The Best New Spiritual Diets
7 new programs to flavor your quest for health and weight loss with holistic wisdom and meaning
You could say I've been on a spiritual diet since I was a teen praying fervently to wake up 10 pounds thinner. It took years, a whole lot of learning and legwork, but that prayer is now answered--I do wake up every day a normal, healthy weight, down 100 pounds from my peak of 254 pounds 15 years ago.
This miracle was accomplished first by experimenting until I finally found the correct way for me to eat (no sugar, wheat, or flour, and weighing and measuring all my food according to the plan from Food Addicts Anonymous). Then I had to find motivation and fulfillment that did not involve binge eating. Along the way I was blessed with many wonderful mentors, who taught me that leaning on a power greater than myself was vital.
One thing I know for sure--there are lots of ways to lose weight, but only one way to ensure success. That is to engage all aspects of your being in the process: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. These seven books offer enough choices that anyone with an ounce of willingness can, one day at a time, transform his or her life. Some are more detailed and prescriptive than others, but all encourage you to address your whole self, from how you take care of your body to how you feed your soul.
View the first spiritual diet.
Gay Norton Edelman is senior editor at Family Circle magazine. She has written scores of magazine articles, but her favorite subjects continue to be spirituality, psychology, self-help, and balanced living.