Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes: A Mindful Eating Program for Thriving with Prediabetes or Diabetes
By Michelle May MD with Megrette Fletcher MEd, RD, CDCES
After receiving a diagnosis of prediabetes or diabetes, it may seem that the days of “eating what you love” are over. Understanding dietary changes, blood glucose monitoring, and prevention of complications can feel scary and overwhelming. But even people with diabetes can eat what they love, using awareness and intention to guide them. Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes helps readers discover how eating and physical activity affect their blood sugar so that they can make decisions that support their good health without sacrificing delicious meals or dinner out with friends. This book builds on the principles in Michelle May’s Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat to help readers with prediabetes or diabetes reduce their anxiety about diabetes self-management. This four-part system helps readers think, nourish, care, and live with diabetes – without restriction or guilt – to discover optimal health and the vibrant life they crave. Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes, is a non-restrictive, mindful approach to living vibrantly with diabetes. The book is based on the Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Cycle, described in Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: A Mindful Eating Program to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle. It is a great resource for health professionals, individuals, and groups wishing to apply mindful eating concepts to diabetes self-management. This book is also a wonderful complement to the Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Workshops for participants with diabetes, pre-diabetes, or metabolic syndrome.
Reviews
Publishers Weekly: “…they focus on reprogramming negative thoughts and language (i.e., being “flexible” rather than “rigid”; “learning” from mistakes rather than “failing”), encouraging exploration, and trusting the body’s wisdom.”
Diabetes Monitor: “…The authors provide a series of tips, advice and tools on how to change the way we eat throughout the user-friendly book. One of my favorite sections of the book is right at the beginning in Chapter 3, which is titled, “Nourish: Masterpiece, or Paint by Number?” A chart of Healthy Eating vs. Restrictive Dieting is provided that lists two dozen word exchanges. For example, instead of “In Control” with Restrictive Dieting, you are “In Charge” with Healthy Eating. Instead of “Rigid” you are “Flexible,” instead of the “Guilt, Shame and Fear” of Restrictive Dieting, you can choose “Enjoyment, Pleasure and Trust” with Healthy Eating.” Read more…
BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois Lifetimes: “Michelle May and Megrette Fletcher, doctor and dietitian, turn typical diabetes care inside out. Usual rigid rules say: Eat only certain food. Eat only when you’re ‘supposed to.’ Weigh, measure, count, and record everything – or you could go blind or lose a leg! ‘Failure’ can trigger guilt. So you eat more to comfort yourself, feeding a vicious cycle. The pair argues there’s a much better way, not guided by imposed restrictions but by ‘mindful eating’ that puts you squarely in charge of your diabetes self-management and yields far more satisfying results.” Read more…
“This book is remarkably unique. It empowers people with diabetes and prediabetes by inspiring positive behavior and non-judgmental thoughts regarding food intake, physical activity/exercise and use of diabetes medications. One of the most comprehensive and updated references on diabetes and pre-diabetes management, it is highly recommendable to health practitioners, people with diabetes and pre-diabetes and their families and caregivers.” -Liesl C. Puentespina, MS, RD
“Good health is not just about minimizing illness in our lives; it’s also about adding pleasure, joy, fun. Because food is one of the greatest pleasures in life, one sure way for many of us to add pleasure is to eat what we love. So it’s a tremendous boost to our health to learn how to eat what you love AND do so while successfully managing problems like diabetes. Michelle May and Megrette Fletcher provide a wealth of new ways to think about food, eating and diabetes that offer real promise for successfully managing the problem. Then they follow it up with clear strategies that can help you make choices that are in your best interest. An important read for anyone with diabetes or prediabetes as well as those with friends or family with the problem.” -Marsha Hudnall, R.D., Green Mountain at Fox Run
“A must read for all persons with diabetes. This book offers a unique approach to dealing with food addiction for those who use food as a cope to manage their stress. Instead of restrictive diets and deprivation this book teaches the reader how to integrate mindful eating and to make peace with food. This book allows the reader to achieve optimal blood sugar levels without compromising their pleasure of eating. The authors have provided an algorithm to help the reader make healthful dietary changes. I recommend this teaching tool to all my patients with diabetes.” -Geeta Sikand, MA, RD, FADA, CLS, FNLA
“Doing away with traditional strategies such as imposing rigid rules, eating schedules and tracking food intake obsessively; readers are urged to focus on – why, what, when, how, how much you are eating and where you are spending energy. This book is remarkably unique. It empowers people with diabetes/prediabetes by inspiring positive behavior and non-judgmental thoughts regarding food intake, physical activity/exercise and use of diabetes medications. Furthermore, this reliable reference offers factual and thorough information on how three critical factors – macronutrients, physical activity/exercise and diabetes medications impact blood sugar levels and overall well-being. One of the most comprehensive and updated references on diabetes/pre-diabetes management, it is highly recommendable to health practitioners, people with diabetes/pre-diabetes and their families/caregivers.” -Liesl C. Puentespina, MS, RD
