The Love-Powered Diet: Eating for Freedom, Health, and Joy [Paperback]

Victoria Moran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

This can be the last weight-loss book you ever read.

Finally, make peace with food and have a body you're proud of by drawing on the wisdom and grace already inside you. Replace cravings with calmness. Relate to food as a loving friend, not a feared enemy.

In her own quest for freedom from compulsive eating and yo-yo dieting, Moran once the chubby child of a diet doctor discovered the power of combining the principles of the Twelve Step Program with the gentle way of eating espoused by yogis and mystics, and now supported by cutting-edge nutritional research. The result: falling in love with yourself, your life, and The Love-Powered Diet!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Love-Powered Diet is thoroughly researched and beautifully written. It gets my highest recommendation." - Neal Barnard, MD, author of The 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

This book will feed your soul, nourish your body, and leave you happier, healthier, and more in love with yourself than ever before. --Rory Freedman, co-author of Skinny Bitch

In order to change self-destructive behaviors, we need to go deeper, to what underlies our behavior. Victoria Moran shows us how. --Dean Ornish, M.D., author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease

This beautiful book takes us way beyond weight loss to a new appreciation of total health, inner and outer beauty, and a loving truce with food. --John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America

From the Author

This is the third incarnation of a book I originally wrote in the early 1990s. At that time, I'd kept off 60 pounds for seven years; now it's been nearly thirty -- something that rarely happens, but if it happened for me, it can happen for you. What I share in The Love-Powered Diet is a combination approach that saved my life: (1) change from the inside -- this has nothing whatsoever to do with food; it has to do with internal wiring, a revamp of which is absolutely essential to transform a compulsive eater, chronic dieter, or food addict; and (2) a thorough introduction to a whole-foods, plant-based diet, the way I've eaten for all this time, never dieted, and haven't had to worry about weight. In a way, this is two books in one, and if even only one half speaks to you, it could change everything for the better.

(Note: If you're thinking of buying this book, do choose this edition which has been revised and updated; any earlier version of The Love-Powered Diet is old [1992], and the book called Love Yourself Thin is a 1997 version of that same book.)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Lantern Books (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590561171
• ISBN-13: 978-1590561171
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 6.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have eleven books to my credit. The biggest seller is Creating a Charmed Life (it's not new, but people still love it), and my current offering is Main Street Vegan, which is the present focus of my life and work. I'm doing a great deal of speaking on the vegan/health/animal rights/green circuit; co-hosting the Main Street Vegan radio show/podcast on Unity.FM (http://www.unity.fm/programs/mainstreetvegan); and serving as director of Main Street Vegan Academy, a 5-day intensive to train vegan lifestyle coaches (see http://www.mainstreetvegan.net/academy).

I live with my husband, William Melton, in a green condo in NYC. My daughter, Adair (who helped with the writing of Main Street Vegan), and her husband live nearby (they have a yard and garden: in Manhattan! -- incredible). When I'm not writing, speaking, teaching, or working with my own vegan lifestyle coaching clients, I enjoy indie cinema (especially documentaries), reading (nonfiction mostly -- I'm currently fascinated by alternative healthcare and I like reading about raw foods, fitness, and aging well), working out, conversations with friends, vegan fashion and beauty, feng shui, and experiencing the movable feast that is life in New York City. You can read more about what I'm up to -- and subscribe to my newsletter, The Main Street Minute -- at http://www.mainstreetvegan.net.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for Anyone who Eats Compulsively or Impulsively May 20, 2009

By Susan Schenck TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a researcher & writer, I have read many books on how to get past an eating disorder, and I have to say this is the best. Packed with tools and tips, as well as a great deal of empathetic anecdotes of her own eating disorder past, Victoria has made this a must-read book for those struggling with eating issues.

How I wish I had had this book 36 years ago when I had bulimia, which was 7 years of pure hell. I found it quite humorous when Victoria described fishing some cake out of a trash can during an eating binge, until I suddenly recalled the disgust and self-loathing of having done it myself as a young woman struggling with this food demon.

This is not a diet book in the sense that it prescribes a meal plan, food restrictions, calorie counting or carb/fat/protein ratios. In fact, there are not even any recipes! The diet to be given is LOVE (for yourself) and Victoria tells you how.

Victoria's solutions for low self esteem, which so often leads to binging, range from spirituality with no particular religion (in fact, there is even a list of prayers from a wide variety of philosophies/religions), 12 Steps, journaling, tips on how to get to the self-love consciousness of what she calls "zero point," and proven insights such as blatant honesty. Meditation is also a strong tool, and Victoria shares her own daily ritual which is loosely called meditation, but is more like self-reflection. (For people who get bored chanting mantras, her routine would be perfect!)

