THE CONSTANT DIETER

I eat, therefore I am. Unlike Descartes’ declaration about thinking, this statement signals a malfunction. A person eats to reassure herself she exists, but paradoxically, the more she binges, the less real she feels. The overeater covers up who she is, meaning her true self. 

One novel line of thinking in THE CONSTANT DIETER is that if the binge eater could gain access to her creative true self, she could find a far more satisfying means of self-assertion and, perhaps, end her disordered relationship with food. The author subscribes to D.W. Winnicott’s theory that a true self exists in all of us and is the source of our creative potential. People who suffer with chronic and compulsive overeating lack access to this creative core, which is fragile because it fears ridicule. But reading the ideas in this book could trigger a connection to the true self and precipitate a cure. That is, the end to overeating could come from being able to imagine oneself differently.

In the weight-loss field, THE CONSTANT DIETER: A PHILOSOPHER’S GUIDE TO CONQUERING CHRONIC AND COMPULSIVE OVEREATING goes against current trends and is unlike anything on the market. This unusual book views the overeater’s problem through a philosophical and psychological lens, addressing such issues as constraints on the will, living in a false self, and fearing success. In the process, the author tells her own story of conquering a decades-long binge/fast eating disorder and offers a five-step dieting program that is healthy and sane.