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Check out the popular shows that have featured Donna!
Diane Sawyer The Fox Morning Show Sharon Osborne David Letterman John Quinones
Sandee Hee Hart
Donna, I want to thank you for your book and the videos. My daughter is in an abusive relationship and we have tried everything. I made her watch the video....How to recognize verbal abuse and all the things we have told her came much clearer after viewing this. You are a godsend And I am in your debt. Thank you for what you have done. You made a huge difference in the life of a 23 year old tonight!!!
Are you waiting for someone to change back into the person you fell in love with?
Do you fear you won’t find anyone better for you if you leave or let go?
Are you confused about how to create a healthy relationship that will last?
Giving Up Junk-Food Relationships: Recipes for Healthy Choices outlines ways to make your relationships healthier and, more importantly, how to tell when things have gone bad. An abusive, dysfunctional, or simply wrong-for-you relationship can be as draining and bad for your health as an affinity for junk food.
Giving Up Junk-Food Relationships: Recipes for Healthy Choices
If you’re like most people, you’re probably hungry for a good, meaningful, fulfilling relationship. Though it’s easy to figure out that something needs to change, you may be having trouble figuring out what to do. In Giving Up Junk-Food Relationships, Donna Barnes uses multiple choice quizzes, check lists, how-to lists, and more to lay out methods for determining what kinds of “junk food” are affecting your relationships. You can learn how to:
• recognize and stop destructive dating habits
• spot and avoid waving junk-food (red) flags
• distinguish true love from true lust
• tell if you’re in a bad relationship and how to call it quits
• be comfortable being alone
• handle rejection gracefully.
Start making healthy relationship decisions and improve your most important long-term relationship: the one with yourself.
How does your relationship pyramid stack up?
Maybe you need to make some adjustments
in order to find that perfect mate!
Donna Barnes is a life and relationship coach certified by New York University. She was an on-air expert for three seasons of ABC News’s "What Would You Do?" and frequents other national television programs. She currently writes advice columns for various websites from her base on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
For more information about Donna, her consulting and public speaking, visit www.DonnaBarnes.com
WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT THE BOOK
KIRKUS REVIEW
This debut self-help book asks readers to think twice about what they eat—and how they fall in love.
The market for self-help books about love and sex is seemingly insatiable. So, too, is the market for health and diet books. Life and relationship coach Barnes cleverly combines the two genres into one book that outlines the steps to maintain healthy bodies and healthy relationships. Barnes argues that just as chips, pizza and candy make us sick, so do relationships that fulfill temporary emotional cravings. They may feel good in the moment, she writes, but they soon lead to an emotional “crash” akin to a blood-sugar dip. Using templates created by the food industry to distinguish types of foods and portion sizes, Barnes reimagines love lives as a series of ingredients that make up a “Well-Balanced Meal,” or a lovely, decadent “Dessert” (Barnes’ term for casual dating). Self-respect, forgiveness, communication and proper boundaries make up a deliciously satisfying romantic partnership, she writes, while self-doubt and criticism are junk foods to be tossed out immediately. The author extends this conceit all the way through the book, expounding upon emotional “Food Poisoning,” “Between-Meal Snacks” (rebound relationships) and “Forbidden Fruit.” Although her numerous quizzes may strike readers as a bit trite, her food metaphors are so original that they give renewed taste to stale concepts. Barnes isn’t a nutritionist, but her health and diet tips are common-sensical and avoid the didactic tone of many diet books. She even destigmatizes such issues as sex addiction and emotional wounds by filtering them through the lens of nutrition, allowing readers to examine their own inner physical and emotional workings more objectively.
A welcome addition to the self-help genre that aims to heal body and mind.
REVIEWS FROM AMAZON
A must read for anyone searching for love or just simply looking to keep and maintain any healthy relationship.
