ANYONE WHO HAS EVER STRUGGLED, WHO HAS FIFTY MILLION DIET BOOKS ON THEIR BOOKSHELF - LOOK NO FURTHER..this book is the one!!! I have 21 diet books, have read them all, tried them all...but this one struck a chord somehow. It explained things in a way that I haven't found before..both my girlfriend and I are reading it and we have already found drastic improvements in the first week. We no longer binge, we stop - we realise no "goal" we make in regards to our weight can control our desire to eat. We have learnt to not lose weight for our husbands, for a dress size, for a weight on the scales - we are no longer thinking of a number to attain - we are just so excited to have found a solution that we can work with. The book is TREMENDOUS - we are in Australia and will be ordering more copies. THANK YOU ROGER!!!!! YOU ARE A GENIUS - THANK YOU FOR SHARING THE THERAPISTS SECRETS - you have saved us heaps of money and lots of emotional pain. Kind regards from two aussie gals happy and well on our way!!

I noticed that the lower reviews came from persons who felt that the book didn't cover specifics on what to do to loose the weight. What I felt the author is offering is the "tool" to help you recognize WHY you're overweight and the steps you can take to correct the WHY, which is emotional eating. Now everyone's emotional reasons are different, hence it would be a very lengthy book to read, and it would be too general if "tools" where given. When reading the summary version of this book I was shaking my head in amazed agreement of how relevant and on-point the book was for me. I agreed with the material presented and recognized that if put into practice, I can begin to turn my current situation around emotionally, physically and spiritually. When I purchase the book I will come back to amend my rating.

I have been an emotional eater my whole life. I have tried to find a book that would help me understand why and how to stop, but have never found a good one. I was starting to get hopeless after numerous diet books failed to adress what I was dealing with, that which was preventing me from being able to even start trying a diet. I thought no one understood and I was the only one feeling this way. But then I found this book and it looked interesting so I bought it. So far, I have only read the introduction and first chapter, but I am already hooked on this book. I found so much in only the first chapter that has already motivated me tremendously. I can't wait to finish the book and lose weight, because I know I will with this excellent book!

I've been defently impressed by this book becuase it doesn't speak about anything realted to the food diets but it only is about our mind and propose great tools, wwithout giving any magic solution, to understand your the deep reasons that push anyone to overeat. It is doeasn't matter if you overeat occasionally o regularly, the book helps you to understand and identify the reasons, giving up overeating is the consequent that happens later with strong commitment without forcing yourself becuase you've learned many things about you as an adult. Thanks Professor Gould!

This book is worth a read if you've been blocked from loosing weight. It gives you a simple but deep explanation of the whys to overeating. It definitely set me on my way towards making changes from within and I know I will return to read the book to fine tune my thoughts and feelings. Thank you for this very well written book with plenty of ah-ha moments.

I have not finished reading the entire book yet but so far, so good. It is full of infomation and exercises to help overcome emotional eating. I have learned tons! I would recommend this book to anyone struggling with a disfunctional relationship with food.

Ths book is exactly what i needed. I suggest doing the online program while reading the book because that works best. The book it self is just one tool. I think it will help the emotional eater if you just plan on reading the obok and nothing more, but i definitly think its best with the online program on shrinkyourself.com

I've been an overeater for 37 years and this book is without a doubt the best book I've ever read on emotional overeating. First I read the book, then I joined the shrink yourself on line program.
If your really an emotional eater, then this book will touch you in some way. Take what you like and leave the rest---------my bet is you'll take a lot more then you will leave.

This book goes farther than any I've read before in delving into the issues of compulsive overeating. I agree with some of the other reviewers in that, while it provides fabulous insight, the solutions aren't miracle cures. Unfortunately, I don't think there ARE any miracle cures for eating and food addicts.

That being said, I strongly urge you to read this book. It is informative and even though I've read many others in this genre, Dr. Gould brings great insight into the overeating dilemma.

I've received more help from the first half of this book, than I have in 25 years of dieting. For the first time in my life, I looked in the mirror and saw some positives and I'm 100 pounds overweight! In one month I've lost 10 pounds and I'm finally dealing with the issues that have been plaguing my life. This is a doable lifestyle change that will enable me to be free from excess weight and the mental games that keep me overweight.

I felt compelled to spend my precious time to write this review because this is surely the very best diet solution ever! I say this because I have bought all the diet books and done all the diet programs, but there was always something basic and integral MISSING. What was missing is exactly what SHRINK YOURSELF explores thoroughly, and that is the question/s: What is making me eat? & Why can't I control my food? & How can I come to grips with those two dilemmas? I decided to order this book from Amazon after I read my library edition; I just had to have my own copy to reference and re-read forever. Go for it.

This book is awesome. It gives one the opportunity to look at the heart of the issues. Instead of trying to solve the problem from the outside in, it provides the individual the opportunity to explore the issues and problems from the inside out. This book really works. If you really want to shrink yourself, give yourself the opportunity to explore whether you fit the profile of an emotional eater. If you decide that you do, then the concepts and methods described in this book will help you achieve your goal.

