| A few weeks ago I entered a local bookstore, | | | | Make Friends with Your Body |
| looking for a particular book that was located in the | | | | After years of failure (and hundreds of dollars spent), |
| Diet section. As I turned the corner, I accidentally | | | | I finally got it that I wasn't going to find the answers |
| tripped over a young woman sitting cross-legged on | | | | I needed in a diet book. The diet books told me |
| the floor surrounded by stacks of diet books. | | | | what I should and should not eat, but never directed |
| "Oh, I'm so sorry," I said. | | | | me to the one place where I could find real |
| "It's okay," she replied. "I probably shouldn't be sitting | | | | answers-my own body. Once I put the diet books |
| on the floor anyways. My doctor just told me | | | | down, I focused on listening to my body, determining |
| diagnosed me with high blood pressure and told me | | | | when it was hungry, when it was full, and what food |
| to lose weight. It's so frustrating. I don't even know | | | | made it function its best. I paid attention to my |
| where to start. I have no idea what book to get. I'm | | | | energy levels, mental clarity, and overall happiness. I |
| totally lost." | | | | traded in expensive pills, powders, and shakes and |
| Shelves Full of Books and No Answers | | | | replaced them with satisfying, wholesome food. My |
| I understood her frustration and confusion. Over the | | | | weight loss was slow but steady and eventually I lost |
| years, I, too, had pulled hundreds of diet books off | | | | over 100 pounds and gained physical, emotional, and |
| thousands of shelves and wondered which one could | | | | spiritual health. |
| help me. I bought book after book, each promising to | | | | Experience, Strength, and Hope |
| be the one to fix my weight, fix my health problems, | | | | As we talked, I saw the young woman's frustration |
| and basically fix me. When the diet book I was | | | | turn to hope. I assured her that if I could do it, so |
| currently reading didn't fix me, I simply bought | | | | could she. When she asked me what advice I could |
| another. This went on until my book shelves were | | | | give her, I shared what had worked for me. I |
| lined with diet books that promised to make me lose | | | | encouraged her to write down her food every day |
| weight and keep it off but never did. | | | | and to think in terms of long-term health rather than |
| The young woman and I started talking and we | | | | short-term weight loss. I suggested she get a |
| shared our pain of overeating. The after work binges | | | | support network to help her deal with the real issues |
| in front of the TV, the secret late-night eating, the | | | | in her life - the ones that were causing her to |
| shame and humiliation of gaining back weight we had | | | | overeat and have high blood pressure. I helped her |
| worked so hard to lose, the diets we promised to go | | | | return her stack of books to the shelves and hugged |
| on every Monday. I shared with her that ironically, | | | | her as she walked away. |
| my excess weight didn't come off until I stopped | | | | My conversation with the young woman reinforced |
| dieting. Although I found great information in diet | | | | what I already know - the answers to permanent |
| books and learned helpful nutritional information, | | | | wellness are not in a diet book, they are within. |
| every diet book I read lacked one key ingredient-me. | | | | |