“This book is simply elegant in its approach to mindful eating and living with diabetes. The simplicity in which complex neuro-psychosocial and metabolic processes are described makes the concepts easy to understand, and each section is presented as a Mindful Byte to nurture and enrich ones experience of life with diabetes. As a certified diabetes educator, diabetes health coach, and a person who lives with diabetes, I find this book highly engaging and compelling. I wholeheartedly recommend it to all my clients, and to anyone who has diabetes or finds themselves at risk for development of diabetes.” -Claire M. Blum, MS Ed, RN, CDE, Program Coordinator, Partners & Peers for Diabetes Care
“From the gentle, supportive, hopeful, realistic and empowering introduction to the end of the book, I see this as an engaging guide to help people thrive with diabetes. The careful articulation shifting “control” to being “in charge” of one’s eating, and the weaving of the Mindful Eating Cycle throughout the book succeeds in emphasizing that HOW one eats, rather than WHAT one eats is the key to a balanced and satisfying relationship with food and body. Throughout, there is an invitation to assess one’s eating patterns and personal style in a way, which enhances mindful awareness and fosters a non-judgmental attitude.” -Alice J. Rosen, LMHC, www.TheConsciousCafe.org
Retailing Insight: The authors begin by telling readers what they won’t find in the book – no unempowered thinking, no focus on restrictive eating, no complicated rules, no negative messages (“Exercise to earn the right to eat.”), no “all-or-nothing” overhauls. Then they move on, in Chapter One, to explaining that success isn’t staying in control (a goal that’s not sustainable), but rather in taking charge with flexible self-management. They tell us that the key to doing that is mindfulness, learning to return our awareness to the present experience. Instead of dropping the reader off a cliff at that point (“stay in the moment and go in peace”), they offer a well-organized comprehensive plan for practicing what they are preaching. The book is filled with real, research-based information (May is a family physician and Fletcher is certified dietician). Their ideas are presented, without exception, in a compassionate and nurturing, common sense tone. (May’s credentials as a successful motivational speaker are evident throughout the text.) The authors describe their program as a learning process and encourage the reader to embrace the benefits of the journey. The book is a breath of fresh air in a market competing to “sell the ONE magic answer”. -Anna Jedrziewski, reviewer for Retailing Insight
“If you were to combine medical knowledge, nutritional advice, a guide to mindful eating, a self-care manual, and fitness suggestions into one book, you’d come up EAT WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU EAT WITH DIABETES: A MINDFUL EATING PROGRAM FOR THRIVING WITH PREDIABETES AND DIABETES.” -Karen R. Koenig, LCSW, MEd, author of Normal Eating and Nice Girls Finish Fat
“This book is a must read for anyone who wishes to build a positive relationship with food and learn to eat for the right reasons. For those with diabetes, it is especially refreshing to find a book that helps you learn the skills to manage your condition without rigid rules and joyless eating.” -Sally Asher, author of Losing It In France
“These authors present a compassionate, healing approach for all those who manage diabetes on a daily basis. This easy-to-read book teaches practical, life-changing strategies for taking charge of your health and taking care of yourself in a mindful way.” -Susan Albers, PsyD, clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic and author of Eating Mindfully and 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food
“Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes is a refreshing and compassionate approach to managing diabetes that uses mindfulness to empower the patient. Readers will enjoy the friendly and straightforward writing style, which offers practical tips that might be surprising.” -Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, coauthor of Intuitive Eating
Library Journal: Physician May (Am I Hungry? What To Do When Diets Don’t Work), with dietician and diabetes educator Fletcher, applies the principles she presented in her earlier book, Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: A Mindful Eating Program to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle, to eating properly with diabetes. Herself a former “yo-yo dieter,” May criticizes fad diets and emphasizes a thoughtful, stable relationship with food. She instructs readers to think about how and why they eat, to learn to recognize whether they are really hungry and when they’ve had enough, and to savor each mouthful for its taste and sensuality. In addition, she covers exercise programs, monitoring blood sugar, and responding to failures. Managing the disease is made much easier with May’s guide to mindful eating. VERDICT: This is an excellent manual for developing a healthy diet and improving overall well-being for people with diabetes. Highly recommended for those at risk of, or diagnosed with, diabetes and their families. -Susan B. Hagloch for Library Journal
