The problem with all the diet plans available today is that they simply don’t work. Yes, some of them will enable you to lose weight temporarily, but if you’ve ever gone on a diet you know that sooner or later – and usually sooner- you’ll gain all the weight back, plus a few extra pounds.
In my work with overeaters, I’ve become well aware of the post-diet weight gain and of another phenomenon that plagues overeaters: the transference of addictions.
This happens when one of my patients opts for a surgical solution to weight loss. It’s never been something that I’ve recommended, because I’m concerned about the long-term health implications of lap band and gastric bypass surgery. Some of my patients have had these procedures anyway, and what I’ve noticed is that every one of them has taken up a new addiction or has relapsed back to a previous addiction that they’d given up.
It’s clear that dieting actually leads to weight gain (recent research corroborates my clinical findings) and surgical weight loss procedures often lead to engaging in alternate addictions (recent studies have demonstrated such a link). Obviously, both diets and surgery are treating the symptoms of a problem and not the cause.
When people can no longer overeat – due to being on a diet or having had surgery- they return to the symptom (overeating) or turn to another, similar symptom; that is, another addiction.
In my new book, Emotional Overeating: Know the Triggers, Heal Your Mind and Never Diet Again, I explain the real cause of compulsive eating and other addictions, and lay out a simple and straightforward “four-pronged approach” to overcoming overeating (and other addictions) which deals directly with the cause.
This approach will enable you to let go of the urge to overeat, once and for all. You can finally stop see-sawing between binge eating and dieting, you’ll no longer be burdened by a preoccupation with food, eating and weight, and you’ll be free of the shame, remorse and misery you experience every time you binge.
Diets and surgery have weight loss as their goal. The goal of my plan is freedom from overeating and overweight. You’ll be able to normalize your relationship with food and eating, learn to accept your body as it is, and improve your self-esteem in the process.
Emotional Overeating is published by Praeger Press and is available now on Amazon.com
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