Taming the Feast Beast: How to Recognize the Voice of Fatness and End Your Struggle with Food Forever

It took a few years and some other influences before I was able to apply the most useful concepts in this book. I don't respond as much to metaphors like the Feast Beast, but apparently others do. It actually captures the forces that are driving us to overeat, and which aren't meant to deal with the modern environment of overexposure. The government and food marketers are NOT going to save us! Unfortunately, we're going to have to rely on individual efforts and Trimpey insists that we can and we must. That statistically is a much more effective strategy than trying to make it easy and find the perfect diet. I also like that he insists that we don't need complicated diets and infernal calorie counting. We need honesty and strength! HOWEVER, I found his railing against the 12-step programs, though I don't like them, either ,and resent that they are promoted even though they have NOT been as effective as other strategies, and against religion, though I'm not a believer, either, is probably going to be a turnoff to many, and is unnecessary to get his superior message across. BTW, Brain Over Binge is based on his ideas and is probably a better bet, though that author's experience may be discouraging to others who can't repeat it. And, another free book-Never Binge Again- uses similar tactics. That one has a group of related books that are very thorough. The author offers a training program as well, though some people seem to do very well with the books alone, per a Facebook group devoted to it.The problem with all weight loss books is that they can be read in a short time, but they describe processes that actually take time to unfold and solidify. Therefore, it's unlikely any one book will do the trick, but I recommend this one (and the others) as part of your journey.

The literature of Jack and Lois Trimpey is a vanishing treasure. It will serve you well to acquire something of this source material.Jack and Lois Trimpey made it clear in their discussions, writings and teachings, that “the beast” as a factor in a person’s rational recovery is not The Devil of religious lore, but is the part of the mental machinery that keeps an addictive person returning to their preferred substance: alcohol, drugs, overeating and other abusive relationships.Once recognized (revealed, unmasked) for its manner of repetitive behavior, the addicted person has what may be considered an assisting factor in shedding the bad habit. Watching one’s beast move into action in its predictable ways provides confident power against it.In Tarot, it is commonly understood that one’s personal devil (major arcana 15) is that which holds you back by your own choice of habits. That to which you are enslaved, pretending you are helpless against escape from this great beast (but with only a loosely looped chain around your neck.)Kryptonite is harmful to Superman, but his beast says, “Let’s have some. It feels so good.” Go to the source. Let its inventors, Jack and Lois Trimpey, teach Rational Recovery for you.

First, let me say that the central idea of this book is tremendously helpful for recovery. They argue that there's nothing magical about recovery, and overeating is not the result of some mystical or mysterious process. Rather, we get an eating disorder as the result of bad habits and irrational beliefs, and we can recover by challenging and changing them. Recovery is not "just willpower" or weight loss.I particularly appreciate the fact that they don't try to either make this "all about the weight;" in fact, they specifically argue against this. They make the (seemingly paradoxical) case that, in order to truly recover, you have to be OK with yourself even if you didn't lose any weight; one of the irrational ideas that reinforces our eating disorder is the idea that we have to lose weight in order to be able to accept ourselves.I also appreciate that they don't try to make eating disorder (ED) recovery exactly the same as substance abuse recovery (it's not). A lot of programs, such as Overeaters Anonymous, have fallen into this particular trap and the result has been disastrous for their program.The authors also give people good reason to have hope and show people that they're not helpless or powerless over their eating disorder. With the proper training you CAN overcome this. They also give you specific tools for dealing with urges; the idea of separating those from myself is particularly helpful (instead of "I want to binge," "The Beast wants to binge" - with "The Beast" representing the eating disorder).With that said, I have a few criticisms, especially how they treat religion:* They claim that the idea that people are of "variable worth" is "central to Judeo-Christian ethics." Kinda makes me wonder which Bible the authors read. (I strongly suspect that they didn't). I truthfully have no idea where they came up with that.* They imply that it's totally irrational to trust in God because He might not actually "be there" for you when you really need Him. Rather, you should trust in yourself (like I'll always "be there" for myself somehow). I found this point to be rather disingenuous; it's an obvious straw-man argument based on a tepid, non-Christian conception of God.* The authors insist that this is NOT a specifically secular program while specifically attacking Christianity by name and admitting that 75% of people using their books don't believe in God. Of course they present the latter statistic positively ("25% of the people using this program believe in God!").* They spend far too long railing against OA/AA. While I agree that OA doesn't work and could actually be harmful to some people, I think that they spend too much time on this. If you're reading this book you're probably looking for a different program anyway (although I guess it's necessary to disabuse people of the notion of doing this along with the 12 Steps, which some people try to do).* They rail against long-term support group attendance (or at recovery groups other than theirs) as evidence of emotional immaturity, excessive dependency on other people, and proof that participants haven't really fully committed to recovery. This is probably true for some people but I'm not sure that they can just make a blanket statement that it's true for everyone in every case.Personally, I thought that the broadsides against organized religion (and Christianity in particular) were unnecessary and unfair. I was rather put off by them and they really detracted from the book.Finally, this is explicitly based on REBT (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy), so if you've gotten CBT or REBT in the past or read anything by Albert Ellis a lot of the ideas in this book will be familiar to you, but the authors still have a unique enough "take" on this that it'll still be helpful to you.This book is geared towards people with Binge Eating Disorder and other forms of compulsive overeating. It also assumes that the vast majority of their readership will be overweight (perhaps significantly). It doesn't really address other eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia, etc., although a lot of this can still be helpful to bulimia in terms of helping you not binge) except in a short 4-page chapter at the end.As fair warning, I can see this book being a little triggering to some people. The authors assume that people reading this are in early recovery and are still really obsessed with weight (and, as I said, that most of their readers are overweight). Some of their particular wording could actually be a little triggering to some people IMHO; for example, they often call the ED "voice" the "fatness voice," which I think is a poor choice on their part.I recommend this book with some reservation. If you can reject the occasional bad idea, won't be too put off by the comments on religion, and won't be triggered by some of the unfortunate phrasing, this is a good book that'll help your recovery. If you've never read any recovery literature, I might start with this book and follow it up with "Life Without Ed" by Jenni Schaefer (which generalizes several concepts from this book to other eating disorders too, especially the idea of recognizing the "addictive voice" and separating yourself from it).