“This groundbreaking book offers an entirely new program for managing diabetes while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. With mindfulness as the core element, Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes is a comprehensive guidebook designed to create long-term, sustainable, and life-enhancing strategies for those who are living with diabetes. Authors Michelle May and Megrette Fletcher seamlessly integrate mindful eating concepts with cutting-edge research, anecdotal stories, visual diagrams, self-care practices, and more. The result? A comprehensive, compelling, and well-structured program that inspires, motivates, and teaches. This is a very beneficial program that is sure to increase mindful self-awareness, fulfillment, and the power of healthy choice.” -Donald Altman, MA, LPC, author of One-Minute Mindfulness and Meal By Meal
“What Michelle May and Megrette Fletcher have done so well is to extend the benefits of mindfulness to those whose lives depend on cultivating awareness of their bodies and their actions.” -Brian M. Shelley MD, wellness director at First Choice Community Healthcare in Albuquerque, NM
“Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes is a book that will be beneficial to anyone with a diagnosis of diabetes or insulin resistance (prediabetes). Often, a diagnosis of one of these conditions comes with dietary rules that set many into a restrictive mindset that not only takes all the joy away from eating, but could actually send them into a restrict-binge cycle with carbohydrates. This book presents a rational program to manage diabetes without anxiety. One can truly make peace with food, eating, weight, and activity.” -Reba Sloan, MPH, LRD, FAED, licensed registered dietitian in Nashville, TN
“If you’re committed to changing your relationship with food and losing weight and nothing you’ve tried before has stuck, look here. Michelle May and Megrette Fletcher take you on a guided tour of mindful eating. You’ll begin to taste your food again and enjoy it more while being satisfied with less.” -Riva Greenberg, author of 50 Diabetes Myths That Can Ruin Your Life and The ABCs Of Loving Yourself With Diabetes
“Michelle May and Megrette Fletcher have produced a brilliantly clear resource for stopping the downward spiral into pre-diabetic and diabetic behavior. What a truly compassionate, humanistic, mindfulness-powered manual for fearlessly instinctive eating!” -Pavel Somov, PhD, author of Eating the Moment and Reinventing the Meal
“Through simple but powerful psychological techniques, this lovely book demonstrates how it is possible to gain a more positive perspective on diabetes and take action towards living a healthier life. I enthusiastically recommend this book!” -William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDE, CEO of Behavioral Diabetes Institute and associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego
“Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes is a revolutionary approach to eating for people working with the challenges of diabetes. This book helps transform those challenges into adventures of exploration and discovery. Too often, diabetes treatment makes people feel overwhelmed and locked in by rigid dietary restrictions. When eating is persistently flavored with anxiety, people lose track of the natural pleasure and joy of eating. This very readable book has many helpful hints and exercises to help guide people with diabetes back to a sense of balance and ease with food and eating. I enthusiastically endorse it for anyone, but especially for those with diabetes and their friends and families.” -Jan Bays, MD, pediatrician and author of Mindful Eating
“This dynamic duo of physician and dietitian are truly empowering readers with mindful eating principles by approaching food/eating and diabetes with awareness, not anxiety; curiosity, not criticism; and trust, not doubt. For the growing number of people with diabetes, this book offers a flexible approach to eating that is both enjoyable and sustainable by introducing nutrition with a non-restrictive, all-foods-fit perspective that works-even when you have diabetes.” -Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, author of Tell Me What to Eat if I Have Diabetes
“There are no food police in this skillful extension of Michelle May’s book Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for individuals living with diabetes. Mindful eating provides a new path to truly enjoying eating and food without struggle or guilt. The book provides the foundation for eating mindfully woven together with Megrette Fletcher’s wisdom as a dietitian.” -Jean Kristeller, PhD, developer of Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training and cofounder of The Center for Mindful Eating
“What a wonderful resource for anyone with diabetes. This book is a must for those newly diagnosed with diabetes as well as those who have been dealing with it for years. Having the diagnosis of diabetes can be so overwhelming at first. More so, trying to manage blood sugar levels can be a struggle at times, causing some to resort to restrictive diets and deprivation, all to no avail. This book shines new light on how to incorporate mindful eating into the management of diabetes. The title really says it all. By learning to mindfully eat what you love and love what you eat, it will lead to optimal blood sugar levels while still enjoying your favorite foods. The authors do a great job of providing realistic action steps to help the reader apply the appropriate changes to their daily lives. I will absolutely recommend this book to all my patients with diabetes and am thankful to the authors for creating such a wonderful teaching tool.” -Linda S. Nikolakopoulos MS,RD,LDN,CDE
“When you put these skills into practice you will experience changes in how you think about your diet and lifestyle.” Read More -EveryDiet
“…it is a guide to living and dealing with this health issue in a truly positive, life-enhancing way…Instead of being afraid of food and its possible effects on the body, we are shown how to tune into our bodies and see food choices and glucose monitoring as a challenge, a long-term puzzle to be solved, not a depressing chore which seems to set us apart by forbidding certain foods.” –The Garden Window