The Book That Took Me To a Dark Place...
One of the books I just finished reading has kind of eaten the last 3-4 weeks of my life, so it's getting its own post.
It's called "Eating in the Light of the Moon" by Anita Johnson and I don't remember where I first heard about it, but my in-laws bought it for me for Christmas. I had added it to my Amazon list and they randomly chose it.
The book is, as eowyna would say, a little "woo woo". There is a suggested reading list in the back of the book that includes such gems as "When God was a Woman" by Merlin Stone. I remember reading that in college, then using it as a reference for a paper written for a Women's Studies class because I believed that a) it was massive bullshit and b) it was the kind of massive bullshit much beloved by Women's Studies professors. Don't get me wrong-she had some very interesting ideas, but they were clearly opinions she passed off as fact.
But I digress.
In this book, Anita Johnson uses folktales from different cultures to examine the reasons why women use food for nourishment that has nothing to do with physical hunger. The folktales are sort of used as metaphors for how women deal with modern life. Some of them are a stretch, but others? They really hit home with me. So much so that I binged in ways I haven't done for years and had weird crying jags at random times when something would hit a nerve or trigger a memory.
(Needless to say my weight has plateaued over the last month, but all things considered I should probably be happy it hasn't gone up.)
Here is a quote from the book that I need to remind myself of on a daily basis:
"Many women who struggle with disordered eating believe that when they are thinner they will magically solve the riddle of their unhappiness. They cling to this belief even when they look at old pictures of themselves at the weight they would like to be at now, and remember how unhappy (and fat) they felt then. They don't yet understand that happiness is a state of mind (not body). It is not a goal they can set the way they establish their ideal weight. It is a byproduct of being in their own truth, choosing their own path through life. When these women grow more assertive they become happier, and as they become happier they no longer need to use food to numb out tension and misery. Their bodies then become free to find the weights that are right for them."
It's a journey, I tell myself. Some days you journey to a rest stop and it takes some momentum to get going again, but at least a rest stop is still a pause facing in the right direction.
It's called "Eating in the Light of the Moon" by Anita Johnson and I don't remember where I first heard about it, but my in-laws bought it for me for Christmas. I had added it to my Amazon list and they randomly chose it.
The book is, as eowyna would say, a little "woo woo". There is a suggested reading list in the back of the book that includes such gems as "When God was a Woman" by Merlin Stone. I remember reading that in college, then using it as a reference for a paper written for a Women's Studies class because I believed that a) it was massive bullshit and b) it was the kind of massive bullshit much beloved by Women's Studies professors. Don't get me wrong-she had some very interesting ideas, but they were clearly opinions she passed off as fact.
But I digress.
In this book, Anita Johnson uses folktales from different cultures to examine the reasons why women use food for nourishment that has nothing to do with physical hunger. The folktales are sort of used as metaphors for how women deal with modern life. Some of them are a stretch, but others? They really hit home with me. So much so that I binged in ways I haven't done for years and had weird crying jags at random times when something would hit a nerve or trigger a memory.
(Needless to say my weight has plateaued over the last month, but all things considered I should probably be happy it hasn't gone up.)
Here is a quote from the book that I need to remind myself of on a daily basis:
"Many women who struggle with disordered eating believe that when they are thinner they will magically solve the riddle of their unhappiness. They cling to this belief even when they look at old pictures of themselves at the weight they would like to be at now, and remember how unhappy (and fat) they felt then. They don't yet understand that happiness is a state of mind (not body). It is not a goal they can set the way they establish their ideal weight. It is a byproduct of being in their own truth, choosing their own path through life. When these women grow more assertive they become happier, and as they become happier they no longer need to use food to numb out tension and misery. Their bodies then become free to find the weights that are right for them."
It's a journey, I tell myself. Some days you journey to a rest stop and it takes some momentum to get going again, but at least a rest stop is still a pause facing in the right direction.