How many books should I read?

You're learning normal eating, and now you're wondering..."How many books should I read?"

Many folks come to normal eating after years of diets, memberships, numerous different sizes of clothing, special foods, and more. They have these concerns:

1. I've already wasted thousands of dollars on my diet life. Must I buy books about normal eating?

2. I became addicted to my diet books. Will I become addicted to my normal eating books?

3. How will I know when I've learned enough? How will I know when to stop reading?

4. How will I ever live normally without a focus on food and diets? Will I become a no-diet crazy as much as I was a diet-crazy? Is it inevitable? Is that what I want?

These are all valid questions, and they have more to do with internal, adaptive change, than with any external or even lifestyle change.

And that's precisely why they are worthwhile questions to ponder for you. Because dysfunctional eating is less about what you do than it is about how you think. Faulty thinking is what leads to years of diet craziness.

To undo dysfunctional eating, therefore, requires new self-talk and new thinking.

That's where the books come in. Normal eating books will help you toward normal thinking. Some of them will even model it for you. To the extent that you need to change your self-talk, you need to do some reading. In fact, you may need as many sober words to become a normal eater as you needed distorted words to become a dysfunctional eater. For some of you, that's a lot of words!

The upshot is there's no right answer for anyone. So instead of focusing on the externals of how many books, why not ask yourself as you read:

1. Am I learning to talk the talk but still avoiding the walk?

2. Is it possible that less is more?

3. How many words do I need to combat the years of irrational thinking?

4. Am I hiding behind my books to avoid living life?

When you are able to believe that you can be a normal eater, when you are able to believe in your own good judgment and food wisdom, when you know in your heart whether weight loss is right for you or whether it's better for you to focus on weight acceptance, these are signs of healthy thinking.

After healthy thinking, consider giving up the books and moving on to normal living.

Limited budget? Not a problem. Nobody has to buy anything. Diet Survivors materials are free. All you have to do is print them on your computer's printer. Use them as though they were a book. They're written by the author of How to Survive Your Diet.

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Find out more about Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet.