Eat Q: Unlock the Weight-Loss Power of Emotional Intelligence

by Susan Albers

Overview

Susan Albers, Psy.D. presents a groundbreaking three-step program for conquering emotional eating—a practical, prescriptive, proactive approach using Emotional Intelligence that will help you slim down, eat healthfully and mindfully, and keep the pounds off.

Introduced by the author of the bestselling The Hormone Cure, Sara Gottfried MD, Eat.Q. goes beyond traditional diet books to explore the link between emotions and eating, revealing how, when you increase your Emotional Intelligence, you naturally increase your ability to successfully manage your weight. Explaining the link between a high Eat.Q. and a good relationship with food, clinical psychologist Dr. Albers guides you through the most common emotional barriers to healthy and mindful eating, and offers 25 tools and techniques you can use to tailor the plan to your individual needs.

Grounded in dozens of clinical studies that associate a low Emotional Intelligence with poor eating habits—including eating past fullness, eating when your angry or bored, and overeating favorite foods—Eat.Q. offers hope and help that works for anyone, no matter how many times they've tried to manage emotional eating in the past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062222770
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/07/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 5.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dr. Susan Albers is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic who specializes in weight loss, body image, and emotional eating. She graduated from the University of Denver and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Dr. Albers has been a guest on The Dr. Oz Show, CNN, and NPR, and is frequently interviewed by Prevention; O, the Oprah Magazine; Family Circle; and The Wall Street Journal.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Part 1 What Is Eat.Q.?

1 The Solution to Emotional Eating, Stress Eating, and Plain Old Overeating 5

2 The Moment of Decision: Four Tools That Instantly Boost Eat. Q. 33

3 The EAT Method: Take Charge of Your Eating 59

Part 2 Barriers to Eat.Q.

4 Dieting 85

5 Pleasure Seeking 109

6 Social Eating 139

7 Stress 169

8 Trauma 195

Part 3 Tools for Success

9 E: Embracing Your Feelings, Learning to Reconnect 223

10 A: Accepting Your Emotions, Understanding Their Meaning 247

11 T: Turning to New, Positive Alternatives to Eating 267

You're Ready to Use Your New Food Smarts! 291

Acknowledgments 292

Notes 294

Index 304

Editorial Reviews

At last-a book on eating well that puts everything you need to know in one place. Brilliant! — Christiane Northrup, MD

“The key to achieving a long-term love affair with your body (and your food!) isn’t about fad diets or guilt trips to the scale. It’s about harnessing your emotions. Susan’s game plan to turn the proven power of emotional intelligence into eating intelligence means happier, healthier, smarter eating!” — Daphne Oz, chef, bestselling author, and cohost on ABC'S "The Chew"

“This book gives readers a roadmap to help them gain better understanding of why they eat what they eat.” — -Lilian Cheung, D.Sc., R.D.. co-author, Savor-Mindful Eating, Mindful Life, Director of Health Promotion & Communication, Dept. of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health

Most dieters build elaborate castles on shifting sand. Dr. Albers shows you how to shore up a solid emotional and mental foundation to sustain a healthy diet for years to come. If you want your healthy eating plan to last, read Eat.Q. — Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence

Susan Albers has done it again. EAT.Q is full of effective and practical tools that illuminate how we have the capacity, with our own awareness and hearts to have a wiser relationship to food and step into a life of greater nourishment, freedom and joy. — Elisha Goldstein, PhD, author of The Now Effect and co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook

From the Publisher

Most dieters build elaborate castles on shifting sand. Dr. Albers shows you how to shore up a solid emotional and mental foundation to sustain a healthy diet for years to come. If you want your healthy eating plan to last, read Eat.Q.

Shirzad Chamine

09/02/2013
This book offers a clear voice of sanity in a world where attitudes toward eating are increasingly dominated by detox manifestos. Clinical psychologist Albers advocates flexible, mindful eating rather than restricting or eliminating certain foods. On a “gut level,” she explains, most people are aware that dieting doesn’t work in the long run, and they are right. “The more you restrict your diet, the more you obsess about food,” Albers notes. She cites studies that show how dieters’ behavior conforms to patterns of “restrained eating” followed by “overeating, guilt, and more overeating.” In diet mode, you “fight your cravings,” while under what she calls the Eat.Q. method, “you accept them.” Albers says that Eat.Q is a “synthesis of three concepts”: emotional eating, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence (“how well you understand your own and others’ feelings”). A primary tool of Eat.Q. is the “mindful pause,” when, before eating, you stop to assess your emotions and level of hunger. You can then calmly consider options, including nonfood alternatives like taking a walk, and make a rational decision. Breaking down this approach into accessible steps, Albers also weaves in patient histories and relevant clinical studies. Readers will be empowered by this eating strategy, which emphasizes listening to yourself rather than following rules. Agent: Celeste Fine, Sterling Lord. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

The key to achieving a long-term love affair with your body (and your food!) isn’t about fad diets or guilt trips to the scale. It’s about harnessing your emotions. Susan’s game plan to turn the proven power of emotional intelligence into eating intelligence means happier, healthier, smarter eating!

Daphne Oz

Susan Albers has done it again. EAT.Q is full of effective and practical tools that illuminate how we have the capacity, with our own awareness and hearts to have a wiser relationship to food and step into a life of greater nourishment, freedom and joy.

Elisha Goldstein

At last-a book on eating well that puts everything you need to know in one place. Brilliant!

Christiane Northrup

This book gives readers a roadmap to help them gain better understanding of why they eat what they eat.

Lilian Cheung