Welcome to the
Advanced Overcoming Overeating List
This group is for anyone who is actively using the Overcoming
Overeating non-diet tools presented in the book When Women Stop Hating
Their Bodies (Hirschmann/Munter). The list member is less frequently
using food as a primary source of self-soothing, and is ready to focus
on the emotional triggers that lead to overeating. She/he is ready to
explore the painful emotions and life experiences that brought us to
use overeating as our coping mechanism, and is making headway in reducing
the amount of time spent pre-occupied with thoughts of food. Newcomers
to the Overcoming Overeating (OO) approach are welcome to lurk or participate
in the discussions, but should also join the original OO list to get
support while they learn and practice the
tools of recognizing stomach hunger and mouth hunger, legalizing,
stocking up, food bags, mirror work, etc. Advanced-OO list members are
encouraged to also remain on the original OO list, to support, encourage
and inspire those undertaking the difficult task of ending their compulsive
overeating.
“What is Overcoming Overeating?”
Overcoming Overeating means ending the struggle with obsessing
about food, weight, diets and body image. It means taking the focus
off of weight loss, and putting it onto the cessation of compulsive
overeating. Not all followers of OO are overweight.
Some are what society would call "normal" size. Some are
slightly overweight, some are supersized. What we all have in common
is the tendency to eat when we are not hungry, most often as an attempt
to cope with uncomfortable emotions like anger, sadness, anxiety, loneliness
or boredom. Some of us binge, others binge and purge. All of us have
repeatedly tried the myriad of diets thrust upon us by a society that
has convinced us that we need to be thin to be happy. We understand
what it is like to see, smell, hear about or taste a food and become
obsessed with it, not being able to stop thinking about it until we
can eat as much as we can of it. We know what it is like to panic before
holidays, parties, dinners with friends, worrying about what food will
"glitter" for us. We have hoarded and hidden food to hide our obsession,
and to attempt to feel safe.
If this sounds like you, and you are ready to live your
life "now", not "when I get thin", then OO is for you. It may seem like
an impossibility right now, but you can make peace with food. It is
important to remember that OO is not a weight loss method. However,
weight loss may eventually become a side effect of the changes you can
make in your relationship with food with the Overcoming Overeating approach
to ending compulsive overeating.
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