When Food Is Comfort: Nurture Yourself Mindfully, Rewire Your Brain, and End Emotional Eating - Softcover

Julie M. Simon, MA, MBA, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist and life coach with more than twenty-seven years of experience helping overeaters stop dieting, heal their relationships with themselves and their bodies, lose excess weight, and keep it off. She is the author of The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual and the founder of the popular Twelve-Week Emotional Eating Recovery Program. She lives in Los Angeles.

“Seven specific skills . . . complement exercises and case studies, making it easy for readers to follow and apply the lessons. Simon covers all the bases of a complicated issue and offers genuine hope.”
— Library Journal

“We desperately need solutions for the overeating epidemic that is contributing to the rise in obesity and the consequences that fill my cardiology practice. Julie Simon offers a seven-step mindfulness practice as an answer to emotional eating. I am going to share these steps with my patients immediately. When Food Is Comfort is exactly what we need to heal during these challenging times.”
— Joel Kahn, MD, FACC, author of The Plant-Based Solution

“If or when emotional eating is a challenge, Julie Simon’s book When Food Is Comfort will enlighten and empower you with effective methods for healing deep emotional wounds through self-nurturing. With an authentic ring of empathetic authority, Julie Simon provides powerful, practical tools to help us liberate ourselves from the tyranny of our tongues. Indeed, those who control their appetites possess a great power, and When Food Is Comfort can help you and your loved ones attain and maintain this empowerment. Highly recommended!”
— Michael Klaper, MD, author of Vegan Nutrition: Pure and Simple

“When Food Is Comfort is a fantastic resource with a refreshingly new perspective. Written in a supportive and encouraging voice with moving personal and case stories, this practical, easy-to-follow book offers innovative strategies for anyone seeking freedom from unhealthy eating habits. I highly recommend it!”
— Hyla Cass, MD, coauthor of 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health

“When Food Is Comfort is an excellent guide to gaining self-awareness, understanding, attunement, love, and, ultimately, loving self-control. It is also extraordinarily comprehensive and well written. . . . If you thoroughly read, incorporate, and follow Julie’s comprehensive, uplifting, and meticulous guidance, it will benefit you as much as years of therapy. . . . You will change your relationship to food, using it for health and well-being rather than to try to fill unmet emotional needs. And best of all, you will enjoy a healthier, slimmer you.”
— Priscilla Slagle, MD, author of The Way Up from Down

“How often do you eat when you’re not really hungry, eat too much, or choose to eat comfort foods you know aren’t good for you? If you do these things more than you’d like, this book is definitely for you. It will help you recognize the signs of emotional eating so that you can instantly tell the difference between emotional hunger and actual physiological hunger. And it will help you nurture yourself so that every part of you — including your body, your emotions, your thoughts, and your relationships — is truly and wonderfully well fed.”
— John Robbins, New York Times–bestselling author of Diet for a New America and president of Food Revolution Network

“As a wellness activist, I’ve observed firsthand how challenging overcoming emotional eating can be. Despite our best intentions, many of us find ourselves regularly snacking mindlessly and overeating at meals. Clearly, emotional eating is a symptom of deeper issues. Well written and comprehensive, When Food Is Comfort helps us understand the role early nurturance plays in both the etiology and the continuation of eating challenges. Julie Simon’s simple yet powerful plan, developed in her highly successful twelve-week program, gets at the root causes of the problem. She gives readers all the tools they need to address the disconnection fueling their eating. If you or anyone you care about struggles with emotional eating, this book is a must-read.”
— Kathy Freston, New York Times–bestselling author of The Lean

“As one whose recovery from binge eating dates back over thirty years, I am reluctant to recommend any work on the subject, as nearly all seem to lack a genuine understanding of the disorder and of the emotional eater as whole human being. When Food Is Comfort is the rare exception. Gently and astutely, Julie Simon guides the reader from confusion and entrapment to clarity and freedom. With solid science and a caring heart, Julie breaks through in this book to a place where few have ventured: a place of healing, restoration, and liberation.”
— Victoria Moran, author of The Love-Powered Diet

“So many people struggle with emotional eating. When Food Is Comfort is a fascinating and eminently practical guide to making sense of what is going on and fixing it at the most fundamental level.”
— Neal D. Barnard, MD, author of Breaking the Food Seduction