This book explains how people can get off the weight loss roller coaster, make peace with food and their bodies, and improve their health to find happiness and a better quality of life.

"Widespread publicity about "the war on obesity" has led to pervasive anxiety, distress, and ashame about eating, says psychotherapist Nancy Ellis-Ordway. Nourishing our bodies should be a source of pleasure and delight, not fear and anguish. Instead of feeling at home in their bodies, many people feel at war with them, in large part because of weight stigma and unrelenting pursuit of thinness in America. It doesn't have to be this way. This book offers a detailed approach for change, with a particular focus on "the message we give ourselves" when we eat, exercise, and interact with other people. Additionally, this process incorporates operating from an internal focus of control as a way to improve self-esteem."-- from book jacket