Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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?

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.

"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.

I have been an emotional and binge eater with a history of related eating disorders. I have tried most diets out there, own most books on healthy eating that have come out since the 70s, and have exercised both moderately and to excess. I have never been able to find whatever it is to keep me at a healthy weight -- until now.

It has always maddened me that people (such as DH) are able to eat normally and never worry about calories or food groups or weight. This book has helped me understand why they can do it and I can't. It also contains exercises to help me understand the relationship that my beliefs, feelings, and actions have on my life, and exercises to help me replace some of my unhealthy beliefs, feelings, and actions with healthier ones. I highly recommend this book to anyone who had struggled with weight and food issues.

I also recommend her workbook, The Food and Feelings Workbook: A Full Course Meal on Emotional Health which takes the ideas in this book a step further and is filled with information and exercises to help continue the self-work it takes to finally become a more normal eater.

I have been practicing the principles in this book and have begun working in the workbook. A month later (after ditching all diet books and ideas) I have lost a few pounds (normally the absence of a diet would mean an incredible weight gain) and am more relaxed around food. The best things this has given me is the ability to focus on other things in my life and not have every waking thought revolve around what I just ate, what I am eating, and what I am going to eat next and when.

Is this process easy? No, not really. Is it worth it? You bet!!!

Karen is spot on with this book. Well organized and well written, Karen gets right down to the point that anyone with a eating disorder can relate to. It's easy to refer back to over and over again and great to keep in your tote bag in case of the need for emergancy support. Though she makes the process of normal eating seem like a walk in the park, she reminds the reader that it takes time and effort. But everything she says makes so much sense.

The book lures you in with a somewhat over-simple promise that appeals to all sorts of disfunctional eaters, that rules can set you free. Actually you have to do some work to apply the ideas, but it's worth it. This book walks you through a cognitive behavioral therapy approach (the standard method eating disorders are attacked by most programs) without too much psycho-babble or psudo-science. It took me a few tried to really want to read it all, because she seems to beat simple points to death, but eventually I realized it was for a reason -- you need to go through the process.

I am a psychotherapist who specializes in food and body image disorders and I was absolutely thrilled when this book came out. I recommend The Rules of Normal Eating to all my clients who struggle with emotional and compulsive eating and I have used the book as an adjunct to my groups. I have seen first hand what a difference this book makes in people's lives.

First, the book is very accessible. It's easy to read and to understand. Karen's writing style is comfortable and engaging and she has a great sense of humor. She also speaks from personal experience which makes the reader feel like she's not just some authority on the topic, but someone who knows exactly what you're going through.

Second, Karen offers practical tools that if followed can help readers fundamentally change their relationship to food. She shows readers how to examine and challenge their beliefs about food, their body's and themselves. Readers discover healthy new ways of thinking. She offers practical and effective strategies for listening to and trusting the body, working through uncomfortable feelings and caring for the self.

Karen does not pretend that doing this work is easy. She has great empathy for how difficult it is to honestly examine one's relationship to food and one's deeply held beliefs and make necessary changes. But she stays with the reader every step of the way, giving amazing suggestions, support and compassion. FIVE STARS!

I own a women's gym here in New Jersey. We do weight loss workshops. This book is packed full of enlightening information on how to become a normal eater. I've shared much of what I've learned and I carry this book for resale so that others have the opportunity to grow as I have.
One of a kind treasure~! Betty Anne Read, Mgr. [..]

This is an excellent book that helps to rid the incessant "diet police" chatter in your thought process. The "Feelings and Feeding" chapter is particularly helpful.

I found this book at the library, and almost immediately knew it was one I would want to buy and reread over and over.

I really appreciate the author's logical, common sense philosophy on eating: eat when you are hungry; eat something that will satisfy your hunger; stop when you are satisfied. Although these are very simple concepts, for someone with disordered eating patterns, it is not very easy to do. I feel confident that with the tools provided by this book, I can retrain myself to eat normally.