What do you think?
Rate this book
The Jerusalem Diet: Guided Imagery and the Personal Path to Weight Control
This is a book about why we eat, and why we diet; why we overeat and then deprive ourselves; why, finally, we fail to feed and satisfy the person we really wish ourselves to be. This is not a diet book in any conventional sense of the word, even though it contains many practical tips for losing weight and maintaining weight loss. Rather, it is a book about appetite. It is about our appetite for life, and how we can maintain it, drawing on the tools of guided imagery taught by Jerusalem psychotherapist and spiritual guide Colette Aboulker-Muskat.
240 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 25, 2021
Diet books tend to fall into two major categories: those truly designed to help people, and those shamelessly designed to exploit a readership desperately searching for help. The Jerusalem Diet, sad to say, seems to fall firmly into the latter category.
The book starts to fall apart before you even open the cover. The Jerusalem Diet is not (as the authors repeatedly admit) a diet book. This is easy enough to believe, considering the book contains no specific nutritional information, but rather vague hints and suggestions, like eat healthier foods, and don’t eat cake. Cake is actually one of the few foods mentioned specifically, and it is brought up repeatedly throughout the first third of the book. Apparently, the authors believe that the overwhelming cause of obesity is an overabundance of cake eating.
It also has nothing to do with Jerusalem, other than that the principles of the book are loosely founded on the teachings of a deceased spiritual guru based in Jerusalem. The introduction claims that the book is dedicated to her memory, although the actual dedication singles out the daughters of the authors instead. The picture of a nondescript wall on the cover (behind a silhouette of a thin woman wearing a tape measure like a belt, of course), while made out of Jerusalem Stone, has nothing to do with anything, to say the least.
Two misrepresentations and a contradiction, and we aren’t even into the diet part of the book yet.
Not that there’s anything resembling a diet in there. Barely any nutritional information is mentioned, and what little that does appear is frustratingly vague. Oh, there is mention of calories, carbs, and deciding between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, but the reader is pretty much left to decipher the meanings behind these for themselves.
Instead, the JD spends most of its time proposing thinking exercises reminiscent of The Secret. Why offer a structured diet plan with menu suggestions when you can tell your reader to ask themselves “Am I eating this to make myself thin” before each meal? Where most diet books would offer recipes and healthy snack alternatives, roughly two-thirds of the JD consists of imaging exercises designed to help you think yourself thin, like fixing a clock or trying to get your fist out of a jar. My personal favorite: visualize yourself unzipping a fat suit and stepping out of it. Yes sir, I can feel the pounds melting away with that one.
The implication behind most of these thought exercises is that overweight people are that way due solely to impulsive and emotional eating habits (like eating too much cake, as the author repeatedly admonishes). This attitude doesn’t take into account weight problems brought on by undiagnosed medical problems, varying metabolic rates, and poor nutritional education. Such an approach also gives the authors any easy out; if the diet doesn’t work for you, than you obviously don’t want to be thin, or are subconsciously sabotaging yourself. What’s worse, this kind of diet approach turns the dieter against themselves, making it a battle against some phantom enemy within rather than the fight to control the body’s consumption of calories for energy.
Of course, I might feel this way about the JD because I’m a man. The authors state in the beginning of the book that, while men might read the JD, it is really meant for women. (Why not mention this somewhere on the cover?). The reason, according to the author, is that men and women eat for different reasons. This is news to me. Men may be from Mars and women may be from Venus, but both are motivated to eat by hunger, comfort, and habit. And both are capable of losing weight.
Then again, maybe I’m biased because I don’t trust a diet book written by a Psychologist and an Editor, neither with a nutritional background. Or maybe I just can't any diet book seriously that suggests the reader purchase a journal and plenty of crayons. A scale and a pedometer, maybe. A coloring book, no can do.
If you are the kind of person who believes that simply thinking about good things actually makes them happen, by all means, enjoy The Jerusalem Diet. If you a rational human being in serious need of weight loss guidance, then your money will be better spent on a visit with a nutritionist and healthy cookbook.
The book starts to fall apart before you even open the cover. The Jerusalem Diet is not (as the authors repeatedly admit) a diet book. This is easy enough to believe, considering the book contains no specific nutritional information, but rather vague hints and suggestions, like eat healthier foods, and don’t eat cake. Cake is actually one of the few foods mentioned specifically, and it is brought up repeatedly throughout the first third of the book. Apparently, the authors believe that the overwhelming cause of obesity is an overabundance of cake eating.
