Serendipity may well come into play at all times in our lives, but for me receiving and reading psychotherapist, hypno-therapist, lecturer, and author, Kathleen Fuller’s book, “Not Your Mother’s Diet: The Cure for Your Eating Issues,” came at a moment where the necessity for spiritual guidance became a pivotal concern in my life.
I’d been wrestling with a dilemma that concerned a good friend of mine that challenged my very definition of friendship. After discovering some things about this person that just didn’t add up in what I deemed a positive way, I found myself running through the gamut of emotions: betrayal, incredulity, anger, disgust–and then as these stronger lower level feelings faded I climbed my superiority pedestal and emoted sadness and compassion and the final thanks-be-to-the-Almighty, “Wow, aren’t you thrilled to the gills that you don’t have to stoop that low.”
Simultaneously to receiving Fuller’s book, out of the most beautiful blue, I began a wonderful correspondence with an extraordinary someone on the Internet that instantly understood that with which I was struggling. From him came and still comes a marvelous nudging to recognize and follow my own path. Acceptance and love was the answer, but recognizing this is simple, doing is extremely difficult. My Internet Guru urged me to meditate and let the power of my imagination give me the answer.
Lo and behold, I begin to read “Not Your Mother’s Diet.” Expecting to read yet another diatribe about eating natural foods in smaller portions complete with a 30-day calorically acceptable breakfast, lunch and dinner plan mapped out with appropriate blanks for transgressions and substitutions, I find instead a guide to discovering myself. Just what the doctor ordered! Fuller gets right to the point up front–understand your imbalance and its gradual elimination will follow. On a broader plane, her keys to success can be utilized in every aspect of life, not just conquering the dieting frontier.
Fuller starts the reader off with exercises that better acquaint the reader with his/her true self. As her techniques encompass those utilized by many licensed spiritual therapists (the book itself is laid out in a workbook fashion), the reader quickly grasps in an ah-ha type moment that quite obviously it is the mind that is preventing ultimate success, be it dieting success or otherwise. Fuller provides the mental bulldozer to rid oneself of self imposed roadblocks with the formidable directive to live in the present–the NOW–rather than in the shade of the past with all its un-fixable disappointments.
With each chapter, Fuller hands over the tools to empower and take charge. Fuller’s arsenal is too plentiful to explain entirely, but, trust me, her weaponry is not only extensive but complete. Many of her techniques are simple to do–spoken aloud verbalizations and imaginings while meditating within the confines of the mind’s special place. She teaches you how to identify hidden feelings in order to take positive action and plot a `genogram’, an interesting tool used in understanding influences in that resembles a family tree but maps out the emotional relationships between family members to enable one to understand where certain mentalities originate. All the exercises move the reader towards a sense of self-awareness and leads to actually becoming comfortable in the skin he/she is in.
Fuller mentions a few diet books to use in conjunction with this workbook, so don’t expect any food commentaries or “take small bites” dieting tips–”Not Your Mother’s Diet” strictly addresses the idea of inner healing towards balance where the weight loss will follow as a natural progression.
For me, Dr. Fuller’s exercises lent insight to myself and helped me to see the problem I was facing from another vantage point. After all we look at other people and as we are all human beings connected in some metaphysical way, we see mirrors of ourselves.
Bottom line? If you are expecting Kathleen Fuller’s “Not Your Mother’s Diet’ to provide the usual sensible diet information, think again. There are no menus or tips to be garnered here. Recommendations on certain programs contained in other books, yes. However, as Fuller astutely cites, true wellness comes from a healing of self, requiring intimate understanding of the mechanisms that hold us back from attaining our true selves. Through a series of repetitive exercises, Fuller gets us to see ourselves from within and to trace back our disability and dysfunction with regard to dieting failures with a truer understanding of self. In any regard, “Not Your Mother’s Diet” outlines a program that will provide anyone with the keys to greater self-awareness. Recommended with gratitude to Dr. Fuller’s insight.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
“reneofc” (Top 500 Reviewer for Amazon.com)
Tags: diet, eating disorders, self help, weight loss
