Testimonials and Reviews

From a professional using the CD set with a "food issues" group:
 Last week we listened together to part of the first CD - stopping and doing the scale rating ourselves on healthy to unhealthy eating and pondering different times in our lives, taking notes re the eating in front of the mirror and the 24hr eating diary to do for homework. I found the healthy/unhealthy eating scale fascinating. It set off some awareness of something that has been going on in me around food. Whenever I get a pound under a certain weight, (whether I know that by the scale or just how I feel in my body), I tend to have a binge. I could see how there is something about being that lean that scares parts of me back to a time in adolescence when I went to a Finishing School for southern belles for a year; I was anorexic that year. I'd never felt so out of place in my life. I think my food firefighter gets pretty panicky that I'm going back there. So that exercise was helpful for me. And the food diary - boy did it set off parts! I look forward to discovering how all this has impacted my group members.

From a member of the CD production team:
 I've spent a good percentage of my life overweight and recently managed to take off the extra pounds. So far it stayed off mainly because my work schedule is presently hectic, but when I'm less busy it's another matter. That's my danger zone, I stuff myself. After we worked on Alice's CD, the message started to sink in for me. Even without planning to, I found myself mentally going through the steps rather than just shoveling my food. For the first time in my life I now actually stop and think about what I put in my mouth and why. (Regardless of what my skinny wife and kids are eating.) I think with this new awareness I can keep the weight off permanently because I'm thinking about food so differently now. I just wanted you to know that and I hope you forward my thanks to Alice. I'd like to meet her some day. She should fly out to record the next CD here.

From someone who purchased the CD who is using it on her own:

 I received "Feeding Ourselves" CD's. I started listening yesterday afternoon and found myself feeling great frustration and discomfort which quickly turned to "I don't want to think about this" "I gotta eat something...now". I soothed myself by turning the CD off and getting out of the house. I also talked to myself about how the tape was fine but that it was pushing my buttons, so to speak. I did bring the CD with me and played it in the car. I listened about being an infant and being totally dependent on MOTHER for sustenance, comfort etc. I can only begin to image how bad my mother must have been during that phase of my life. How every coping mechanism, reward etc was about eating... So as I'm feeling all of this, and a need to be out of the house (away from myself) I decide to go food shopping. Why not? I needed to kill some time so I decided rather than go in, get what I need and leave, which is my usual shopping routine, I was going to take my time and look at every thing on the shelves as a walking meditation. Well an interesting thing happened, I was not experiencing desire, no hunger, no inner gnawing (which I had on my way there) nor was I being driven to eat compulsively What I did feel was a profound sense of well being, belonging, safety, nurturance, self love, and fullness. Visually I saw bulk bins full from nuts to grains, beautifully packaged foods, fresh bakery products, whole grain breads, bins full of healthy and not so healthy treats. I looked very closely and carefully at every thing, appreciating its packaging, color, smells and textures. I left there with such a sense of well being. I have to chuckle about myself when I think about all of this. I belong to a bulk ordering coop. I really love to order bulk and have the cupboards full, I wish I had a pantry ("A well stocked larder"). I love everything about it. How it looks and how it feels, being prepared. I'm this way about non food items as well. "One should always have things ahead, you never know what might happen." I'm not sure who I got that from, definitely not my mother.