Monday, May 30, 2011

The End of Overeating

Today I want to tell you about a book that I checked out from our local library a few weeks ago. It is called ‘The End of Overeating’; its author is Dr. David Kessler MD.

When I discuss with people personal fitness training, the wish to lose weight is almost always on top of the list. The newspapers are full of articles about the ‘obesity epidemic’. There is no shortage of diet books and programs. It is a huge industry only topped by the food industry trying to get us to eat even more.

Whether it is the Atkins’, grapefruit or Ornish diet; regardless of whether you go to Weight Watchers or L.A. Weight Loss: all of these programs work because they have one thing in common: they reduce the number of calories consumed.

Given the number of successful programs, we should be a nation of skinny people. Something obviously is missing, and I found interesting answers in Dr. Kessler’s book.

The mechanism of ‘conditioned hyper-eating’ as he calls is well explained with light shone onto the food industry as well as the individual as he or she is responding to it.

This book was of particular interest to me as I have never been overweight, and yet, I desperately want to help those who are. I have a certification as a Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultant from the American Council on Exercise (ACE). I can whole-heartedly recommend Dr. Kessler’s book to all who have tried every diet there is. It may just give that empowering knowledge to take up the fight one more time.

On a personal note: the fact that I have ideal weight has little to do with personal virtue. When I get stressed, food is the last thing I can - literally – stomach. And while I do not live in a constant state of stress, handling the over-abundance of food is simply easy for me.

If we all still lived in caves, I would no longer be alive; but then, if we still lived in caves, you would hardly need to read a blog written by a personal trainer. 

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