Conquer Your Food Addiction: The Ehrlich 8-Step Program for Permanent Weight Loss » (Reprint)

Conquer Your Food Addiction is not a diet book.
But if you're committed to losing weight, it's the right book for you!

Nobody can cajole, trick, or provoke you into shedding those excess pounds. But if you are genuinely ready to go for it, Caryl Ehrlich is here to lead the way with her 8-step program for permanent weight loss. The perfect solution for people who are overweight -- many of whom are compulsive eaters -- Ehrlich's is a behavioral approach to weight loss that teaches you how to change habits in order to overcome food addiction. As she observes, no deprivation diet will work for food addicts, because they use food the way other addicts use drugs or alcohol: not to satisfy physical hunger but to distract oneself from painful feelings -- loneliness, anger, boredom, sadness -- with a never-ending conveyor belt of food.

A former compulsive eater herself, Ehrlich developed this easy-to-understand program for herself more than twenty-five years ago and has taught it to others, with astounding results, for more than two decades. With the help of Conquer Your Food Addiction you will:

. Learn how to distinguish physical hunger from emotional hunger
. Become aware of your unconscious, ritualized eating habits
. Develop the skills necessary to approach food differently
. Change your behavior in order to change your body
. Awaken to an improved, realistic relationship with food

Using original concepts and easy assignments, Ehrlich's proven 8-step program retrains your thought process so that you can begin to see food in a new and healthy way. Once you do, you'll be amazed at how the pounds come off!

Publishers Weekly

This behavioral approach to losing weight is divided into eight weekly sessions in which participants work to overcome their addictive eating habits and strive to meet a personal weight-loss goal. The author, a self-described compulsive eater, is a counselor who designed this nutrition program and currently uses it with clients. Although Ehrlich asserts that her rather complicated plan is not a diet with food prohibitions, no one who faithfully follows it will overeat. Based on limiting the number of food types that can be consumed at each meal, this system, according to Ehrlich, will change ritualized compulsive eating into planned, healthy consumption. For example, breakfast should consist of one or two items, lunch can include two to three items and dinner may contain three to four elements, such as a piece of meat, a starch and a vegetable. She also recommends drinking 10 glasses of water a day and prohibits diet sodas and finger foods. Above all, Ehrlich stresses that readers need to change their habits with regard to food: all meals should take at least 20 relaxed minutes to be consumed, each item should be entered in a food log the author details here and meals should be planned ahead of time. (June) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Contents

Dear Reader

My Story

Orientation

An Overheard Conversation

Food for Thought...

The Ritual of Food Addiction

Denial

Taking Responsibility

Unrealistic Expectations Can Cause Failure

Misdirected Anger

I Speak to You One-on-One

Session 1 The Basics

What Is Real Hunger?

Possible Pitfalls

Person Filled with Excuses to Eat

Setting Your Goal

Water, Water, Water

Anticipate and Plan Ahead

No Finger Foods

All-or-Nothing Thinking

The 20-Minute Meal

Onward and Downward

Keep a Program Log

The Food Log

Suggested Meal Plans

Travel with a Scale

Don't Put Yourself at Risk, Don't Leave Yourself at Risk

Assignments: Session 1

Summary of Beginning Assignments

I Can Do It!

Session 2 Meal Parameters

Review of Previous Assignments

Meal Parameters

An Overheard Conversation II

Assignments: Session 2

Session 3 The Fillers

Review of Previous Assignments

The Fillers

How to Change Your Conditioned Responses to Fillers

Spiking (and Crashing)

Assignments: Session 3

Session 4 Number of Items

Review of Previous Assignments

Four Stages of Breaking an Addiction

Mini-Review

How Many Items in a Meal?

Writing a Meal Plan

Summary of How to Write a Meal Plan

Assignments: Session 4

Session 5 Portion Size

Review of Previous Assignments

Portion Size: The Problems

Portion Size: The Solutions

Nut and Seed Sheet Commentary

Assignments: Session 5

Session 6 Quantum Leaps

Review/Rate YourProgress

Positive Thinking

Quantum Leaps I Have Jumped

Body Image

Session 7 Comprehensive Review

Review of Previous Assignments

Feed the Smaller Person You've Become

Mistaking Hunger

Reasons for Repatterning

A Trade-Off

Repatterning by Anticipating and Planning Ahead

Repatterning by Thinking

Repatterning by Moving

Don't Panic Card

Repatterning by Relaxing and Refreshing

Repatterning by Talking

Ten Things to Say to Refuse Food (But Not Spurn Love or Friendship)

Session 7 Home Base

Dining Out

The Weekend Guest

Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and Cocktail Parties

A Wedding Reception

Holiday Eating Strategy Review

Cruise Ship or Resort

The Beginning

Acknowledgments

Index