It also has nothing to do with Jerusalem, other than that the principles of the book are loosely founded on the teachings of a deceased spiritual guru based in Jerusalem. The introduction claims that the book is dedicated to her memory, although the actual dedication singles out the daughters of the authors instead. The picture of a nondescript wall on the cover (behind a silhouette of a thin woman wearing a tape measure like a belt, of course), while made out of Jerusalem Stone, has nothing to do with anything, to say the least.
Two misrepresentations and a contradiction, and we aren’t even into the diet part of the book yet.
Not that there’s anything resembling a diet in there. Barely any nutritional information is mentioned, and what little that does appear is frustratingly vague. Oh, there is mention of calories, carbs, and deciding between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, but the reader is pretty much left to decipher the meanings behind these for themselves.
Instead, the JD spends most of its time proposing thinking exercises reminiscent of The Secret. Why offer a structured diet plan with menu suggestions when you can tell your reader to ask themselves “Am I eating this to make myself thin” before each meal? Where most diet books would offer recipes and healthy snack alternatives, roughly two-thirds of the JD consists of imaging exercises designed to help you think yourself thin, like fixing a clock or trying to get your fist out of a jar. My personal favorite: visualize yourself unzipping a fat suit and stepping out of it. Yes sir, I can feel the pounds melting away with that one.
The implication behind most of these thought exercises is that overweight people are that way due solely to impulsive and emotional eating habits (like eating too much cake, as the author repeatedly admonishes). This attitude doesn’t take into account weight problems brought on by undiagnosed medical problems, varying metabolic rates, and poor nutritional education. Such an approach also gives the authors any easy out; if the diet doesn’t work for you, than you obviously don’t want to be thin, or are subconsciously sabotaging yourself. What’s worse, this kind of diet approach turns the dieter against themselves, making it a battle against some phantom enemy within rather than the fight to control the body’s consumption of calories for energy.
Of course, I might feel this way about the JD because I’m a man. The authors state in the beginning of the book that, while men might read the JD, it is really meant for women. (Why not mention this somewhere on the cover?). The reason, according to the author, is that men and women eat for different reasons. This is news to me. Men may be from Mars and women may be from Venus, but both are motivated to eat by hunger, comfort, and habit. And both are capable of losing weight.
Then again, maybe I’m biased because I don’t trust a diet book written by a Psychologist and an Editor, neither with a nutritional background. Or maybe I just can't any diet book seriously that suggests the reader purchase a journal and plenty of crayons. A scale and a pedometer, maybe. A coloring book, no can do.
If you are the kind of person who believes that simply thinking about good things actually makes them happen, by all means, enjoy The Jerusalem Diet. If you a rational human being in serious need of weight loss guidance, then your money will be better spent on a visit with a nutritionist and healthy cookbook.
Read
October 9, 2009"Verbiose and repetitive, this ""diet"" book has little to recommend it. Written by a psychotherapist and an English professor, it contains no nutritional information, no diet planning advice, and few tools for everyday change. It purports to document how ""guided imagery"" will lead the dieter to perfect weight maintenance through self-hypnotic sessions and journalling, but provides only scant anecdotal evidence. While self-analysis and awareness of what one is eating are certainly useful tools for healthy weight maintenance, to simply advise their use with no other support, advice, or real tools for daily change is at best an empty promise. Anyone sufficiently motivated to spend the time thinking about every bite put into their mouth and to imagine their own personal growth is already motivated to change, but may not have the other supports or information they need to do so. [return]The only specific food references in the whole book are four broth-based vegetable soup recipes at the end, none of which provides nutritional information or serving size recommendations, and none of which are related in any way to any suggestions of incorporating them in a healthy eating plan.[return]For those who are sufficiently motivated to make changes in their lives, I recommend seeing a registered dietician or other nutritionist, and a personal physician. There are 12 Step programs and fee-based programs which will provide group support, better literature and tools about the role of thought and intention in healthy weight management and eating, for those who feel they need a group environment for support and direction in their adoption of change and better health. I cannot recommend this book for those purposes."
January 22, 2009
The Jerusalem Diet is not your conventional diet book. Instead of going into a specific eating/exercise plan, this books delves into the reasons why we overeat, and our overall relationship with food. The book has ten common sense rules, and 43 exercises of guided imagery, or visualizations, that are meant to heal this relationship permanently. Having just read through the book without taking the time to follow along with the imagery, I cannont say for sure how effective it will be. I have, however been impressed with the way this book has already changed my thinking, bringing me to think about each and everything that I put into my mouth, and what it is doing for me. I am expecting a baby, so am not currently in a position to fully use the exercises in this book; the ones that I have used, however, have already greatly effected the foods that I am feeding myself and my growing child. And some of the guided imagery has been helpful in alleviating some fears I have about childbirth. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is commencing on a plan to lose weight. It could be used with most any weight loss plan, and would be a definite asset.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews