-The Parlor-

Interview with Jane Hirschmann

co-author, along with Carol Munter of

OVERCOMING OVEREATING and WHEN WOMAN STOP HATING THEIR BODIES

and who with Lela Zaphiropoulos wrote, PREVENTING CHILDHOOD EATING DISORDERS

Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter are the co-founders of

THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR OVERCOMING OVEREATING

Welcome to the PARLOR, here at CROSSROADS INN TIME Cyber B&B and Spa, please join me in a cup of specialty tea from Bluemoontea.com - Teas & Teapots . (first please remember to bookmark this site so you can find your way back here to the Parlor of CROSSROADS INN TIME Cyber B&B and Spa, where I have a very special guest this month.

I feel very honored to have as my guest author, Jane Hirschmann one of the co-authors of the book that has definitely changed my life and my way of looking, not only at food and eating, but my self. As I have mentioned before, the approach taught by the books co written by this months guest are the only views on eating, that you will find here at CROSSROADS INN TIME Cyber B&B and Spa. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here, Jane. I want to mention right off that I am not the only one here at the Inn that your writing has impacted, but our own resident author, Kit Dee sends her gratitude as well. In fact she, with your approval has implemented your theory in her book, Crossroads Inn Time. I actually found your book, OVERCOMING OVEREATING in the local library. While looking for yet another 'diet book', my husband put the book in my hand. I am so thankful, that he found your book instead the one I was in search of.

What upsets me is, that you and your co-author Carol Munter, have been teaching this line of thought, for almost as long as I have been yo-yo dieting , and yet I didn't find you. I don't understand why. I mean this puts an absolute end to eating disorders. Well, I guess I answered my own question. Eating disorders and the 'business of dieting' and hating ones body supports a lot of companies.

Now before I go off in an entirely different direction, please explain to us your thoughts on eating disorders.

JANE: The problem that many women face is compulsive eating, which is responsible for what many feel to be the big problem in their life. Being overweight. To cure the compulsive-eating behavior, one must get rid of what causes it. And based on facts gathered for over 3 decades, we think the cause of compulsive eating is dieting.

CD: Dieting... is the major cause of compulsive eating… that's very interesting, and probably a new line of thought for many. Can you elaborate.

JANE: The more you restrict food the more you create an exaggerated journey to those very foods. That is, when you make something 'against the rules', or 'not allowed', then that in itself creates a desire for those foods, which in turn can become an obsession for them. So the first step in curing compulsive eating is to stop dieting.

CD: Why is that, Jane?

JANE: Because we've learned that after years of dieting, you've disconnected the experience of eating from experience of hunger. And so, to cure compulsive eating the job ahead of you is to repair the damage caused by years of dieting and/or years of anxiety eating.

CD:What is that?

JANE: That's when people turn to food when they're anxious as a form of comfort… when they are anxious food represents comfort. Food is related to our earliest experiences of being loved and cared for. You know; we were loved, we were held, we were nurtured and we were fed. It satisfies the need of being soothed…. We turn to food, because food is a symbol of good care taking, and so it makes sense to turn to food to help themselves out of trouble, when we are anxious and in need of help. And this can become the direction we go with all our problems.

CD:Just to emphasize that point, how do people become compulsive eaters?

JANE: People come to be compulsive eaters by one of 2 ways: 1 They go on that FIRST diet. They, then experienced the disconnect between eating and hunger. Then they get hooked into fearing food. On that diet, they feel deprived whether 2 hours, 2 days or 2 months, until eventually they say "No more deprivation!" And then they binge out of restraint. And they become a compulsive eater. AND /OR : 2 They use food to calm down, sort of a self-help tool. These are the two ways to compulsive eating, and we say the way to cure that problem is to give up dieting , and go back to the beginning of your life- your eating life- when you came into the world and start over. And relearn how to eat on demand. Relearn how to eat when you're hungry, exactly what your body wants and deciding when is enough. That's the "WHEN WHAT AND HOW MUCH" which is what we call demand feeding. We have many ways to learn about what we call 'Stomach hunger'… It's not that easy, because if it were people could just stop eating except when they are hungry.

CD: Why is it so hard?

JANE: There is allot of what we call mouth eating, or mouth hunger going on. As well as what we call "Bad body thoughts." Along with learning to listen to our internal biological clocks, we need to stock our home with the foods that we want. Then we need to make the right connection between deciding what we are hungry for, and eating it.

CD: Mouth Hunger is…...?

JANE: Mouth hunger is a symbol that something's up. Something is causing you discomfort, to be anxious. It's a signal. And we need to respect that, not judge it. Learn to look at what is really bothering you and finding a better way to deal with it. It won't happen overnight. We can't break habits, that have taken us years to form, in just one day. And we also need to understand that, eating, in a lot of cases, has been a way to survive very difficult situations. And we need to be gentle with ourselves, and nonjudgmental.

CD: Again-non judging.

