The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size by Julia Cameron
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Book Reviews of The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size
Book Review: Some great techniques, but a few areas for concern
Summary: 3 Stars
I had several reactions when I saw Julia Cameron's The Writing Diet.
Although at first I thought that Julia Cameron was just spinning off her patented Artist's Way techniques to take advantage of America's unquenchable thirst for diets, it turns out that she used some of these techniques herself to lose weight that she gained as a side effect of a medication she was taking. The best part of the book is that it gives readers a way to develop a mindfulness practice that is essential when trying to deal with the emotional aspects of eating and our relationship with food. You can certainly develop this practice in other ways -- any kind of spiritual practice will do -- but, if you don't have one, this book is a great place to start.
It was the part of the book that veered into nutrition that I have a few concerns about.
First of all, she makes many, many references to Splenda and artificially sweetened products like diet Jello as ways to satisfy cravings for sweet foods. Artificial sweeteners are not healthy foods, and, in my opinion, don't belong as a daily part of a healthy diet. There are many better ways to deal with a sweet-tooth than resorting to a product that, molecularly, looks more like a cyanide molecule than a sucrose molecule.
Secondly, at more than one point, the book alludes to satisfying a craving for a food that might not be allowed on your diet (ice cream, mac & cheese) and then "making up" for it with more exercise or some other kind of atonement. I just hate that kind of thinking, and I hate to see it perpetuated. One of my favorite new food stories is that when you show the French a picture of a luscious chocolate cake, they think "celebrate." The word that comes to mind for most Americans upon seeing the same picture is "guilt." When you get your body into balance, your body is able to handle that cake and ice cream at your child's birthday party without your tacking on an extra hour on the treadmill. In other words, you can have your cake and the celebration - it is possible.
I think is a great book for developing techniques to explore your relationship to food and self-care,but not so great for the nutritional advice.
Diane Carlyle
Health Coach
Book Review: I liked this book, but.......
Summary: 3 Stars
Do read this book and be inspired to try some new techniques for healthy living! I especially liked the chapters on exercise (walking) and lingerie!
I was dismayed, though, that Julie Cameron appears to have an unhappy relationship with food despite her advice to have culinary adventures (makes me think someone else wrote that chapter!). She talks about good and bad foods, chocolate as being the devil's food, being "good" on your diet and eating "legally" and it seems that sugar rarely or never passes her lips. She also referred to dieting as a "war".
The concept of food as good or bad and moral judgements surrounding eating are, in my opinion, really misguided. I have lost a lot of weight and I have a happy relationships with all foods (even the "devil's food" - chocolate!). There is no such thing as a good or bad food - some foods should just be eaten more judiciously than others. I disagree with her recommendation of eating artifical foods like Splenda and sugar free Jello (Sugar-free Jello appeared in the book so many times that I started to suspect a product placement!)
It really seemed that Julie has a very adverserial relationship with food which negatively colored all the other wonderful things about the book. When she described having a third of her friend's dessert and then barely making it through her teaching that evening and waking up with a sugar hangover the next day, I thought, "This is not right". Anybody should be able to split a dessert three ways and feel great about themselves and certainly suffer no ill effect. Her reaction was either grossly exaggerated or she seems, to me, to be disordered in her relationship to food.
I hope Julie Cameron finds some peace in her relationship with food and that she does a rewrite of this book someday. Eating right should be joyful and relaxed - not a daily battle with forces of good and evil duking it out!
Having said that, there were nuggets in this book which made me glad I bought it.
Book Review: Great concept and tools, bad food advice
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this book as a birthday present from my Mom, a fan of Julia Cameron's other books who knows I've been struggling with weight loss again. I have to say I found the first sections were great. She gives you tools to use, some of which were new to me (such as morning pages), some of which I'd heard before (asking yourself "are you really hungry?" and the AA tool HALT). However, being prompted to journal about all of those things and how they worked in my eating habits was a little new.
After outlining the tools, she writes chapters on different aspects of dieting, such as figuring out what kind of eater you are (grazer, binger, etc), what your trigger foods are, etc. At the end of each chapter there is a journaling prompt to help you think about the different tools or aspects of your approach to food.
I liked the general concept and the journaling prompts, but I thoroughly agree with those who said her attitude towards food is a little unhealthy -- when she called eating one piece of pie a "relapse" I too got a little upset. One thing I have learning from programs like Weight Watchers is that no food should be forbidden -- it's all about balance. It's okay to eat pie -- just not the whole pie and not all time time. She tries to speak to that by saying it's okay to have a little dessert as long as you excercise, but she doesn't seem to really believe it.
I recommend this book for the concept, the "tools" and the journaling prompts, but if you want healthy diet advice, go to a nutritionist.
Book Review: Lovely writing, some concerns
Summary: 3 Stars
There are some wonderful nuggets of wisdom in this book. The idea of clean-eating, clean-living and working through repressed emotions to avoid compulsive eating are not new, but they are eminently readable in Cameron's lovely prose.
The only issues I had in this book is that there is a hint of disordered-eating mentality, such as when the author talks about having an isolated piece of pie and a cup of tea at a diner as a "relapse", endorsing artificially sweetened foods (artificial sweeteners do not help with weight loss, and may in fact trigger sugar cravings), and "saving calories" in order to have a "binge" of favorite comfort foods...these are not normal attitudes towards food.
I would probably purchase this book in paperback (I first borrowed it from the library), if only to have on hand some inspirational reading when I want to explore the roots of my tendency towards compulsive eating. But I would not read it for nutritional advice.
Book Review: Much like Artist's Way
Summary: 3 Stars
If you have The Artist's Way, and have been following her lessons in releasing your creativity, you probably don't need The Writing Diet. While teaching The Artist's Way, Ms. Cameron discovered that people were releasing more than their creative self, they were releasing baggage that was being stuffed through overeating. Therefore, they were losing weight. Thus, The Writing Diet. I have both books, now, having ordered The Artist's Way to pretty much go backwards and catch up with the beginning. I have also checked four more of Ms. Cameron's books out from the library and found them to be repetitive. All versions of The Artisit's Way rewritten.