Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

Women Food and God is wonderful.

I’ve got history with Geneen Roth books. I’ve read at least two of her other books on compulsive eating. Seems like more but there are only two titles on the list in the front of this book that really jumped out at me, so I’ll say two. And I have liked

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everything I’ve read. But this book? This is her best book by far. Her writing on the topic has matured, has taken a turn; she has taken her years of workshop work and brought it together with her own study of various writers and teachers and created a book filled with wisdom not just about ending the battle with food, but about using the battle with food as a way to find your center, to find yourself.

It contained for me, many eye-opening (mind-blowing) thoughts. I didn’t read anything new (to me), but I read things presented in a new way, in a new context, that definitely turned me on my head (so to speak).

I highly recommend this book, not just to women seeking to gain control over issues with food, but to any woman who has had body issues (who among us hasn’t?), or who simply wants to find a path into greater peace of mind, equanimity, sense of self.

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The "inquiry" system sounds very sensible. It feels so right and yet too difficult to actually achieve. Why the author even tells us that this is not a system that one can do alone. She says that no one should try the "inquiry" on their own. Doesn't that sound like an advert for taking her training

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session(s). She also speaks about her students making repeat trips to her training sessions. I think you might have to be rich to even dream of succeeding with her this plan.

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If you suffer about your relationship with food - you eat too much or too little, think about what you will eat constantly or try not to think about it at all - you can be free. Just look down at your plate. The answers are there. Don't run. Look. Because when we welcome what we most want to avoid,

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we contact the part of ourselves that is fresh and alive. We touch the life we truly want and evoke divinity itself.

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Finally, a book about weight that hits home.

Interesting - most of the concepts (which she initiated) were familiar - others have used her work as basis for theirs

couldn't finish it...boring and pointless

I found this book a very quick and easy read. No preaching. No expounding on ideas or techniques that discourage more than encourage. Instead, a gentle, understanding chat with someone who understands. I'm looking forward to going through this book again with a Reading Group. It was definitely

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thought-provoking and definitely not a diet or a plan. This is not just a book for those who need to lose weight, but is more a book about our love-hate relationship with food and ourselves. For anyone who wants to look further into their relationship with food, I'd recommend this book.

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I have mixed feelings about this book. In one sense it was ok, some insightful opinions and thoughts.
However I really do not understand why "God" had to be part of the title. There is no relation to the book and the author's believes that has anything to do with God.
Believing in a spiritual higher

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being. Dear Geneen there is only one God. No medition and any other rubish will get one at that special place.
If anyone needs to fix themselves, they first have to fix their relationship with God. Pray to God and He will help you. He will give you the strengh.
This book got allot of media attention. However I was a little disappointed.

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omen, Food and God, is an revealing and inspiring book that helps you find the who, the how, the when, and more importantly the why you complusively overeat and fail at diets. Through her experience with food and weight loss struggles the the author is able to share valueable insights
and

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discoveries that will help you reclaim your power against weight gain and issues revolving around it.

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I can tell you right now that this book isn't what I thought it would be. I am on page 52 and plan to finish the book, but it is making me angry. I was expecting detailed explanations about meditation techniques and less excerpts from the author's retreats. I have noticed a few grammar mistakes.

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Grrr. AND, I generally don't buy into the author's philosophy on weight loss. Come to find out, she's not happy with her body either. I think there is a conflict brewing in my mind with the mind of the author. And that is because I DO want to learn to love my body and to build it as the best body it should be. Geneen Roth advocates giving up the fight against our bodies. I am not sure that is ever possible.

edit: about 5 hours later.... Nope, I can't do it. I can't finish this book. Although I hate to say this, I am sorry I purchased this book and perhaps should have gone for something deeper and more intellectual about meditation and women's relationship to God. I hope those of you out there who enjoy this book actually get something out of it.

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I just finished re-reading this book and really got a lot out of it. Several "aha" moments. A lot of tools and techniques for dealing with emotional eating. The one thing I did not like was the continual tie-in that emotional eating has its roots in our childhood and our parents. At this point in

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my life, I am responsible for my own actions. It's not where we begin that matters; it's where we end up. I still really like the book for its tools on how to proceed on that path.

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Required me to concentrate a bit on its content. Some parts were insightful. Overall wasn't that enlightened.

It's kind of a Buddhist diet book, really, about eating mindfully. And I could sure use that lesson, but the heavy emphasis on ending the dieting and the self-hate (which forms a large part of many womens' relationship with food), did make it a bit hard to relate, having never dieted. Mostly,

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though, much as I could use the bit about eating mindfully, I read it as prequel to her later book (see below).

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food is not always the problem or the answer - good thought-provoking book

The title for this book, Women Food and God is a bit deceiving. The book is not so much about women, food, and God or even the relationships that women have with food and God. It is really more about the relationship we have with ourselves and learning to treat ourselves with gentleness and love.

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This book really resonated with me. Like many women, in my mind I have an ideal weight for myself. Unfortunately, I think I passed that ideal weight sometime in my teens and haven't seen it since. Listening to this book has made me rethink why I want that ideal weight. Will thinner arms really make that much of a difference in my life? I don't think I am a shallow person, yet somehow I have it stuck in my mind that being thinner would make me better. So instead of berating myself for eating all the chocolate eggs for my daughter's Care package, I need to pause, breathe and reflect on why I want to snack or web surf mindlessly. Definitely some thing to think about.

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I was assigned this book as part of a nutrition course I'm taking.

For only a 211-page book there are a lot of quotations from other spiritual advisors in here. In between rehashing her childhood troubles with her mother and emphasizing the typical reluctance of her students to immediately embrace her wellness ideology, Roth does give some interesting,

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encouraging, and practical information regarding the correlations between our relationship with food and the decisions we make in other aspects of life.

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I can hear my old English teachers saying "narrow your topic."

I didn't bother to finish it.

Nothing new.

Her eating guidelines state:

Eat without distractions. Distractions include radio, television, newspapers, books, intense or anxiety-producing conversations or music.

So eat alone or with boring people.

And stay out of Jimmy John's - they play their music much

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to loud.

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Kind of New Age spirituality, in that eating is seen as a response to past life-events. Recommends that one embrace the past and let it go: "you are now, not then; be in the present". The guidelines are not original, but it's a good summary list.
The Eating Guidelines: (1) Eat when you are hungry;

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(2) Eat sitting down in a calm environment; (3) Eat without distractions; (4) Eat what your body wants (but not just chocolate candy all day long!); (5) eat until you are satisfied; (6) Eat "with the intention of being" in full view of others; (7) Eat with enjoyment, gusto, and pleasure.

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This is a very difficult read; Roth cuts very close to the bone and it's uncomfortable. And makes me want to have a candy bar.