Nice Girls Finish Fat Gurze Books Simon and Schuster Category:  Health/Wellness Publisher: Fireside/Simon & Schuster Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 254 Copyright: June, 2009 ISBN-13: 9781416592648 Nice girls take care of others with their warm hearts and generous nature--and take care of themselves by eating. Learn how to be good to yourself without food and find true happiness and success. Sometimes diet and exercise alone just aren't enough! Many women put too much on their plates, both literally and figurately. For those who always put others first, this groundbreaking book explains the link between being too nice and eating too much and gives detailed advice and on-the-page psychotherapy on how to lose that extra baggage--both emotional and physical--by becoming more self-focused, self-nurturing, and assertive in every aspect of life.  Take the "How Nice Are You?" quiz to find out if your Good Girl persona is sabotaging your weight-loss efforts. Try the "Grab Your Thinking Cap" exercises to understand why you might be finding fulfillment inside the fridge instead of in healthier ways. Use the "Nice Girls Recovery Tips" to learn practical strategies for saying no and putting yourself first...so you can finally lose the weight you want and keep it off. Meet "The Nice Girls" through case studies of women like you who learned what putting yourself first really means in their relationship with food and other people. Koenig's style is compassionate, wise, witty, conversational, and down to earth. In fact, you'd swear she's written NICE GIRLS FINISH FAT just for you! Excerpt Table of Contents: 1 What's A Nice Girl? "Sugar and Spice and Everything... Fattening" 2 Using Food as Self-Care "Doesn't Everyone's Best Friend Live in Her Refrigerator?" 3 Finding Substitutes to Eating "If It Doesn't Have Frosting, What Good Is It?" 4 Taking Care of Family "I Am Woman, Hear Me Chew!" 5 Taking Care of Friends "Go Cry on Your Own Shoulders" 6 Taking Care at Work "Do I Look Like Santa's Helper?" 7 Saying What You Mean "What Part of No Don't You Understand?" 8 Overcoming Perfectionism "Can I Be Perfectly Imperfect?" 9 People Pleasing "Please Please Me, Oh, Yeah!" 10 Learning to Be Selfish "Me, Me, Me, Me, Me...Just Practicing!" 11 Finish First, Not Fat "Look at Me...I'm at the Head of the Line!"

Handbook for General Mental Health
Since women, at least those of us in the Western World, are socialized to be pleasers, Karen Koenig has written a wonderful book to help us save ourselves from ourselves. While the specific content of Ms. Koenig's book relates to weight management, it is applicable to all women who need a recovery program for being pleasers at their own peril. It is deceptively simple and chock full of stories to help readers see themselves in the lessons she teaches. She is a master clinician, and that comes through on every page. Dr. Beth Erickson

Eye-Opening!
If the eye-opening title doesn't begin to change your eating, you can be sure Karen Koenig's wise and often funny treatise on people-pleasing and overeating will. Because Koenig understands the problem that nice girls face on so many levels -- personally, nutritionally, psychologically, physiologically -- she's able to offer a variety of useful solutions you can really use. Personally, I'm in love with the title. When I show the book to my own clients with eating issues, the conversation suddenly starts to change and so do they. Right before my eyes! Jean Fain, LICSW

Essential Reading for People Pleasers
While this book targets women, I find it it applies to anyone who is a chronic people-pleaser, regardless of gender or size, . There are many practical solutions and techniques to help the reader free herself from over-doing, over-scheduling and ultimately, eating problems. I often recommend this book to my patients. Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD