Glenn Livingston

I've tried several weight loss programs such as RealAppeal and Naturally Slim. I've always found them to be patronizing, providing nothing more than information everyone has known since childhood: in order to lose weight you need to exercise more and eat less. Unlike those programs, this book acknowledges that "you've got a pretty good idea what a well balanced, nourishing, and reasonable diet looks like." I appreciate that. The book also claims that "it's somewhat more difficult to quit binging than to stop abusing drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol. With the latter you can just quit. With food, you've got to keep eating something." Thought provoking, although it doesn't address the chemical, non-volitional aspects of addiction.

Despite the positives named above, I abandoned this book, 1/3 of the way through, as ultimately unhelpful. The author keeps talking about "your pig" or "your fat thinking self." I don't like these terms, but that's not my only problem with the book; he does suggest several alternative names for this part of yourself. My problem is the bifurcation of the individual. The author spends a lot of time saying things like "[Your fat thinking self] will suggest [that] aggressively rejecting all your fat thoughts is a form of self-cruelty." This is one of many instances where Dr. Livingston puts words in the mouth of "your pig." I ultimately abandoned this book because I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. I don't have another person living inside my mind telling me things. I don't need an entire book to tell me how to ignore this theoretical person ("pig").

In conclusion, this book offered me nothing. Instead of offering knowledge we already have, this book allegedly helps us create our own food plan. But the author is so invested in not telling you what to do, that he actually gives very few useful suggestions on what this might look like. So the book is just a bunch of words that don't actually say anything, plus a weird suggestion that I have a pig voice inside of me, which I don't. I've actually had a lot of success with dieting, and I've lost more than 50 lb. But it wasn't thanks to Never Binge Again. It was thanks to the detailed, but still able to be modified to your own circumstances, plans provided in the Shred diet book.… (meer)

I really was not fond of the way this book approached binge eating. Maybe because my personal issues with binge eating aligns more with emotional eating and not so much a Binge. If you struggle with binging on foods that really aren't preferable to a healthy eating plan, this book might be more for you. According to Glenn, our Pigs wear at our subconscious to cause us to binge on an off-limit food. If chips, desserts, high fat, greasy and fatty foods are your issue, this could work. As I said, my own personal issues do not lean that way. I'm more likely to sit down and eat an entire vegetable tray meant to feed a dozen people. I think it would be hard to say that really isn't good for me. Yes, I end up overeating, but not something that I regret overeating.

So this book, for me personally, not a good match.

*I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)