Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good Paperback – March 23, 2014

Wonderful book. Applicable to far more than "bingeing." I'm a long-time student of meditation, mindfulness, transformation, etc. This book really connected some important dots for me. It's helping me be more smooth & easy especially in my emotional responses. I'm generally a healthy person with a (very) healthy appetite. Fortunately I'm blessed with a high metabolism & a love of healthy food, but sometimes in the past I inhaled huge volumes & felt out of control. (I could eat an entire large watermelon, multiple apples, heads of cabbage/cauliflower/broccolli, a vat of lentils/buckwheat or enough meat/fish/eggs for an entire family in one sitting if hungry). As one of her workbook exercises pointed out, I didn't binge to cope with issues (whether known or unknown--though I have my share) or for pleasure (though I enjoy eating). It was a faulty "binge-created brain-wiring" problem--& yes, it's reversible. There have been times in the past (e.g. when I've been super-charged with a meaningful goal or conversely, injured or sick) in which my "unwieldy" appetite miraculously vanished. Wouldn't it be nice if that became the norm & food became a non-issue? Kathryn's book is one piece of that puzzle for me. Other current favorites are the books "Spark," (I love exercise & this explains why it's its own reward--regardless of food/weight considerations--"the most powerful drug available") & "The Willpower Instinct" & Yogani's AYP series including "Deep Meditation," "Samyama" & "Liberation." All are helping me become a more responsible inhabitant of my brain/mind & cultivate abiding inner awareness, which is my ultimate goal. I also love Marie Kondo's book on tidying up--benefited my life on all levels. It's funny how things appear when you're ready. I still have questions--for example, many believe that there's nothing more powerful for the body than intermittent fasting (medically, in terms of health, energy, mental clarity, etc.--reverses diseases, inflammation, mood imbalances, etc.) Yet I've had mixed results with my own attempts at it. I come to Kathryn's book with over 2 decades of very deliberate (if sometimes disordered) eating (from paleo, to very low carb, to keto, to intermittent fasting, to tracking everything, cleansing, keeping my metabolism guessing, marathoning, yoga, etc. etc.--many self experiments). It will be interesting to see how I respond to letting go of some of that. I seem to do best limiting "trigger" foods--I rarely eat carbs (including legumes, fruit, starchy vegetables etc.), almost never eat sugar (my mood & health are much better without them) & I don't foresee that changing. However I do think intermittent fasting could play a helpful role (in moderation)--especially with meditation, mindfulness & athletic performance. We'll see. It's all grist for the mill. Notes along the way. Good luck to you in your own journey & have fun with it. & Kathryn, thanks for sharing your insights in such a kind & empathic way! Much appreciation.

As I was reading through Kathryn Hansen's book and her specific advice about separating one's true self from one's "animal brain," in order to ignore what the animal brain was saying and do what the true self wanted to do, I couldn't help but find very close similarities between her advice and very old advice that I had gotten, when I did my own weight loss journey several years ago. The main advice that she gives in her book, which I fully support, closely matches the Apostle Paul's advice, as given in the Bible:"What I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." (Romans 7:15-25 NKJV)In this passage from the New Testament of the Bible, written almost 2,000 years ago, Paul reveals that who he is, as a human being, is comprised of two parts: the mind and the flesh. Paul clearly separates who HE really is - his true self, his mind - from his flesh, which keeps making him do things that he hates, that keeps him from being the man he really wants to be. He basically says that he doesn't understand what he keeps on doing, because HE - his true self, his mind - wants to serve the law of God, that is, wants to do good things that will make him the man of God he wants to be, but he instead keeps serving the law of sin, that is, he keeps doing bad things that he himself doesn't even want to do, that keep him from being the best man of God he can be. Nevertheless, Paul states that HE - who he truly is - is "the one who wills to do good," and he also clarifies this as "the mind," while that which is a part of him, which keeps making him do what he doesn't want to do, is called "sin," and this is inseparably linked to his "flesh." Thus, Paul acknowledges that every time HE does something that HE hates, it is not that his true self is agreeing with the bad action; rather, his true self is giving in to his sin nature, giving in to his flesh, which is urging him to do it. However, his true self - that is, his mind, or the one who wills/wants to do good - has the ability to serve the law of God, that is, to do what is right and what HE truly wants to do. Therefore, his true self is separate from, or disassociated with, his sin nature, his flesh, and so HE has the ability to go against what IT is urging him to do.After studying this passage and learning what Paul himself had learned almost 2,000 years before me, I realized that I could apply this truth to a goal that I wanted to accomplish, but which negative thoughts within me tried to keep me from accomplishing. I could choose to ignore the negative thoughts that went against what I - my true self - wanted to do, because those thoughts obviously were not coming from my true self, for they were completely against what my true self desired, so they had to be coming from my flesh, over which my true self could be master. At the time, I was about 50 pounds overweight. This did not result from any binge eating, just from regularly eating more calories a day than what my body needed to remain stable over a long period of time. Many times, I wanted to lose weight, but thoughts within me kept me from reducing my calories so that I could begin that journey, and I listened to those thoughts, because I thought they were "me." But after I understood what Paul was saying, I realized that I could separate my true self from those thoughts; I didn't have to agree with them, and I didn't even have to listen to them; I could just fully reject them and pursue what I, my true self, wanted to pursue. Once I figured this out, losing the weight was rather easy, and by keeping this mindset, the weight stays off.All of this is very similar to the advice that Kathryn gives in her book. "The mind" that Paul speaks of closely resembles the "higher brain" that Kathryn speaks of; although, I must disagree with Kathryn, who believes the "higher brain" is the true self, for I agree with Paul that the mind is completely distinct from our flesh, which includes our entire brain. "The flesh" that Paul speaks of closely resembles the "lower brain" or "animal brain" that Kathryn speaks of, which sometimes gives us bad suggestions that we should not follow and must choose to reject. Once again, though, the lower brain does not equal the flesh. Despite this, the general advice given is very sound: If you have thoughts that are not good suggestions and that, if you follow them, will send you down a destructive path, then understand that those thoughts are not the true you; reject them and give them no place in your contemplation, and instead pursue the healthy choices that the real you wants to make. Because Kathryn's advice closely matches the Biblical advice, I recommend this book, especially for anyone who might not want to listen to the language of the Biblical advice.The main reason why I got this book is actually for the woman whom I love, who is trapped in a cycle of binge eating. As I said before, I myself have never fallen into binge eating, so I already know from past conversations that my woman will not listen to advice from me in this regard, not only because I'm a man, in which case she thinks I can't relate to her womanly emotional issues, but also because I never went so far in my unhealthy eating as to binge eat, so she thinks I can't give advice in that area either. Kathryn's book, therefore, comes as a godsend. Not only is it from a woman, who can better understand my woman's emotional struggles, but it comes from a woman who fell very far into binge eating, as my woman also has. I am hoping and praying that my woman will listen to and follow Kathryn's advice, as I agree that it can work, since I know my woman wants to change her destructive eating habits. When I talk to my woman in the future about this issue again, I am thankful that I can now cite Kathryn's advice, so that I can say it's all coming from someone who has been there with her, and it's not coming from me. Before reading Kathryn's book, I did wonder if maybe this kind of mind-training would work for me, but not for a much more unhealthy person. I myself did buy into the notion that some people have an illness with regard to eating, and so maybe they would need certain medical treatment above and beyond simply training the mind in this fashion. But now, after reading how far Kathryn had fallen into an eating disorder and how her very similar mind-training was all that was needed to cure her from it, I am no longer buying into the illness mindset attached to eating disorders.