When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies: Freeing Yourself from Food and Weight Obsession [Paperback]

Jane R. Hirschmann (Author), Carol H. Munter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 30, 1996

"Will empower all women to stop believing that our bodies are the problems, dieting the solution."

--Harriet Lerner, Ph.D.

Author of The Dance of Anger



In this revolutionary new book, bestselling authors Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann explore the myriad reasons why women cling to diets despite overwhelming evidence that diets don't work. In fact, diets turn us into compulsive eaters who are obsessed with food and weight.



Munter and Hirschmann call this syndrome "Bad Body Fever" and demonstrate how "bad body thoughts" are clues to our emotional lives. They explore the difficulties women encounter replacing dieting with demand feeding. And finally, they teach us how to think about our problems rather than eat about them--so that food can resume its proper place in our lives.



"Many women will find in these pages exactly what they need: determined, optimistic, and resourceful coaches, pausing at the right moments to acknowledge the difficulty of change, then passionately urging them to press on."

--Susan C. Wooley, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology

Codirector, Eating Disorders Center

University of Cincinnati Medical Center

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"Will empower all women to stop believing that our bodies are the problems, dieting the solution."

--Harriet Lerner, Ph.D.

Author of The Dance of Anger



In this revolutionary new book, bestselling authors Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann explore the myriad reasons why women cling to diets despite overwhelming evidence that diets don't work. In fact, diets turn us into compulsive eaters who are obsessed with food and weight.



Munter and Hirschmann call this syndrome "Bad Body Fever" and demonstrate how "bad body thoughts" are clues to our emotional lives. They explore the difficulties women encounter replacing dieting with demand feeding. And finally, they teach us how to think about our problems rather than eat about them--so that food can resume its proper place in our lives.



"Many women will find in these pages exactly what they need: determined, optimistic, and resourceful coaches, pausing at the right moments to acknowledge the difficulty of change, then passionately urging them to press on."

--Susan C. Wooley, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology

Codirector, Eating Disorders Center

University of Cincinnati Medical Center

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (December 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044991058X
• ISBN-13: 978-0449910580
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 88 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great resource for overcoming your eating disorder. August 21, 2004

By I am

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'd like to address the review below me by "Gym Goddess" before I get started. The plan they encourage about carrying around a food bag is part of their plan to overcome binge/compulsive eating, which is an eating disorder. It might not make sense to you, because it may not seem "healthy" or "listening to your body", but this just proves that attitudes like that are the result of buying into society's disordered eating and diet obsessed culture. In fact, the plan is the most compassionate, truthful, rational way to overcome eating disorders, which are NEVER about food.

Let me give some background of where I am because I think this places the book in the proper scope of understanding. I am recovered from Binge eating disorder, which I have had for about 20 years. I see a therapist about once a month for a good venting session as well as perspective and I'm also on an antidepressant. EDs are never about food. Eds are the result of pushing down your problems by stuffing yourself with food (or not eating it, in the case of Anorexia). This way, you can superficially stay in "food mode".. you can blame the food, you can go on a diet, you can obsess about scales, points, calories, carbs and "being healthy" INSTEAD of dealing with the problems that you have no coping skills to deal with.

"Overcoming Overeating" and "When Women Stop hating their Bodies" are companion books that help set the stage that American society and their obsessions with diets are not only detrimental to women, through pushing women to diet to conform to society's definition of beautiful (for now, a man body with huge breast implants), American society pushes women into eating disorders.

Bad body thoughts are a companion to food obsession that help you avoid your problems. Feeling "FAT" is an ED sufferer's way of trying to distract themselves from what is really going on with themselves by obsessing about their bodies.

How do you escape bad body thoughts? You become your own caretaker.

WWSHTB continues the plan given in "Overcoming Overeating" and takes you through not only unraveling your thought processes, which are twisted around food, but also shows you HOW to become your own caretaker by feeding yourself when hungry, carrying around food in case you get hungry (whichever food YOU crave) and how to deal with "mouth hunger" (which is eating when food calls to you).

In addition to showing you how to initially become your own care taker by FEEDING yourself, "WWSHTB" picks up where 'Overcoming Overeating" left off, which is taking you past the plan to overcome bingeing and mouth hunger, by showing you how to face your problems by sitting with them and looking at the problem from a different perspective. At some point, when food is no longer a friend or a lover, you'll still need to address residual issues which will occassionally cause you to fall into your old coping skill of eating. They show you how to do that!

This book has many gems in it. My favorite line is on pg. 203: "You do not need food when you have yourself." Wow! It is so simple, yet so profound. In other words, when you become your own caretaker by feeding yourself not only on demand, but also when you have mouth hunger, and when you give yourself unconditional permission to eat whatever it is you crave, and when you take all emotions away from food so that a peach is the emotional equivalent to fudge, THEN you can start to unravel the twisted logic that placed you in the path of an eating disorder. And when you develop new coping skills so that bingeing and mouth hunger go away, THEN you will have developed a new sense of self, a self that will always be there for you and where it wont' even occur to you to eat for reasons other than hunger.

And it is through that process, one which our diet-obsessed culture cannot possibly understand, you will have trumped society's irrational standards because you won't buy into them any more!

I would like to personally thank the authors for this book: I *get* it now! :)

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You can appreciate yourself! October 24, 2000

By Lee Mellott TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Recently I ran into an acquaintance. When I asked how she was doing, she immediately began complaining about her body, her thighs, how fat she felt. I looked at her. She was probably around 5'6" and weighed about 120 dripping wet. She looked terrific, but felt miserable. So many of us bodybash. This book will help you free yourself from bodybashing. You can learn that no matter what your weight or how you look you can feel wonderful. Why focus on your negatives when you have so many positives. This book can empower you to go beyond obsession with food and weight and negative thinking to a place where you can appreciate and love yourself regardless of size. And many folks will find these tools help them become their natural size. This is an excellent book as is "Overcoming Overeating" by Hirschmann and Munter.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies May 9, 2000

By Kristine Tom

Format:Paperback

I am a recovering anorexic and reading this book has been the biggest help on my road to recovery. Not only that but I recommend this book to any woman who has ever dieted or has ever felt unhappy with her body. this book is empowering spiritually, mentally and physically. I read this book like I read the Bible and I want every woman out there to realize that fat is not bad, food is not the enemy and that there is nothing wrong with the way you are at this very moment. If you ever do anything for yourself and your mental state of mind, read this book, you will feel so much better after the first day !