“MINDING MATTERS” (or Weight Management for the Otherwise Competent)

Sep 4, 2009

I get soooooo tired of magic bullet books that claim to have “The Answer”, the one that can magically fix my relentlessly grueling and often torturous relationship with food.   My guess is that the publishing industry knows their audience.  They know how desperate we can be at times, how much of a relief it can be to believe even for one split second that this misery can end, that there is an insight, a diet plan, a great truth that they can provide that can fix this for once and for all.   If they can convince you of this (despite the little voice in the corner of your mind that knows that this is ridiculous)… you will buy the book.

I don’t know about you, but as soon as I would see what that book has to say (of course I bought them all too – you should see my collection), my heart would just sink, because 9 times out of 10, I’d been there and done that.  I already knew that thing, and it didn’t solve my problem with food either.

It can’t, of course, because the solution to that problem isn’t an external thing like a diet plan, calorie range or new way to
exercise.  These are all valuable tools, and you can take advantage of all of these as you assemble your own tool box.  Even an “aha” moment is only a tool.  I’ve had plenty of those.  I’m sure you have too, and they only solve the problem temporarily, while the blush is still on the rose of it being something new.

But the real magic bullet (and yes, I believe there is one)…that magic bullet is you.

We all need the first book on weight management that doesn’t try to sell you their external magic bullet, their cure,.  We need a book that takes you through the process of tapping the skills you already have – and are demonstrating in virtually every area of your life – to manage this one.   Let’s call it “THIN FOR REAL.”

If you are reading this then you clearly already have the single, most important piece of this puzzle.  You already have the one piece that you can’t get anywhere else, that no one can give you, and that all the money in the world can’t buy for you: your own unending desire to fix this.   You are demonstrating, by the very reading of this that, despite all the frustration, misery, and times you are done trying and absolutely ready to throw in the towel for good, you still have this tiny seed of hope.  This desire is the real and only true magic bullet.

I consider this desire, although it has caused me endless despair, to actually be a sort of grace.  I didn’t ask for it or earn it.  I just have it in my core.  And so do you, or you would never be reading this.  So, we know that you already have the grace to persist.

What I would like to do in the proceeding pages, with some input from you if you like, is to create a manual that teaches you how to channel this core emotion, and by combining it with your basic intelligence and common sense into concrete action steps that will take your weight management success out out the realm of your fickle willpower, and teach you to lean on (what will undoubtedly turn out to be a stronger and more reliable foundation) your competence.  All this emotion should be good for something, don’t you think?  “Minding” holds the key.  It is what ultimately matters – minding (caring) that you are overweight, sedentary or unhealthy, and minding (being accountable for) your actions.

You’ve heard the expression:  “If you want to move a mountain, get a shovel”.  Well, I don’t know about you, but shoveling I can do.  Let’s call this, “Grace and a Shovel.”