Do you love diet books? Read them for fun? I understand that most people just want to find ONE weight loss program that works and call it a day. But when it comes to our relationship with food, I find the wide variety of approaches absolutely fascinating.

I love to learn more about what’s involved in metabolism and weight management with each book I read, so I can pick and choose the pieces I find to be most effective for me and my clients. (That’s why my shelves are overflowing with diet books, from Wheat Belly to The Virgin Diet.)

This month’s Dr. Sara’s Book Club must-read is Eat Q: Unlock the Weight-Loss Power of Emotional Intelligence by Dr. Susan Albers, whose unique take on eating, emotions, and weight loss is as refreshing as it is effective.

I admire Dr. Albers’s work so much, and I was honored to write the foreword for this lovely book! Got questions on your lips and pounds on your hips? Let’s take a deeper dive into Eat Q….

What is Eat Q?

Eat Q is a term Dr. Albers created to refer to the emotionally intelligent eater. Think of it as turning “perspiration into inspiration”—quick and easy psychological tricks that make losing weight easy. In other words, Eat Q is an approach to eating smarter. Eat Q the book is like the Princeton Review—a crash course on how to boost your Eat Q score.

In fact, you can take a free quiz on Dr. Albers’s website to test your Eat Q (and you know how much I value tests) at www.eatq.com.

Eat Q is grounded in dozens of clinical studies that associate emotional intelligence with eating habits – including eating past fullness, eating when you’re angry or bored, and overeating favorite foods. More importantly, it provides a roadmap for how to develop a higher Eat Q, including 25 tools and techniques you can use to tailor the plan to your individual needs–to help you eat better, feel great about your body, lose weight, and escape yo-yo dieting once and for all.

What Does Eat Q Mean?

Eat Q is similar to your IQ (intelligence quotient) or EI (emotional intelligence). IQ tests your book smarts, EI is more like your “street smarts” and Eat Q is a measure of your “food smarts,” or how healthy your relationship is to food. Another way to think about this is that there are people who score really high on the SAT (high IQ), people who are savvy/charming/successful in their relationships with other people (high EQ), and people who never seem to have a problem maintaining a healthy weight and managing their cravings (high Eat Q).

How Does Boosting Your Eat Q Help You Lose Weight?

Eat Q is an easy, 3-step program to help you stop overeating for good and lose weight.  The book reveals 5 barriers to eating in the way you intend—social eating, pleasure eating, stress, fad dieting and distress.

Dr. Albers and I share a similar philosophy. With a focus on easy, motivating programs that tune up your body through nurturing your hormones and strategic ways to take care of yourself, we both target your eating habits and give them a boost. Here’s an example:

Eat Q Tip

Use your non-dominant hand to eat.  A recent study showed that this strategy can reduce your eating by 30%. This action breaks up the automatic hand to mouth flow.  You have to think about each bite similar to writing with your opposite hand.

Give it a try and leave a comment below to let us know how it went!

Who Should Read This Book?

Eat Q was written for the women and men who know what they should do when it comes to nutrition, but just can’t seem to talk themselves into making positive food choices on a consistent basis. The Eat Q approach fills the gap between what you know and what you want to do. Everyone has their own unique struggles, and Dr. Albers addresses many of the common dieting traps that we’ve all come up against.

Eat Q is a book about how to make food decisions that are in line with the way you want to eat. It will eradicate statements like, “Oops, I ate a piece of candy before I even realized it, and then I regretted it later.”  We tend to make a decision seven seconds before we are even aware of them. Eat Q helps you to steer that seven seconds in a positive direction.

Eat Up!

I love Eat Q because it reframes the typical diet/mindset approach in a way that is positive and lasting. If you’re an educated consumer but still struggle with food cravings and emotional eating, I recommend you add Eat Q to your plate. Now, a few Qs for you.

Do you eat for emotional reasons?

Do you need to upgrade your Eat Q, or emotional intelligence around eating?

If you don’t eat to deal with emotions, what helped you hit the reset button?

Let me know your answers, or simply what you think on Facebook or Twitter.

Join Dr. Sara’s Book Club!

Want first access to Dr. Sara’s book reviews, live Q&As with the authors, and other exclusive content? Join Dr. Sara’s Book Club today – it’s 100% free! www.saragottfriedmd.com/bookclub