Book Twenty Six - A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind

Halfway there!!! I might just make it if I read like a madwoman for the next two months!

The tag line for "A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind" by Karen Scalf Linamen is "Loving your body, accepting yourself and living without regret". This appealed to me quite a bit as I have struggled with my weight since I was quite young. After I had my son I was well over 200 lbs, when he was around 2 years old I lost 50 lbs, most of it due to the fact that my ex husband didn't have a job and I had no money for food. We would watch the Food Network just so we could remember what food looked like, food porn indeed. After my divorce I lost those same lbs again and I have managed to stick to that weight, give or take a few ever since. This spring I decided to get back on the health wagon to lose the rest of the pounds I have been lugging around. I have had success so far and I feel that I have the right attitude.



Even still, most women have issues with their bodies and I am no exception, which is why I picked up this book. A friend recommended a similar book to me and I requested it at the library, but I am 84th in line so I thought this book might offer up similar insights. Parts of the book I found interesting, parts of the book I felt were a bit shallow, and there was far too much heavy handed religion thrown in. So much religion in fact that if I had not already been halfway in and needing to finish some books for this challenge, I would have stopped reading. Take this quote for example "Jesus, I don't understand exactly how this all works, but Karen's telling me that you are the Son of God, that you're reaching for me. . . It goes against reason, and it might even go against how I've been taught, but she's about as transparent as they come and, you know what, I'm going to believe her." Sure, I am going to adopt religion because an author that uses not so clever puns in her book titles told me so.

I am able to take in the good and filter out the bad (I am not calling religion bad, but I am saying that being heavy handed and blatant about these things is bad) and it may help some people to reach out to a higher power to help them achieve peace with their bodies and to lose weight, but that approach does not work for me.

One point that is of interest to me, is the chapter about making peace with success. I am halfway to my goal now, and what happens when I get there? I think that it is tempting, even at a subconscious level to get addicted to the attention of losing weight, so much that some people self sabotage in order to achieve the high of losing weight again. I know that when I get to my goal my weight will still vary and that it will take work even to maintain my success. I think that being self aware is key.

Since I am quite educated in most of the topics covered in this book I didn't find it terrifically educational, but there were some good points raised. The book addresses metabolism, the power of positive (and negative) thinking, creative visualisation and self esteem. It is a good starting point for someone who wants to improve them self from the inside out.