Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle

Michelle May, M.D.
Greenleaf Book Group Press (2009)
ISBN 9781608320035
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (10/09) 


When I finally shed the extra pounds that have hounded me for many years, everybody wanted to know which of the miracle diets I’ve used to achieve it and most got quite upset when I firmly told them “I do not believe in diets and that I did not use any.” What I achieved was a bit of trial and error, underscored with tenacity and an important health goal in mind, but I certainly did not have the knowledge to tell those curious people exactly how it worked for me. After having encountered “Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat” by Dr. Michelle May, I was quite surprised about the number of things that she highly recommends and also explains in no uncertain, quite scientific way, which were identical to many of my totally intuitive and/or trial and error findings. While I wish this book would have been available to me when I was struggling with my issues, I am simply grateful that it exists, and that I am now able to point any- and everybody in the right direction by recommending it.

Dr. May’s book is wise, witty and very empowering.  It teaches the reader how to conquer the obsession with food and start enjoying both the food and the life considerably more. Consider the titles of the four parts of the book: Think, Nourish, Live and Eat. Not only do they really sum up the key ingredients of a successful change, but they do it in the most logical way. First one needs to understand the “whys” and the “hows” of the situation one finds oneself in. Without understanding why, the same patterns will be repeated with the same end results, basically dooming you from the first step. Dr. May’s insights on being in charge and trusting yourself more are deceptively simple, yet brilliant.  The same sort of wisdom continues through the next three parts, with numerous examples, practical advice and uplifting thoughts. Even opening the book at random and reading one of the short “Mindful Moments” will set you on the right path.

With practical advice for everything from setting and maintaining goals to getting adequate exercise and challenging yourself to do better, this is a life-changing book.  Reading it will definitely change your life and make you realize that diets are not the way to permanent change, yet simple adjustments and better judgment may well be it. Add to this a bunch of utterly delicious menus, a healthy handful of humor and several pinches of common sense and you are pretty much guaranteed to succeed if you even vaguely adhere to the recipe outlined within the “Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat” by Dr. Michelle May.

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