Q: Does Every Bite Is Divine really work? Will I lose weight?

A: It can, and you may. The question really should be, will I feel better? This book’s goal is to help you examine the way you view your body, eating, and your struggles with food. Then it helps you to cultivate a healthier mindset and healthier behaviors. If you do the meditations and exercises in the book, you’ll feel great. That will set the stage to finding your healthy, natural weight.

Q: Who is this book for?

A: Certainly women have born the brunt of the consumer culture’s unrealistic beauty ideal, so I’m primarily speaking to them, inviting them to rediscover their unique beautiful selves and take care of themselves in a compassionate and healthy way. But anyone who struggles with emotional eating and bad feelings about their physical body could benefit. Bodyism targets everyone now, and unrealistic men’s bodies are everywhere too.

Q: What’s your yoga background?

A: I started doing yoga in 1992 in Boston, with Patricia Walden and some of her teachers, then got into a nice fiery Ashtanga practice in my fiery early 30’s. I first went to Kripalu in 1993, and while they were going through a painful period then with the loss of their leader, the yoga was a skilled embodiment of compassionate exploration, and I wanted to be part of that. I trained to be a teacher at Kripalu in 1998, and have studied there regularly since then. I moved from Cambridge to Nantucket, MA in 2000, and that’s when I became enamored with the masterful writings of yogini Barbara Benagh, who happened to teach in Boston. I study with her whenever I can, and went through her teacher training. Because of my clinical background I’ve been interested in therapeutic aspects of yoga, and have studied therapeutic yoga through my visits to Kripalu. One of my Kripalu classmates, the graceful Shannah Green, opened a studio on Nantucket, and I’ve been teaching through her studio, The Yoga Room, since she opened.