Jacki Barineau on Overcoming Overeating

Written by HealthyPlace.com Staff Writer

online conference transcript

Bob M is the moderator.

BEGINNING

Bob M: Good evening everyone. Thanks for coming tonight. We have an excellent guest tonight and a topic we don't ordinarily discuss too much under the category of eating disorders. That's overeating. In case you haven't noticed, we opened an overeaters room in our chatrooms about a month ago as more and more people with interest in that started coming to our site. Our guest tonight is Jacki Barineau. Jackie is one of the Program Directors of "Overcoming Overeating." The philosophy is based on a book by that same name by Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter---two psychotherapists. Although Jane couldn't make it tonight because of previous commitments, she highly recommended Jackie and so we are glad to have her here tonight. Good evening Jackie and welcome to the Concerned Counseling website. Could you start off by explaining the philosophy of Overcoming Overeating.

Jacki Barineau: Thanks for inviting me Bob and good evening everyone. The O.O. approach is basically a "non-diet" approach to ending compulsive eating problems. It is based on the premise that dieting CAUSES compulsive eating and weight gain and that by ending dieting and body hatred we can cure the compulsive eating.

Bob M: And that is one of the premises of the program and it's a common one with all eating disorders--that of people disliking their own bodies. How does the "Overcoming Overeating" program address that?

Jacki Barineau: First, we have to decide to let go of the idea of changing our bodies - they may change, they may not. But we choose to accept them just as they are now and let go of "society's" standards of beauty. We clean our closets of all clothes that don't fit or that we don't like. We start dressing ourselves with care and like we're wonderful just the way we are.

Bob M: Now when you talk about compulsive overeating, can you define that for us please Jackie?

Jacki Barineau: As a former compulsive overeater, I can say that for me it meant major food binges that were uncontrollable. The eating had taken over my life and I was drowning in self-hatred. It is being totally unable to stop binging even though you desperately want to stop.

Bob M: And what was it that made you take "action" to change this compulsion?

Jacki Barineau: Many things. Of course I dieted for 25 years (age 7 to 32) - tried Overeater's Anonymous. I felt like a failure. Finally, I was so sick of dieting and worrying about my weight and being obsessed with food, that when I found the "O.O." book I was SO ready to let go of all that. I figured I'd done everything else and was only more and more obsessed and compulsive that maybe trying something totally opposite might be the answer - and it was!

Bob M: Just so everyone can see, here are the building blocks of "O.O.": 1. compulsive eating may seem self-destructive, but it is always an attempt at self-help; 2) Diets never, never solve eating and weight problems. Diets CAUSE compulsive eating; 3) Significant change flows only from self-acceptance; 4) Food is not the compulsive eater's problem, it is the solution. I have read your story Jackie, but I would like you to tell the audience some details of when and why you started putting on weight and your height and weight that you had progressed to?

Jacki Barineau: My problem started at age 7 when I was put on my first diet by my parents. I wasn't even overweight! But that diet began a lifelong battle because it triggered the inevitable binge that dieting always causes. This also led to true weight gain. Then the yo-yo dieting through the years caused more and more weight gain. I dieted my way up to over 250 lbs. (I'm 5'4") before finding "O.O."

Bob M: Now, when you say "O.O.'s" theory is eating your way out of your eating problem, what specifically does that mean?

Jacki Barineau: We "legalize" all foods. It's human nature to crave what's "forbidden". This is why dieting leads to binging. By making ALL foods "okay" and "equal" (in our minds), we no longer will have uncontrollable urges to binge on "forbidden foods". Chocolate = lettuce = cookies, etc. Then we go back to our original way of eating - demand feeding (the way babies are fed). We learn to reconnect our eating with our physical hunger signals. Dieting has destroyed that connection for most of us.

Bob M: So what you are saying is...."O.O." is not going out and drinking powered milkshakes and buying food plans, etc., but really changing your psychological makeup by accepting yourself for who you are and quit trying to be what "Hollywood" wants you to be. It's reconnecting food with hunger rather than trying to fill some psychological need. Am I correct in that?

Jacki Barineau: Exactly! Except that we don't try to stop ourselves from eating for psychological reasons as if that were a "bad" thing. We don't "stop" eating from "mouth hunger," rather we "start" eating from stomach hunger. A very different perspective.

Bob M: Here are some audience questions Jackie...

Netta: Okay, I tell myself that Ben and Jerry's is legal and equal to any other food. How do I stop at a little of it instead of eating the whole carton?

Jacki Barineau: Good question! Everyone assumes that if they legalize these kinds of foods, they'll never quit eating them. In reality, once you're convinced you can have them whenever you want them, you no longer will want so much of them. At first, you will probably need to eat lots to convince yourself it's okay. The key is to NOT "yell" at yourself. We say don't buy just one. Buy way more than you can possibly eat in one sitting. Abundance really helps you to calm down and knowing the food is there whenever you want it, reassures you that you don't have to "eat it ALL" now!