do telephone therapy all over the world. As a recovered chronic dieter and binge-eater, I meld my personal recovery wisdom with my professional knowledge about and experience with resolving eating problems.

My books are--NICE GIRLS FINISH FAT, THE RULES OF "NORMAL" EATING, THE FOOD AND FEELINGS WORKBOOK, and WHAT EVERY THERAPIST NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT TREATING EATING AND WEIGHT ISSUES.

Visit my websites--www.eatingnormal.com and www.nicegirlsfinishfat.

Check out my messages boards--http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foodandfeelings and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nicegirlsfinishfat.

Read my blogs www.eatingdisordersblogs.com/healthy/.

Join my Fan Club on http://www.facebook.com/#!/, and follow me on http://www.youtube.com/user/KarenRKoenig and http://twitter.com/KarenRKoenig

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensible, Comprehensive and Grounded, December 4, 2006

By 

DC (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rules of "Normal" Eating: A Commonsense Approach for Dieters, Overeaters, Undereaters, Emotional Eaters, and Everyone in Between! (Paperback)

I bought this book because I was tired of wasting my time thinking, worrying and feeling bad about what I was eating and what I weighed. I tend to overeat, feel bad about what I weigh and how I look, get excited about dieting, lose the weight and then start the cycle all over again!

The author has an excellent style of writing: she is thoughtful and intelligent, without making any wild statements or proclamations. One could say she is practicing the rational thinking that she preaches.

If you are looking for a book to help you lose weight, you may need to look elsewhere. But, this book provides you with much, much more than that: how to have a healthy relationship with food and eating. As an added plus, you will learn how to examine your beliefs (about anything) and choose ones that will leave you happier and healthier. What more could you ask for from a book?

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this to my message board members, November 6, 2005

By 

Linda Moran - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rules of "Normal" Eating: A Commonsense Approach for Dieters, Overeaters, Undereaters, Emotional Eaters, and Everyone in Between! (Paperback)

This book is back-to-basics and practical. It asks of its readers no more than to examine their own faulty beliefs and replace them with more rational thinking--the kind of enlightening work necessary for true recovery. Known as cognitive therapy, this kind of work is far more effective for weight loss than willpower or diets of any kind.

I own a Yahoo! group to help folks ditch their diets and become normal eaters. Of all the "non-dieting" books, Karen R. Koenig's is the one I most often recommend.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes you just have to face the pain, February 19, 2006

By 

Nina Martin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rules of "Normal" Eating: A Commonsense Approach for Dieters, Overeaters, Undereaters, Emotional Eaters, and Everyone in Between! (Paperback)

"The Rules of 'Normal' Eating" is a touching,hopeful, helpful. loving and validating book written in everyday language with great humor and wide appeal. Karen Koenig hits on so many dysfunctional eating beliefs, behaviors and feelings that disordered eaters cannot help but see themselves. This book should not just be read by individuals on their journey of recovery,but by the therapists who wish to guide and support them as well. The American culture has become pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidant to the extent that we will often do anything to avoid experiencing emotional discomfort. This book is a reminder that only good can come out of an exploration of what drives us so that we can learn to endure,understand and resolve our emotional pain. This book is the light at the end of the tunnel that replaces the light at the back of the fridge. Nina Martin,BSN,LCSW,former director of an inpatient eating disorder program at a community hospital in Suffern, N.Y. and current director of the mental health clinic at the same hospital.