The dating world can be rough for a multitude of reasons, reasons which are confusing, frustrating, and at times exhausting. There are a plethora of relationship advice books that have explored the intricacies of relationships, but no author has guided my friends and I through this dizzying maze with such ease, clarity and simplicity as certified life and relationship coach Donna Barnes. Using food metaphors to not only make the explanations easy to understand, she also adds a funny wit to her writing, which kept me turning pages, not wanting to put this book down. Not just another relationship book, Donna begins by helping you look inward; “Do I Have Junk Food or a Healthy Meal?” (Intro) and describes the “Junk Food Ingredient List”. She goes on to explain the “Symptoms of Junk Food” (Chapter 1) which for me, really resonated because she not only pointed out what was dysfunctional, but why, and more importantly how to recognize types of junk food partners to stay healthy in a relationship. My favorite section is Chapter 2, where she explains “Dating Disorders” because I was able to see what types of disorders I have come across, and how to spot them going forward. The quizes she provides enables you to take moment and really assess yourself, and not only help you look inward but also teach you how to rectify bad choices (i.e. junk food relationships). Giving Up Junk-Food Relationships: Recipes for Healthy Choices is a new and smart approach to help us realize what a junk food relationship is, and how to change our bad habits. Finally – a relationship book that is real and full of truly useful insightful guidance. A must read for anyone searching for love or just simply looking to keep and maintain any healthy relationship.
A must read for anyone desiring a healthy, lasting relationship
By Pat from Delaware
I like that the book applies to both men and women. It is easy reading and yet thought provoking regarding key traits in yourself as well as your partner. It provides good insight and guidance as to how to read the different characteristics of an individual. The quizzes and checklists are right on target and very helpful. I particularly like that it gets right down to the heart of the relationship without the fluff. Overall I am very pleased with this book and consider it an excellent reference.
Food for thought
By Jaytee Starr
A major trend in the last few years has been to re-label how we see our food choices. Everyone from PBS to the White House wants us to reevaluate how we decide what we allow in our diets. Junk food, the worst of it, is of course off limits. This latest book from acclaimed life coach Donna Barnes is meant to teach you how to apply the same principles to who you allow in your life. Using these re-branding techniques can really help put your relationships in perspective and help you trim the fat in your life.
Amazingly helpful!
By daniel davis
This may be the most uniquely helpful books I have ever been privileged to read. By using the analogy of food to help you define your relationships Donna has given me the easiest way I have ever seen to keep my love and interactions under control. My Mom sent me this book after seeing me get involved with several really bad situation in a row. By repeating my mistakes I had become an emotional cripple. I had said to my family that I was finished. That the pain of it was not worth the potential pleasure. I had accepted loneliness as my natural state. My family decided that was not going to be. My Mom had read this and sent me a copy. At first it was just not understandable. But I had promised to read it. A co-worker wanted to set me up with a friend. After one date I realized I was able to see this as another potential mess. It was then I realized that Donna’s concept were real. I have not found the one yet but I do have several good friends now that are healthy choice relationships. These ideas work. Give this to someone you care about. Even yourself.
Finally, a GREAT relationship book!
By C. P. H.
First of all, I love that this book is about EVERYONE!~ Young or old, Gay or straight, you can get help from this book. I also love this metaphor; bad relationships are like junk food to the body. How ingenious! The author mentions, however, that often you don’t know that emotional junk food is bad for you until long after you have digested it. LIGHT BULB MOMENT! Another great question posed by the author is “Does your relationship suffer from Constipation?” Fantastic! I could go on and on about this great book, but don’t want to publish any spoilers. Let me just say that it’s a must read if you are dating or married. HECK, read it even if you know that you will one day date or be married. It’s a great read full of wonderful advice. The author has so much insight, you will love it.
Happily married and still learning…
By M. Worsdale
Life can get better with simple changes but why are these simple changes so difficult to make? I loved this book because it connects the dots – it’s easy, very practical and FUN!
My friend is now reading Donna’s book and we have some great discussions. I’ve been married, happily, for 25 years. This little gem of a book isn’t just for those who are “looking for love”. So, getting back to my first sentence – Barnes’ book is loaded with wise advice and simple changes – simple changes that aren’t so difficult to make. Changes that are FUN!
by Donna Barnes, Relationship Coach