I HAVE NOT RECEIVED THIS BOOK THAT WAS ORDERED WELL OVER A MONTH AGO. I MUST NOW RESEARCH TO SEE IF MY CREDIT CARD WAS CHARGED (WHICH IT PROBABLY WAS) AND THEN FIND OUT WHY THE BOOK WAS NEVER SHIPPED.

First, I thought it was very interesting that when I searched for this just know, Amazon suggested to pair it with The Beck Diet Solution, which I discovered last summer and am using as well. Dealing with emotional eating is where I thought Beck fell short. This book fills that gap and so much more. I did a two-weekend training course on stopping emotional eating 27 years ago, but there was no follow-up, and it involved a lot of gimmicky things like 'selling" your right to overeat, and affirmations that would somehow magically make you act differently. Thousand of affirmations later-no such luck.

I definitely disagree with a few reviewers who said that it doesn't have any solutions. It has one of the best sequences of recommended activities that I've seen. The problem is when it comes right down to it is that a person is going to have to choose not to eat sometimes when he/she really, really wants to! No one can make you do that, unless firearms are involved, and that would be a temporary fix anyway. The book does a good job of helping someone realize that it is really more painful to continue emotional eating than it is to stop it, no matter how hard it seems at the time. A person must also choose to do something else besides eat. That is the bottom line. I've known both of those truths for a long time, yet somehow this book helped me actually implement the behavior.

Another plus is that he does not recommend any certain diet. It's up to each person to determine what foods will allow her/him to eat amounts that provide the peace we are looking for. (Beck says research shows few people maintain weight loss without some kind of systematic plan, but regimented systems are contraindicated for healing emotional eating. To each her path.) He also doesn't recommend substituting some low-cal food to replace the junk we want to eat when we aren't hungry. Drinking a lot of water, trying to fill up on celery, all those tactics, in my opinion, just make things worse later. Bite the bullet and face not eating at all until you are hungry for real food! Eating is not going to solve the problem!

In my years of trying to diet (I actually stayed on them only a few times, but I learned a lot about what healthier foods taste delicious to me and let me eat amounts I want often enough), I have changed what I eat for meals so much that I can't imagine putting a bag of chips in with my lunch, but you could do it, if that's what pleases you most. My downfall wasn't meals; it was a bag of chocolate kisses at a time, or 3/4 of a carton of ice cream, or a package of cookie dough-many of you know the drill. And it wasn't necessarily mindless, I KNEW I was eating the whole package. When I was in the middle of it, I couldn't imagine what it was going to take for me not to do it. But it has happened, for now, at least.

I've not binged for nearly two weeks (okay, I know that is a short time, but I've been working up to it, not just jumping in for the honeymoon), and I've been more active. I'm more comfortable in lots of clothes, and there is even a pair of fallback cords that are very close to going to the thrift store pile. I used to adore Geneen Roth, the queen of emotional eating writers, and definitely credit her with my having a much gentler attitude toward my body and habits, plus with eating, even overeating, everything without guilt, which I think also helped lay the foundation, but Gould brought it together. Finally, without his even mentioning anything religious, his approach dovetails quite well with a spiritual practice i've been implementing in other areas of my life. I'm very grateful I found the book.

I will say that i do recommend trying to find a support group in your effort, either live or online. I haven't done his online program, so I can't speak for that, but I joined (for free) Sparkpeople.com and got on a message board team called Living Binge Free that has also helped me have a place to kick around ideas and share success, as well as be lovingly made accountable. There is also a team there devoted just to Shrink Yourself which I and another person are trying to build.

Good luck in your quest. If you had given up for awhile, I think this will be your best bet to return to the issue. maybe your last.

This book is helps you get a better understanding of the problems so many of us face for so long and start addressing the issues causing you to binge eat. This book is more than just getting control of your eating habit, but helps you address so many other issues you're dealing with in your life that are all affected by thinking yourself unworthy-most of which I never would have guessed were related. It addresses relationships, with yourself and lovedones, job stress, and many other stresses we face everyday with real-life examples to relate to. If you're struggling with binge eating, the resulting guilt that only leads to more eating, and you're ready to do more than just eat your life away, I would reccommend this book to get back the control over your own body and mind. Believe me, you're more powerful than you think!

This is a fantastic insight as to why you overeat, call it emotional eating, comfort eating or being addicted to food, this book gives you a plain english explaination of why you do it and how to overcome it.In a world that spends billions on diets, this just may hold the answer to your over-eating, without a diet inside! How? By explaining the reason people eat when they are not hungry. Brilliant and inspirational.

I've had issues with my weight my entire life. In 2004 I lost 117 lbs on one a popular commercial diet plan. Sure, I was thrilled, and although I swore I wouldn't gain a pound of it back, I managed to put on 30 lbs over the last 2 years. Anyone can lose weight if they follow a diet plan. Shrink Yourself immediately gave me the ability to look at the reason I reverted back to my old destructive ways-I am an emotional eater. There are a lot of written exercises that help the reader with self examination, however this is extremely time consuming, but I "get it". Now I feel I have the right mindset to distinguish between my emotional needs and physiological hunger.