World Famous Comics: The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size
The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size
By: Julia Cameron Publisher: Tarcher Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Tarcher Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: December 27, 2007
Product Description: From the bestselling author of The Artist's Way, a revolutionary diet plan: Use art to take off the pounds!
Over the course of the past twenty-five years, Julia Cameron has taught thousands of artists and aspiring artists how to unblock wellsprings of creativity. And time and again she has noticed an interesting thing: Often, in uncovering their creative selves her students also undergo a surprising physical transformation-invigorated by their work, they slim down. In The Writing Diet, Cameron illuminates the relationship between creativity and eating to reveal a crucial equation: creativity can block overeating.
This inspiring weight-loss program, which can be used in conjunction with Cameron's groundbreaking book on the creative process, The Artist's Way, directs readers to count words instead of calories, to substitute their writing's "food for thought" for actual food. Using journaling to examine their relationship with food-and to ward off unhealthy overeating -readers will learn to treat food cravings as invitations to evaluate what they are truly craving in their emotional lives.
The Writing Diet presents a brilliant plan for using one of the soul's deepest and most abiding appetites-the desire to be creative-to lose weight and keep it off forever.
I'm a creativity expert, not a diet expert. So why am I writing a book about weight loss? Because I have accidentally stumbled upon a weight-loss secret that works. For twenty-five years I've taught creative unblocking, a twelve-week process based on my book The Artist's Way. From the front of the classroom I've seen lives transformed-and, to my astonishment, bodies transformed as well. It took me a while to recognize what was going on, but sure enough, students who began the course on the plump side ended up visibly leaner and more fit. What's going on here? I asked myself. Was it my imagination, or was there truly a "before" and an "after"? There was!
Not a healthy book This book is essentially written from a very disordered place. Julia Cameron is GREAT on the creativity work she does, but needs to stay out of this area, as it is clearly a problematic one in her life. I work with people with eating disorders and purchased this book hoping to find a tool that would help them. I would never suggest it to anyone struggling with food issues (or, I guess, anyone at all). She is afraid of and unfriendly toward food. Peace with food must involve acceptance of our appetites and development of trust in our bodies' ultimate knowledge of what we need. We can learn to be comfortable with sweet or salty of fatty foods, and once they are no longer a forbidden enemy, peace is possible. There are many other helpful books addressing intuitive eating (Eating Mindfully is one), compulsive overeating (books by Geneen Roth, or a book called Overcoming Overeating can be helpful), or recovery from eating disorders (Ira Sacker's newest book--name escapes me, Life without ED).
Write, Write, And Write Some More...Then KEEP Writing If You Wanna Lose Weight! If only it was as easy as writing your way to weight loss (typing does burn calories, right?!), then everybody would become a William Shakespeare overnight. But alas parting with that myth is such sweet sorrow. However, there is merit to the idea of getting your mind off of eating when you really don't need to by putting your thoughts down on paper. Gee, imagine that! The concept behind this book is a good one because it forces you to share thoughts with yourself that you may not even realize were there before. Being honest with yourself about how you choose to live your life, including the foods you stuff in your mouth, will open your eyes to a reflection of YOU that may have never manifested itself before. This book reaffirmed for me one of the major reasons I enjoy blogging so much--it's a creative release that allows me the chance to lay it all out there while taking my mind off of idle things that could drive me to eating that high-carb junk again. So maybe writing is a great way to weight loss after all!
Positive and supportive "The Writing Diet" offers a creative approach to food and life issues, centering on paying attention to them by daily mindful journaling and this author's signature "Morning Pages". Cameron takes a leaf out of many different body management techniques, with numerous personal stories including her own. The general mood is gentle, uplifting and positive. I was able to minimize my tendency, when watching my eating habits, to regard every small tumble off the wagon as a catastrophic failure. My favorite motto from the book, to be pasted on the refrigerator, is "Eating Clean" -- which points toward a good way of eating rather than concentrating on deprivation like so many other dieting methods do.
Lovely writing, some concerns There are some wonderful nuggets of wisdom in this book. The idea of clean-eating, clean-living and working through repressed emotions to avoid compulsive eating are not new, but they are eminently readable in Cameron's lovely prose.
The only issues I had in this book is that there is a hint of disordered-eating mentality, such as when the author talks about having an isolated piece of pie and a cup of tea at a diner as a "relapse", endorsing artificially sweetened foods (artificial sweeteners do not help with weight loss, and may in fact trigger sugar cravings), and "saving calories" in order to have a "binge" of favorite comfort foods...these are not normal attitudes towards food.
I would probably purchase this book in paperback (I first borrowed it from the library), if only to have on hand some inspirational reading when I want to explore the roots of my tendency towards compulsive eating. But I would not read it for nutritional advice.
Finally--a new approach to weight loss I love this book! I think that I have read every diet book and tried every diet plan out there. And...this one works! I have always known that I am an emotional eater, but no one could ever show me how to stop being one. This book does! Through all of the writing exercises and thoughtful walking, I quickly saw what was causing me to overeat and solutions. All without an enormous therapy bill. While the author does make some food suggestions that I do not agree with (artificial sweetners, banning dessert forever, etc), quite frankly what diet book doesn't make some suggestions that don't work for you? Use the writing exercises, and decide what kind of diet works best for you, which in the end, is what the author says to do. A great find for any fed-up dieter!
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