Skinny Thinking: Five Revolutionary Steps to Permanently Heal Your Relationship With Food, Weight, and Your Body

by Laura Katleman-Prue

Learn the secret to losing weight and keeping it off in this “well-written guidebook that gets to the root of the way people think about food” (Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of 365 Prescriptions for the Soul ). If you are constantly battling against your weight, it’s time to stop yo-yo dieting and start developing a healthy relationship with food. In Skinny Thinking you will learn how to rethink your food choices, eating habits, lifestyle, and more. Author Laura Katleman-Prue has helped numerous people―including herself―with her simple, five-step Skinny Thinking approach. “ Skinny Living is a remarkable compendium of tools and information that guide readers to a healthy body weight not by providing a new fad diet, but by challenging them to permanently change their relationship with food, their thinking, and their bodies. . . . If you devote yourself to implementing these powerful tools, you will heal your body, mind, and spirit and reap the rewards of an infinitely happier and healthier life” (Alan Gass, MD, FACC, from the foreword).

Genres: Self Help, Health, Psychology, Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2009

Reviews

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you watch television commercials about weight loss, you’ll notice that they all state that their product will fill you up or they assure you that you won’t feel hungry. I’ve always thought this a bit silly, almost all of the people I know overeat because they use food as a comfort. Hence the term comfort food. Whether you are feeling sad, tired, frustrated, or celebrating something good, food is always there. It’s not about filling the stomach, it’s about filling a need.

Of course there are several problems with using food as a comfort. The biggest issue being that stuffing our faces with junk doesn’t actually make us feel any better. It distracts us initially but afterwards we are left bloated and frustrated.

Skinny Thinking realizes that food isn’t the problem. It’s our relationship with food. We romanticize about food and use it as a means to solve problems. Recognizing this fact is first step. Doing something about it can change everything. It’s definitely not an overnight miracle cure but gradual progress over time is far more likely to lead to permanent changes.

[Terri Palermo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my kind of self-help book but in my skimming, I did come up with some tidbits I can use.

[Dianne C. Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good things to learn and reflect on

Good learning about weight and our relationship s with food. Changed my life.
Put ideas in the book into practice.

[Anna Banana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful and practical. I love that this book about diet and food also tackles psychology. I enjoy psychology and this book is easily one of my favorites.

[Kimberly Morghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far I've read the introduction and am reading the chapter on the first step. I'm mixed on the book. The author is offering some good insights and combining together a bunch of what I already know and agree with and some ideas I've read in other books and been less comfortable with; e.g. - the Ego being the source of all that ails us and that we can solve all problems by living fully in the present - sigh... I mean, I just want to learn to have a healthier relationship with food - not become a Buddhist!

Also, it doesn't help that she keeps telling us we need to not think about food and cravings and then going on to vividly describe food binges and all that tasty junk food we crave - I end up feeling hungry the whole time I'm reading!!

I've still got more reading to do so I'll give the book a chance to convince me.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm writing this in 2021 but I read this book in 2016, in the midst of my eating disorder. Please don't let the low rating fool you. While this book might not be for everyone, it was tremendously helpful for me when I was struggling with severe emotional eating. Is it for everyone? No. Nothing can be. This book isn't for people who struggle with binge eating brought on from years of restriction, and it isn't going to teach you intuitive eating. However, if you were like me, where you ate food constantly in order to hide from the negative emotions you were feeling, this book could help. It's not going to replace therapy (try that first if you have the resources to do so), but there are a lot of great tips in this book that really helped me break the habit of emotional eating. I really don't know where I would be if I hadn't read it years ago.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might be good for people with weight-related health issues. For the average person who just wants to be learn how to eat in healthy ways, there's not a lot of useful information.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all the new-age lingo, this book offers remarkably sound advice.

[Rosemary Mccoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was refreshing for me, there are many tools and coping skills layed out to apply to my individual needs and finally make a change.
This is a generous self therapy book.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lost 35 lbs following the 5 steps from this book!
Life changing book!