Taming the Feast Beast: How to Recognize the Voice of Fatness and End Your Struggle with Food Forever [Paperback]

Jack Trimpey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995

Just in time for New Year's resolutions comes a unique, effective approach to changing our emotions and behavior toward food--a compelling weight control system that works by getting to the root of the problem: the mind.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dell (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440507243
• ISBN-13: 978-0440507246
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A different point of view on the concept of "Food Addiction", January 20, 2002

By 

"kathy_reichard" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taming the Feast Beast: How to Recognize the Voice of Fatness and End Your Struggle with Food Forever (Paperback)

This book turns the 12 step recovery movement as applied to overeaters on it's head. The Trimpey's are most known for their opposition to Alcoholics Anonymous and similar 12 step programs; Overeater's Anonymous is the same program used in AA, only applied to "food addiction". The first step of Overeater's Anonymous is to admit that one is "powerless" over his/her compulsion to overeat; that overeating is a lifelong "disease" that will never be cured. Only by working the 12 step program and attending meetings for life can anyone begin to approach "recovery". The Trimpey's argue that this belief system is irrational and ultimately unhelpful to the overeater. The book outlines some key "Philosophy of Fatness" (irrational beliefs) that helps to keep us overeaters fat. Some of these beliefs are the following:

1. I am powerless over the urges to eat, and therefore not in control of what I put into my mouth.
2. To feel like a worthwhile person, I must be "presentable" to others; so that no one will see me as fat or unattractive or even plain.
3. To build self-esteem or respect myself, I must lose weight.
4. My painful emotions and cravings are often intolerable,and they must be controlled by eating food.
5. It is a dire necessity for adults to be loved, accepted,and approved of.

The authors describe how these beliefs harm us and give us rational alternatives to them. There are also many anecdotes of people who have used "rational thinking" to lose weight.

As someone who has participated in Overeater's Anonymous, I found this book to be liberating. I felt more powerful and in control simply by reading it. I was always uncomfortable with the idea of being powerless over my eating, and now I realize this concept won't work for me personally. The Trimpeys are not expressing new ideas here. Indeed, the concept of changing limiting or irrational beliefs about yourself and the world is a psychological concept known as Rational Emotive Therapy or RET. But it is helpful to see it used specifically for problems with overeating.

If the book has one fault it is that the authors say more than once that examining your past and possible emotional reasons for overeating is useless. The size of your hips is due to the food you put into your mouth, not to a dysfuntional childhood. While I agree that my hips don't care about my childhood, I do think that it has been helpful for me to examine my emotional pain and where it comes from. It helps me to see that food was not the cause nor will it be the solution to my problems.

If you've been struggling with compulsive overeating, this book is one you should plan on reading.

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh Approach for an Age-old problem, January 28, 2001

By 

middlemoo "maraschino" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taming the Feast Beast: How to Recognize the Voice of Fatness and End Your Struggle with Food Forever (Paperback)

The Trimpeys aren't going to be popular among all the myriad therapists, treatment centers, fat farms, diet gurus and "experts" like Susan Powter and Richard Simmons who are making fortunes at the expense of desperate dieters. What this book manages to so ably point out is that every person who has successfully lost weight and kept it off permanently did so from a Big Plan - NOT through the "support" of any group such as Weight Watchers, Overeaters Anonymous or the like. It was an INDIVIDUAL CHOICE backed up by individual effort and initiative. The Trimpeys help the reader find that motivation and reinforce the will to recover from binge eating by recognizing and seeing through the Voice of Fatness. While there are no easy answers or magic pills, there IS a rational choice which we can learn to make for ourselves. By debunking the irrational beliefs surrounding compulsive eating, discarding worthless theories about the origins of our problems, and directly confronting that internal voice masquerading as our own mind we can triumph over the whole kit and kaboodle.

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that makes sense!, November 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Taming the Feast Beast: How to Recognize the Voice of Fatness and End Your Struggle with Food Forever (Paperback)

If you want another diet book that includes what or what not to eat, don't read this book. This book is not your ordinary book full of diet tips and exercise strategies. It's a powerful book concerning addiction and how to rationally overcome the addiction. It gives you a plan of action to conquer that voice that SCREAMS at you when you want to binge. The language is not techniqual and boring but straightforward. If you are a binge eater, this is a must read book.