I really feel that this works for me along with Keto

This is not a new book but, hells bells, it makes sense. It’s not a diet book, or a fad book, or a miracle cure. It’s about decision making. It’s changed my entire outlook on overeating and binge eating - it’s not a deep seated psychological problem, or the result of trauma - it’s a decision to do it. Or not.

I have been overeating since I was a child. But after a traumatic period, I dipped into complete binge eating and have lost and gained tremendous weight, affecting my health. Gaining weight has affected my skin and hair as well as normal bodily functions. I had been desperately searching for a way to recover.After the usual research a binge eater goes through, I found Kathryn Hansen's Brain Over Binge and bought that as well as her practical recovery guide. But I always felt like her touch was too soft for me. When she mentioned how Rational Recovery sort of pushed her very hard to recover, I felt like I need something that was more aggressive as well.I bought RR and while that gave me a lot of insight I wasn't able to make a change. Somehow, I came across this book and had to give it a go. I ordered a used copy since a new one is way too expensive. It arrived much earlier than the given deadline. Although it is 'used' the book seems to be practically new. No folds or marks or frayed edges. It was in great condition.Now to the book - how this book is different from Brain Over Binge and RR is that it first addresses the mental state or philosophy of a binge eater. Binge eaters are severely judgemental people, judging themselves and relying on food and their appearance to give them self esteem.This book is more direct than BOB and more tailored than RR. Having read RR, I can say there is content that is new and very much relevant for fat people and binge eaters. This book teaches you how to use the ABC technique derived from Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and helps you change your beliefs as well as how you respond to a binge urge.I also like this book because it enables you, unlike BOB, to choose to refrain from eating certain food groups if you want to. It enables you to be okay with feeling hungry. While BOB dances around the idea of healthy eating and suggests that it is harmful to 'restrict'. I resent that as I feel as a human being I should be able to decide that I will or will not have something if I think I shouldn't.This book has been the tipping point to recovery for me and I suggest it very strongly, although you have to do the work.

Very good book. What I really like about it is that it is absolutely against the 12 steps of overeaters anonymous. I went to a couple of OA meetings and I found them ridiculous with all that stupid higher power thing (that of course didn't help me). What I don't like about this book is the fact that it suggests you to set rules about your eating and that's exactly what leads people to eating disorders in the first place. It's too early for me to say that this book has helped me. So far I haven't had a binge in a week which is a MIRACLE.

This book, written by Jack Trimpey (author of 'Rational Recovery', an excellent antidote to the current prevailing AA attitude towards drink and drug addiction) and his wife Lois, applies the RR methodology to eating rather than drinking. It posits that at the end of the day, we and we alone are responsible for what we put in our mouths, not a Higher Power, the food industry, our divorce, bereavement, unhappy childhood etc. We 'use' substances, including food, for pure pleasure, feeling we have 'earned' a binge or lapse from our healthy regime. It puts the spotlight firmly on US; we and we alone are responsible for lifting food to our mouths. We also have the power to choose that pleasure if we wish, knowing that self-recrimination and possibly self-harm is likely to result. Knowledge is power, and knowing we are NOT powerless means we have the option to choose healthy eating at any time. A very refreshing attitude and one that readers struggling with eating issues will surely find to be a breath of fresh air.

Not as good as rational recovery. Think it was unclear in many places. He's put in a lot of ideas from rational recovery but it was like they weren't crystallized or anything.