JANE: Yes, and that leads into the next job. Which is stopping bad body thoughts. Body hatred. This is a big problem especially if you are female, because as we are growing up female, it doesn't matter what size or shape our body is we usually end up standing in front of a mirror and saying "YUCK! I can't stand some aspect of myself!" And that's pretty sad… that we feel that way, as women. This is really what our book, WHEN WOMEN STOP HATING THEIR BODIES is all about. When you have bad body thoughts, you are really talking in code, and what you are saying is that there is some part of your life that you have issues with and concerns about. And that, something, is really making you unhappy. But what we are taught from child hood-..MOTHER TONGUE- called 'FAT TALK', is that at the root of, and soulutions to, all our problems leads back to our bodies. And we, now teach woman how to cure their bad body fever, and to go out into the world and be who ever they are, in what ever their size body. And this is an import part of it, if women didn't think their bodies needed renovated, no matter what their body size, weight or shape they wouldn't ever think of dieting. That is why we started dieting in the first place.

CD I know! My sister put me on a diet when I was a skinny little eleven-year-old, not because I was fat, but because I was visiting her, and she was on a diet and it was easier if she didn't have to fix me meals during the day. I can understand that now, but the message that I got, then, was that I was fat. I am not blaming her, she didn't know how one diet effects us the rest of our lives. But you know, that was the first of hundreds of diets for me. And each time I would go off a diet it was like something totally out of my control pulling me. Before I read your book, I never understood what was happening, and always felt shame because of it, which led to alot of self-hating and even more bingeing. I sure wish I would have heard about your work sooner, but I was busy dieting and bingeing.

Yeah, we hear that a lot.

CD: How did you and Carol start working together?

JANE: Oh boy, …. Well Carol started the first anti-diet group back in 1970, you know the height of the woman's movement . … And Carol was asking all kinds of questions like "Okay, so we were all good little girls and have done everything that we were supposed to, and dieted our brains out, so how come we still ended up getting fatter than ever, you know?" AND "What's wrong with being fat to begin with? Who says that we should all be the same body size, and one shape, as if we came off an assembly line?" I met her a couple years later. I had heard about the work that she was doing and I wanted to cure my own compulsive-eating pattern.

CD: What was her motivation?

JANE: She started developing these thoughts to help her self. Then I came along, and heard about her …and Susie Orbach, , Suzie was a member of that first group and later wrote FAT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE. And I sortta hooked up with Carol and watched her work and started developing an alliance and we started writing the book OVERCOMING OVEREATING.

CD: What was your background?

JANE: Carol and I are both phycotherepists, and along with our books we have founded an organization called THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR OVERCOMING OVEREATING. You can find out more about that at our website www.overcomingovereating.com

CD: I understand that you have a spa...?

JANE: Well, we have a trip that we go on once a year. It's wonderful, we take women away for a week… for five days. And for those five days we live the approach. We have food on demand 24/7. We just got back from the Yucatan in Mexico. It was quite exciting, we teach woman about how to live in their bodies, and how to enjoy themselves in the body they are in. We worked with women about various aspects of the approach.

CD: You do this once a year?

JANE: That's right.

CD: When is your next trip planned?

JANE: I believe it is sometime at the end of Jan, 2000. You can find out on the website.

CD: Okay, that's great, because I am making it one of my goals to join you and Carol next time. Do you know where it will it be next time?

JANE: We may be going back to the Yucatan, people really seemed to enjoy it. It may be the place.

CD:Well Jane, I know you are busy, and I won't keep you much longer. Now before you go I just want to mention that I put up a message board in the Workshop, here at CRINTIME B&B and Spa to discuss this approach. I hope that you might drop a line there from time to time. I really want to thank you for taking the time to visit us, and please join us again, when ever you get the time. And, I also want to mention the wonderful videos and audiocassettes available on The NATIONAL CENTER FOR OVERCOMING OVEREATING CENTER web site, along with your books. The URL for THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR OVERCOMING OVEREATING is http//www.overcomingovereating.com .

JANE: Before I say goodbye, I'd like for your guests to consider this; 'What do you think would happen if women stopped hating their bodies?'

CD:I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Jane Hirschmann. I am looking forward to hearing what you all have to say. Please register on the BULLETON BOARD in the WORKSHOP, and let me hear from you. Also I'd really like to encourage you to pick up Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter's books, OVERCOMING OVEREATING and WHEN WOMAN STOP HATING THEIR BODIES, and if you haven't read last months review of OVERCOMING OVEREATING, you can still find it, in the Library here at CROSSRDNTime Cyber B&B and Spa.

Please join me again, here in the Parlor of CROSSROADS INN TIME Cyber B&B and Spa for another exciting interview with a surprise guest. Until then,

…………………………………………… daisies 'n stuff………… Kit.

copyright 2000 All rights reserved and no part of this site may be reproduced in any form without written permission from Publisher.