Make Women, Food and God Work for You
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The message of Women, Food and God, Oprah says, can be boiled down to a single passage: "It's not about food. It's not even about feelings. It's about what's below them. What's in between them? What's beyond them?" Oprah says this quote opened her eyes to the fact that struggles with weight are about so much more than shedding pounds or eating fewer calories.
One audience member says she has trouble pinpointing what her weight issue is about, if not food. "As I read your book, I was longing to find something deeper of why I eat so much," Danielle says. "I just like to eat. I like food. ... Is there something deeper that I don't know about? Could it be that I just like food?"
Geneen says the way many women eat doesn't indicate that they necessarily love food. "When you really like something, you pay attention to it and you take time with it. When you like something, you don't eat standing up, you don't eat it in the car, you don't eat sort of shoving the food in your mouth on the way from the stove to the table," she says. "When you like your body, you also pay attention to that, to when it's had enough."
Danielle says she still doesn't know why she doesn't stop eating when she's had enough and wants to get to the bottom of it.
"Here's how you figure it out," Geneen says. "You say to yourself, 'For the next day, I'm going to stop when I've had enough and I'm going to listen to my body, and if I don't even know what that is'—because you're not used to listening to your body—you'll eat slowly and you'll stop at some point before you usually stop. And in that moment, when there's still food left on the plate and you still want to keep going, you're going to stop and there are going to be reasons that are going to come up. Whatever you're eating about is right there. You won't have to look any further than on your plate."
One audience member says she has trouble pinpointing what her weight issue is about, if not food. "As I read your book, I was longing to find something deeper of why I eat so much," Danielle says. "I just like to eat. I like food. ... Is there something deeper that I don't know about? Could it be that I just like food?"
Geneen says the way many women eat doesn't indicate that they necessarily love food. "When you really like something, you pay attention to it and you take time with it. When you like something, you don't eat standing up, you don't eat it in the car, you don't eat sort of shoving the food in your mouth on the way from the stove to the table," she says. "When you like your body, you also pay attention to that, to when it's had enough."
Danielle says she still doesn't know why she doesn't stop eating when she's had enough and wants to get to the bottom of it.
"Here's how you figure it out," Geneen says. "You say to yourself, 'For the next day, I'm going to stop when I've had enough and I'm going to listen to my body, and if I don't even know what that is'—because you're not used to listening to your body—you'll eat slowly and you'll stop at some point before you usually stop. And in that moment, when there's still food left on the plate and you still want to keep going, you're going to stop and there are going to be reasons that are going to come up. Whatever you're eating about is right there. You won't have to look any further than on your plate."
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