Hi all --

My two books from Amazon came -- Richard Fairburn's "Overcoming Binge Eating" and
Laurel Mellin's "The Solution" -- both intended to help me understand reasons behind
overeating, not only because it has been a lifelong problem, but especially since I
have been having such trouble with overeating over the past few months.

I have finished the Fairburn book and was not overly moved by it ... in fact I found
that most of it didn't seem to apply to me, but to those afflicted with bulimia. The
time he spent discussing binge eating disorder was marked by admissions that almost
nothing is known about it. I guess I concluded that I don't have binge eating
disorder, because I couldn't relate to much that was said about it, though I was
expecting the opposite. The book was too "scientific" for my liking -- I need
something more emotionally appealing -- but perhaps this impression is just from the
fact that I couldn't recognize myself in the first part of the book which explains
binge behavior -- again, I hadn't expected that at all.

I've just started "The Solution" which is way more suited to my own feelings,
experience, and immediate needs. Already I've had the "that's me" feeling numerous
times, even though I've only read about 25 pages -- and I never got that feeling from
the Fairburn book, perhaps because it was written from such a clinical standpoint --
the "program" part of his book seemed to focus on keeping a food journal and not a
whole lot beyond that -- and keeping a food journal was very good for my weight loss
but it hasn't had any lasting effects on stopping the underlying reasons and urges to
overeat.

I know others have been helped by the Fairburn book and it's certainly worth
reading -- it did give me some insights at the time I read it, which I've already
forgotten -- hence my feeling that the book wasn't really for me, because usually
impressions and insights I get from a book last with me a long time. So I'm going to
continue reading "The Solution" with great interest -- I wonder if anyone else has
read it.

Mary M
325-153-145 (that's what I weighed at my last checkup - 153- , but this morning I
was 164 -- eeek)