Book Reviews

 As you can tell by the lack of frequency of my posts, I am a bit busy right now. I think I am burning myself out trying to help my counselling clients with burnout 😏

It seems the pandemic has either forced people into extreme boredom or working 24/7 without any separation between work and home (since most of us are working from home!).

Anyways, I pushed myself to read these 2 books because they are work-related and I am always trying to learn more as a therapist and I also like having books to recommend to my clients.

Fight Back: End Cycles of Anxiety and Depression

This book is written by a Hypnotherapy practitioner and life coach, Mike Oglesbee, who himself battled anxiety and depression for years. Though his approach to treating anxiety and depression is really just cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) repackaged, I did like this book.

Oglesbee starts by explaining parts of the brain as well as the mind (unconscious vs conscious, critical and primitive). The strategy he employs is mental training, which, again, is CBT. He has 4 rules"

1. Be good to yourself and never beat yourself up for mistakes or shortcomings

2. Let go of your old story

3. Do the work everyday

4. Have an open mind

Oglesbee talks about control and uncertainty underlying fear for most people and this is definitely true. Human beings hate not being in control and we hate uncertainty. Yet we will never be rid of these things. As I always tell my clients, the only thing you can control is your thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and that is essentially the message in this book too.

What I like most about the book is Oglesbee provides exercises for dealing with problems and intrusive thoughts. Again, this is how CBT works. We actually give clients exercises (and sometimes workbooks) and clients are required to be active participants in the therapy process.

So do I recommend this book? Yes absolutely. But if your anxiety or depression is severe you will likely also require therapy and/or medication. Individuals with depression generally lack energy and motivation so just telling them what they need to do is not enough.

Aside from anxiety and depression, emotional eating/disordered eating is one of the most common issues my clients present with.

Whole Person Integrative Eating

I was eager to read this book because it sounded really promising. I was a bit disappointed, only because I didn't feel like I learned that much. But maybe to put a positive spin on it, I could say it supported the approach I already take to working with people with binge/emotional eating issues.

The book is written by Deborah Kesten, a nutrition author and researcher, and her husband, Larry Scherwitz, a research scientist, with a forward by Dean Ornish. I love that it is evidence-based and relies on peer-reviewed scientific data and not anecdotal bullshit like a lot of self-help books.

The authors define several types of dysfunctional eating styles:

1. Emotional eating (using food to self-medicate)

2. Fast foodism (eating almost all processed foods)

3. Food fretting (ruled by diet culture)

4. Task snacking (mindless eating)

5. Sensory disregard (eating mindlessly without paying attention to taste, smell, presentation, etc.)

6. Unappetizing atmosphere (eating in unpleasant environment)

7. Solo dining (eating alone most of the time)

I like that they describe their approach as a way of life, not a diet. Changing the way you eat for a short period of time is useless and that's why they don't work. Diet's are generally so restrictive people cannot stay on them for life so they resume their old eating habits eventually.

The 7 Principles of their model are:

1. Positive feelings = release negative feelings before eating, be aware of emotions before, during and after eating.

2. Appreciate food.

3. Get fresh = eat whole, fresh food in its natural state as much as possible.

4. Nourish your sense = focus on aroma, colors, flavours, textures, etc.

5. Mindfulness eating = bring moment-to-moment, non-judgemental awareness to every aspect of the meal.

6. Amiable ambiance = eat in a positive psychological atmosphere and in pleasant aesthetic surroundings.

7. Share fare = enjoy food related experiences with others.

Principles 1-5 are things I usually already discuss with my clients. But I will tell you right now all of this is easier said than done for a lot of people. The hardest thing to get people to do is change WHAT they eat, so #3 is a tall order for anyone used to practicing "Fast Foodism".

I'll admit I don't always discuss with my clients where they are eating and the atmosphere of the environment, and that definitely is important. I think encouraging people to share meals with people can be helpful, but not always. For people who are eating due to loneliness (a common trigger) the issue is partly that they have no one to eat with! Especially in the middle of a pandemic, it is a tough thing to put into practice. Also, for some of my clients others' eating habits/dieting or comments about their weight or my clients' weight at meals is a trigger for unhealthy eating behavioiurs.

I have realized that nobody has the answer for overeating/disordered eating that is going to work for everyone. It is very complicated and somewhat unique to each client.

The authors recommend "Inverse Eating" which is essentially the reverse of the Standard American Diet (SAD), so eating mostly plant-based foods with animal foods being the 'condiment' or side dish.

Finally, there is a whole chapter of recipes. Most are Mediterranean or Asian style and all sound relatively simple and delicious. The problem, however, is that most of my clients who overeat, eat a lot of fast food and restaurant-prepared meals and do not do much cooking. Again, getting people to change their behaviour in big ways is extremely difficult. I definitely agree that cooking your own food and eating real, whole foods is fundamental to healthy eating, but getting people to do these things if they are not already is a big challenge.

So do I recommend this book? Yes, if you are at the point in your life where you are willing to commit to making major lifestyle changes to improve your health. In this case, you may find this book useful, especially if you are trying to avoid a diet. But there is no one book out there, including this one, that is going to 'cure' the world of our obesity/overeating issues.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL THE CANADIANS OUT THERE!!!