A holistic health counselor and co-star of award-winning documentary Super Size Me explores women’s cravings—for food, sleep, sex, movement, companionship, inspiration—and teaches them to listen to their bodies for a healthier, fuller life.Transformational health expert Alexandra Jamieson is a woman on a mission. Having overcome her own food addictions and the weight and health problems these habits caused, she learned something life-altering: when we listen to our cravings, they will lead us onto the path of deep healing. Since her own personal breakthrough more than a decade ago, Alexandra has dedicated her life to helping other women learn to listen to the wisdom of their cravings and make food their greatest ally as they step into their lives with authentic passion.
In this powerfully feminine manifesto, Alexandra dares us to face our cravings head-on, to make the self-commitment to no longer hide out behind food, self-loathing, or the limiting expectations of others. With love, deep compassion, and fearless honesty, she calls upon all of us to boldly use food as a tool to cleanse ourselves of the nutritional, emotional, physical, and mental blocks that limit our ability to live full, meaningful, and joyful lives.
My Review:
Women, Food, and Desire: Embrace Your Cravings, Make Peace with Food, Reclaim Your Body by Alexandra JamiesonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Women, Food, and Desire by Alexandra Jamieson is a 2015 Gallery Books publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher/ and XOXperts group in exchange for an honest review.
If you follow my reviews, you know that self-help books have only made an appearance on my TBR list only a handful of times. I am not a fan of them for a plethora of reasons, but this one caught my eye because as a woman I have struggled most of my adult life with weight issues. So, I thought I would see what the author had to say about dealing with food cravings and understanding why we have them and how to address them.
Naturally, I have binged on chocolate, fast food, cheese and salty snacks during my cycle and have wondered why my body seems to need these foods at certain times and not at others. The author makes a lot of sense when she speaks about the way food makes us feel and how it is connected to our emotional and mental health.
This book does address the particular issues women face due to hormones, stress, life's ups and downs and the effects those forces might have on our minds and bodies which leads to our brains and bodies trying to send up signals and messages. I have no doubt that our lifestyles, hormones, and years of bad habits, and the psychology of women's roles in society, all play a key role in how we address food and react to those intense cravings or impulses we are all prone to at one time or another. Do we try to ignore these cravings? Well not exactly.. instead we find out why those cravings are there in the first place and learn what deeper desires are at the root of those cravings.
If you struggle with food, want to better understand why we do the things we do and how to cope with cravings, break bad habits and address what is going on in your life other than food, then you may find this book quite helpful and an inspiration. It certainly had me thinking about things in a different way. The way the author presents her findings is often very humorous because she relays stories from her own personal experience. This is a fresh approach that keeps the book from becoming a life coach exercise or just plain dry reading.
I agreed with a lot of the author's suggestions, and believe her findings have relevance and might really help people cope with craving impulses in good way, even embrace it as the case may be. However, I am missing the part about where all this is grounded in medical research or if the author has some kind of degree in nutrition or psychology.
So, while I found many things she pointed out to be sound advise, I didn't agree with everything she suggested and I would certainly encourage the reader to use this book as a guide only, or perhaps a motivational tool, but not something to be believed in as the gospel truth. I suggest keeping your appointments with your doctor and nutritionist and if need be seek advise from a mental health care provider.
Overall I think the book deals with the whole person and not just food cravings, is certainly thought provoking and might be just the thing you need to point you in the right direction in improving all areas of your life in order to embrace what it is you really desire and to achieve it. Interesting reading for sure. 3.5 rounded to 4
