Procrastinating, Stressing, Eating looks at why we don’t take action to lose weight and adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours NOW. Why do we procrastinate over this?

Probably not a lack of knowledge or motivation, but it might be about overload, habit, stress and scarcity.

Drawing on the disciplines of philosophy, psychology and economics, particularly behavioural economics, to gain understanding of procrastination, this book aims to gather the most relevant information from the academic literature and condense into useable chunks to support direct strategies for change.

Procrastinating, Stressing, Eating is for the thinking person, usually a woman, who is busy, probably cares for others (or has in the past), and probably also has paid employment. The calls on her time, and also on her mental bandwidth are constant. She recognises her own health is important, that change is necessary (soon), but while it is important, it is not essential right now. So, once again, change is delayed.

Having a healthy diet means constantly choosing. It is not like quitting smoking where you can completely avoid cigarettes. You can’t completely avoid food. The battle is ongoing. It shouldn’t be a battle, but it seems to be.

Many competing demands may lead to willpower being progressively depleted. Procrastinating, Stressing, Eating is for the individual, and guides reflection around individual causes of the current situation, discusses required skills to change the status quo, and suggests strategies for the individual to lead to success in overcoming procrastination around weight loss.

Importantly, joy is front and centre of any strategy, and Guy Exton’s cartoons remind us to see the humour, while Catherine Lockley’s recipes gently encourage us back to the kitchen, but this time, for fun.