Though the book doesn't prescribe a specific diet (except for love!)Victoria nonetheless strongly recommends her own way of eating, which is vegetarian. In fact, I was delightfully surprised to find she went on to become a raw vegan!... She writes, "I myself have taken to the high-raw lifestyle in the past year and although I don't care to make it a religion or go a hundred percent raw, I must say that I feel younger, lighter, and more alive than I have in years." As another recovering food addict, I am happy to hear that, since the raw diet did so much to heal my own eating disorder.

This book will also educate you on the pitfalls of the SAD (standard America diet) way of eating, benefits of organic, sprouts, and other factors of health besides diet. Every chapter is filled with sidebars with all kinds of fascinating information.

Highly recommended for anyone who uses food for a substitute for love.

Susan Schenck, author of The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet
and
Beyond Broccoli, Creating a Biologically Balanced Diet When a Vegetarian Diet Doesn't Work Read more ›

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Improve Your Relationship With Food May 30, 2009

By Ryan D. Andrews

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a dietitian who works with many people struggling to attain a healthy body weight. I will consider this book "required reading" from now on.

Two of my favorite excerpts:
--"The body is a reflection of what's going on inside: emotionally, intellectually and spiritually."

--"When you change your diet, not with a specific goal weight in mind but because your life and world will be better when you do, your body will take it from there."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book! June 1, 2012

By unhappy customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is amazing. It has changed the way I view myself and food. I do not know a single person that would not benefit in some way from reading this book. It has even made me more conscious of my carbon footprint. I recently switched from paper towels to using a bundle of costco washrags around the house instead.

6 of 17 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A big disappointment May 9, 2012

By amazon001

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have several excellent books by Victoria Moran, who is a gifted and talented writer with lots of good things to say about self-esteem, loving yourself, and being healthy (mentally, physically, and emotionally). So I was very excited and had high hopes when I saw that she had written a new book. However, once I started reading it, my excitement turned to disappointment. First of all, this book essentially reads like one big pro-vegetarian handbook. While there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you're looking for, it should have been advertised and promoted as such, so I could have known to avoid it.

Second, as someone who has slowly gained weight over the years since graduating from college, I get tired of this big fad in psychology now that states everyone who is overweight has an eating disorder or emotional issues. No, we all don't. The reality is that most of us in the U.S. are overweight because we are too sedentary (driving everywhere, sitting at desk jobs all day and then watching TV and sitting in front of the computer when we get home), and we eat too many fake, processed foods instead of real foods (including real quality meat). I work in a large international firm with MANY foreign employees and clients (Japanese and European). None of them are fat, and none of them are vegetarians or raw food only eaters either. (I know because I order the catering for meetings and I see what they eat for lunch. I also am good friends with many of them, and several have told me the same thing about their views of Americans and our diets).

The author also promotes a diet high in carbohydrates and low in protein and fat for everyone, without making any distinction between eating a McDonalds hamburger and eating an organic chicken breast sauteed in olive oil.... Everyone's body is different, and some people respond better to diets higher in protein. In particular, this is downright dangerous advice for people who are hypogylcemic. I suffer from reactive hypoglycemia, which occurs within half an hour of eating meals. The dietary cure for that is to focus meals around protein and a moderate amount of fat (so food digests slowly). A meal of rice and beans without meat and fat would make me violently ill.

She also states that eating vegetarian will get rid of an obsession with food. The reality is that all of the naturally thin (without dieting) people I know are meat eaters. The most food obsessed people I know are vegetarians -- it's like the new version of anorexia. All they do is write and talk about every last morsel of food they ate and how good it was, complete with posting pictures on facebook. None of my meat-eating friends do that. I don't know what it is about being a vegetarian that makes so many people so obnoxious about it. Why can't they eat that way if that's what feels right to them, and keep their eating habits to themselves instead of pushing their views on everyone else? (Never mind the fact that many vegetarians have cats and dogs, so they're still participating in the killing of animals for food if they feed their pets).

I'll just sum up by saying to buy this book if you are a vegetarian (or are considering becoming one) AND you also believe that your are overweight because you are depressed or have a food addiction or an eating disorder. If not, skip this book and buy another much better book by Victoria Moran ("Fit from Within"). I also highly recommend "Intuitive Eating," by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, if you want to really learn how to listen to YOUR body and eat what it needs to be healthy, and not follow other people's dietary rules that may only work for them. Read more ›