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I'd Kill For A Cookie:
A Simple Six-Week Plan To Conquer Stress Eating

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Is it a coincidence that desserts spelled backward is stressed? Maybe so, yet two of every three people react to the daily stressors in life by craving sweets or salt, bingeing, overeating, or, in some cases, not eating at all.

This groundbreaking book, written by two prominent nutritionists, Susan Mitchell, PhD, RD, and Catherine Christie, PhD, RD, offers a simple plan that stops stress eating in its tracks. The innovative, easy-to-understand EAT (Energy-Action Team) Plan consists of six exciting "stress-less" strategies that teach you how to identify the stressors in your life and the corresponding reactions, and how to incorporate appropriate new behaviors into any kind of lifestyle.

Planning strategies and time-management tips help you increase your daily energy levels and personal productivity while easing stress and avoiding the temptation to indulge. Questionnaires, checklists, goal plans, shopping schedules, stress-and-eating diaries, and self-tests to determine individual responses to different types of food all make I'd Kill for a Cookie a highly individualized and adaptable program that is supported by a collection of innovative recipes for quick, nutritious, and tasty meals.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction: How to Conquer Stress Eating 1
  • Ch. 1 All Stressed Up and No Place to Go 11
  • Ch. 2 Give Me Some Chocolate, Please 37
  • Ch. 3 My Diet Is a Dinosaur 55
  • Ch. 4 Calm Me Down and Pump Me Up 75
  • Ch. 5 Help! I'm Tired and I Can't Get Moving 87
  • Ch. 6 Stop Stress Eating Now with the EA Plan 115
  • Kill for a Cookie No More! 219
  • Addendum 224
  • References and Supporting Research 225
  • Index 237

Their approach to stress eating, called the EAT Plan, an acronym for Energy Action Team, is based on strategies to alleviate stress, stop excessive food cravings, improve mood management and increase energy while promoting relaxation.

The authors frown on self-denial, warning that hunger leads to cravings, which lead to over indulgence. They recommend frequent small meals, featuring antioxidant-rich and phytochemical-laden fruits (e.g., peaches) and vegetables (e.g., broccoli) and grains, with calming carbohydrates and energy-boosting proteins scheduled according to one's individual circadian biorhythm.

Besides tips on stocking one's pantry and dining out, there's advice on exercise and using a variety of techniques for coping with stress. Self-help fans will welcome the outline format with its many worksheets, self-assessment quizzes, checklists and step-by-step instructions.

A reader , March 15
WHAT EVERY HARRIED & STRESSED PERSON HAS BEEN WAITING FOR!
If you feel like me--tired, stressed, harried--and react by eating sweets or chips, you have to get I'd Kill for a Cookie. Drs. Mitchell and Christie outdid themselves with this easy-to-read handbook; they certainly must have known how I react to stress--one cookie at a time until the WHOLE bag is gone.

The EAT Plan they teach is not difficult to implement in one's daily lifestyle, and the good news is that it really works. I've already lost the nine pounds gained from the pressures of exams this year, and it was not painful. Following the EAT Plan, I still enjoyed a small bowl of my favorite Edie's Rocky Road Light Ice Cream each night! Yet more important that that,

I have learned to monitor my commitments so that I don't take on more than I can handle. Not only does the EAT Plan work, but the lists of ways to break the stress-eating habit can help anyone who is indulging in the wrong way.

If life's interruptions make you crave food, read this book! It will change the way you react to stress forever. This is a must-read! When is the next book coming out?!

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