Book Review: Life is Hard, Food is Easy
Author: Linda Spangle, RN, MA

Life is Hard, Food is Easy offers a “5-step plan to overcome emotional eating and lose weight on any diet”.

I recently became a vegan after reading another book, Skinny Bitch (see review). The main reasons for my deciding to go vegan were based on the welfare of animals and the number of chemicals currently added to food. However, I did expect to lose a significant amount of weight, too. At first, I did. I lost 10 pounds in 3 months without changing my diet too much. But then my progress slowed and I gained 5 pounds over the holidays.

I thought that with eating healthier foods, calories wouldn’t be such an issue. I told myself, “All I eat are beans and vegetables”. I had stopped tracking calories, but decided to start again just to see how many I was consuming.

Once I started keeping a food journal again, I could see that I was eating mostly beans and vegetables (aside: I don’t eat just beans plain. I eat tofu and soy meat substitutes; but basically, those are just beans since they are soy-bean based). But I was also snacking way too often on non-food items, like cookies and ice cream (yes, there are vegan versions).

I realized there might be a deeper issue I needed to face. I knew I had emotional eating issues, but I thought, “Who doesn’t?” I figured eating was a natural way to deal with your emotions. You eat when you’re bored, stressed, angry or even excited. That’s a natural way to self-medicate, right?

After reading this book, I see that emotional eating isn’t much better than burying your emotions with alcohol or any other drug. It doesn’t solve your problems, it only makes you feel better temporarily and you have to keep eating to keep feeling good. Then you have the added problems that come with extra weight.

Life is Hard, Food is Easy shows how to overcome the urge to use food to deal with your emotions. It details why we eat for reasons other than hunger and gives methods for finding alternative ways to cope.

The book tells stories of how various people have used food to cope and presents them in a manner that anyone with issues with food will relate to. After reading this book, you should be better able to understand why a fight with your boss leads you to consume an entire bag or chips or why feeling homesick sends you to the store to get ice cream.

I had read a similar book years ago, Constant Craving by Doreen Virtue, Ph.D. That book details various food cravings, such as a craving for peanut butter (meaning you seek to have more fun) or chocolate (meaning you are lacking in love). The author offers positive affirmations for each craving. You are meant to recite the affirmation instead of giving into the craving. I tried that. It didn’t work for me.

Life is Hard, Food is Easy offers a more in-depth analysis of the need to feed our emotions. Constant Craving offers a more clinical, scientific approach to food cravings. Life is Hard, Food is Easy digs into the psychological reasons behind them.

I have found that reading Life is Hard, Food is Easy has given me greater awareness of why I eat when I’m not hungry. This awareness has helped me give into cravings less.

One of the greatest methods of the book for me is “I choose”. Instead of saying, “I have to” do something, you say, “I choose” to do something. For example, I choose to go to work or I choose to workout.

I’ve been using this technique with everything I do, from laundry to going to work to working out to eating healthy. It helps make whatever I’m doing seem less negative. In turn, my more positive attitude has decreased my food cravings, since I’m less angry and depressed and need less to squash these emotions with food.

I still react to strong emotions with a reflexive desire to eat. However, now that I’m more aware of what I’m doing, I give into the cravings less. And with the “I choose” method, I can say “I choose not to eat this”. It works in reverse, too. If I say, “I choose to eat this cookie,” I am forced to ask myself why. And often, I find the answer is because I’m stressed or bored. Then I know I should do something else besides eat.

Life is Hard, Food is Easy has several other great ideas for avoiding giving into food cravings. But it is the understanding and awareness of the cravings the book offers that is most valuable.

If you are ready to overcome your food addictions, I highly recommend this book.

Grade: A

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